The stakes are already in the ground for the disc golf championship course at the Coleman Memorial Park. Michael Dunkle, founder and former president of the Lebanon Valley Disc Golf Club, recently discussed the status of the course with LebTown.

Dunkle started playing disc golf in 1980 and has watched the sport grow in popularity. When COVID-19 hit the area, disc golf became a safe way for residents to gather.

“Ever since COVID-19, we draw between like 50 and 60 people a week,” Dunkle said.

Mike Snyder is the current president of the club, which was founded in the early 2000s.

Typically, the club’s disc golf season begins in mid-March, and players meet on Wednesdays until September at different courses in Lebanon County. The dates for this year’s season are yet to be announced.

“I have a partner that does the courses with me. His name is Charlie Greco. We’ve done every course in the Lebanon County area and other areas,” Dunkle said. “We’ve … designed like 12 courses so far.”

About half a year ago, the Coleman Memorial Park’s trustees asked Dunkle and Greco to visit the park and consider its potential for a disc golf course.

“There was plenty of room there, and we both saw a great opportunity to put a course in,” Dunkle said. “Now, we didn’t know what they had planned. Once we talked to them a little more … [we learned] they were looking for something that would draw people in from all around the area and outside of the area.”

“And we more or less told them if you put a really big course in, a championship course like the one we have at South Hills that gets used all the time, you’ll definitely draw a whole lot of people into the Lebanon area.”

The park’s trustees decided to take Dunkle and Greco’s advice.

Dunkle and Greco plotted a preliminary design of the course on a master plan map given to them years prior. The park trustees then made a few revisions to their design based on the park’s logistics.

While the majority of the championship course will be situated in the park’s wooded area, no trees will be cut down during the installation of the course.

According to Dunkle, the championship course will consist of two baskets, a closer basket for intermediate players and a farther basket for…