COM_ORIGINALPRPUBLICATION_niagaraonthelake_advance

Pam Fowler and Catherine Dambrauskas were happy to spend a couple of hours enjoying the last of September’s good weather at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Community Centre. Although they’re from St. Catharines, as avid disc golf players they came to town just to enjoy its brand-new disc golf course.

“I’m loving it,” said Fowler, who’s been playing disc golf for a year and a half. “It’s perfect. It’s great for everybody.”

The course has its grand opening Sept. 27 at 1:30 p.m. Discs can be borrowed at no cost from the community centre during its hours of operation, all four seasons of the year. Or you can use your own discs if you have them. Playing the course is free.

The project was spearheaded by the Niagara-on-the-Lake Rotary Club, as a collaboration with the town to bring the affordable and accessible game to the neighbourhood. They’ve been working on getting it off the ground for four years, and got the go-ahead on the $15,000 project in May.

Paul Lalonde, chair of rotary club’s community service committee and the project’s leader, said once word got out that this course was coming to town, the response they received was “overwhelming.”

“People who love disc golf are fanatical about disc golf,” he said. “Myself, with the Rotary Club, and the town, really felt like, ‘boy, we really got to get this right,’ because we didn’t realize how much people love this sport.”

Nine disc golf “holes,” which are upright, metal baskets, are located throughout the green space in front of the community centre and library, facing Anderson Lane. For the unfamiliar, the object of the game, like golf, is to throw the disc into the basket in as few turns as possible per hole.

“We’ve used a part of the community centre property that wasn’t being utilized before, and I think we’ve maximized the use of it,” Lalonde said. “We’re super happy with it, and the response has been pretty much more than I ever expected.”

Fowler and Dambrauskas, who are part of the St. Catharines Women’s Disc Golf Club, have played at this course a few times since it was installed this summer. They bring their own discs.

They say they’re fans of the sport because of its low barrier for entry — regardless of age, gender, or skill level.

“It doesn’t matter what your skill level is,” Fowler said. “Anybody can come out and play, have a good time, laugh and giggle, and get some exercise at the same time.”

“Everybody is treated the same — and fairly,” Dambrauskas said.

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