Fore! New disc golf course tees off in Long Beach | South County News
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Pamplin Media Group – Disc golf a summer option at McCormick Park
Basket, Disc Golf, Don, entities: Sean Chapman, golf, golf course, Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on disc golf, industry: Food Processing (NEC), McCormick, socialTag: Sports, sports, St. Helens, tee, topics: Hospitality_Recreation, Variations of golf
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, 2022-07-01 02:00:00,
Disc golf, popular at McCormick Park in St. Helens, is free and open to all age groups.
If you envy the golfing life but find it incredibly expensive to invest in a new set of golf clubs and golf balls, consider an alternative that is as close as McCormick Park in St. Helens.
It’s called disc golf. For the uninitiated, the game resembles traditional golf, but the only skill you’ll need is the ability to aim a disc in the direction of a golf hole, or to be more precise, a basket.
A man who knows all about disc golf, Sean Chapman, who lives in St. Helens, described the fun alternative to hitting the traditional golf links.
“I fell in love with the sport, I would say, in 2010,” Chapman said, noting disc golf at McCormick Park began in 2013 and is maintained by volunteers.
Chapman added, “We have work parties throughout the year and other people come in help us. We’re at it year-round.”
If you’re unfamiliar with disc golf, Chapman helps explain.
“Disc golf is similar to traditional ball golf,” he said. “You have a tee pad and tee zone. You throw the disc, or frisbee, into a basket.”
Chapman said the sport is great for all skill levels and is not as expensive as ball golf. In fact, there is no charge to playing disc golf at McCormick Park.
“You have the first investment of buying a few discs,” Chapman said.
Disc golf has exploded in popularity worldwide ever since COVID-19 hit.
“I’ve heard it’s the fastest-growing sport in the world right now,” Chapman said.
Chapman said it’s typical that disc golf involves nine or 18 holes, as is the case for traditional golf.
Disc golf at McCormick Park weathered well during the thick of the pandemic. Golf lends itself well to social distancing.
“Disc golf was great during the pandemic because people can go out,…
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Supreme 18 brings new challenge to Dynamic Discs Open | Gaz
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A new championship-level course debuted this year as part of the Dynamic Discs Open.
The Supreme 18 at Jones Park is replaces the previous Jones West, Jones East, and Jones Gold courses.
“Jones Gold — it’s a course, that has definitely had some history, dating back in Emporia as to when I’d been there, I think first time in mid 2000s, 2008, 2009,” said five-time world champion Paul McBeth in a video about the redesign. “But now 2021, I think it is small. I think that’s the biggest thing is where the talent level is now, a lot of the players can throw up and over the trees, not use the course the way that it was originally designed.”
Course designer Eric McCabe heard that concern and met it head on. He agreed with the need to improve and redesign the course after the 2021 DDO.
“We started after the tournament last year and looked at the course,” McCabe said. “We looked at the scores from everybody and decided, you know, if we want to do something next year big, and we’re hosting the world championships, we gotta get a course that’s a little bit more aggressive.”
The gears started turning and McCabe went to work laying out a few different designs. He presented them to Doug Bjerkaas and they discussed which one might work best for Jones Park.
“We ended up going with the one that we have now,” he said. “We started construction and putting in the new baskets around November.”
Supreme 18 brings a number of new challenges for some of the world’s best players, and McCabe said it was a collaborative effort with a number of different parties.
“This couldn’t have been done without a team here in Emporia,” he said. “Our DD crew, Doug Bjerkaas. Keith Krause, and a couple of others that have really helped out with the process. Obviously the city of Emporia, too, for helping out with some of the funding to put some benches in there.”
McCabe said benches may not seem like a big deal, but in the disc golfing world? They are almost a necessity.
“I’ve been playing golf here since the late 90s and I’ve always thought, ‘Why don’t we have benches at our courses?’” he said. “You know, every other course you travel to, that’s a good quality, high-rank course, has benches.”
McCabe said the city’s willingness to assist with the project shows how much it values what disc golf brings to the community.
The course itself is both aesthetically pleasing and a lot more challenging. A limestone island at Hole No. 1 was designed and built by Scott Tjachman. McCabe said Tjachman was able to build the island is a matter of days.
“It was pretty amazing how quickly he got that turned around and we absolutely love it,” he said.
Supreme 18 will again be the featured course during the PDGA World Championships in August, giving players at the DDO a chance to preview what they will be facing. So far, the new course has delivered on its promise to be a challenge.
“A hole one, for the FPO — the female pro open — there was only one birdie on hole one, and it’s pretty crazy. It’s a challenging island hole, which is kinda cool, but scores were all over the place for the women and and the men.”
Another challenge is Hole 16 which has a “pretty big par” for the men. Hole 10 only had one birdie. That honor went to Corey Ellis, a pro from West Virginia.
“A lot of that is the elements,” McCabe said. “A lot of that was the direction of the wind and how strong it was blowing, so that makes things a little bit more challenging when you’re out there trying to score.”
He said that can make it challenging when it comes to design, too, knowing that it can be windy one day and completely still the next.
“There’s a fine line between those two,” he said.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of the course is that it’s actually two courses in one. Other than the Supreme 18, there is also the Supreme Short. That course is designed for the casual players who make use of the park most of the year.
“It starts at the same hole and the only difference is you don’t play that as an island,” McCabe said. “You can play the Supreme Short course and there will be a course map and tee signs out following the Dynamic Discs Open. You can go out there and kind of get an appreciation for the big, championship-level course, but not have to play it.”
Of course, you can play it if you want to.
“It’s a pretty good challenge,” he added.
Pollmiller disc golf plan sees more discussion | Local
18-hole course., cameron hertzler, clint oldfield, Disc Golf, golf, golf courtesy, highway, lee county conservation board, motor vehicle, plan, pollmiller park, professional disc golf association, right of way on the trails, sport, tee, west point
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The winter put a bit of a damper on plans to create a disc golf course at Pollmiller Park.
Now that spring is back on the table, those plans are coming back into focus.
Disc golfer Cameron Hertzler had visited with the Lee County Conservation Board last summer about the possibility of putting in a disc golf course near the walking trail in Pollmiller Park and incorporating West Point’s South Park.
Hertzler showed the board how the course would be laid out and said the GPS was a little off, so no tee pads would actually be on the path itself but about 10 feet away.
Park Ranger Clint Oldfield said the LCC staff hadn’t been party to planning of the course and had some concerns. Hertzler said he would be happy to walk through the course with them.
Oldfield also was concerned about discs or people crossing the road and creating a safety issue.
Hertzler said there would be no throwing across the roads.
“The holes are separated so you’re not crossing that threshold. Disc golfers would have to walk across that road but not throw across it,” he said. “And one thing we keep in mind too, when we were doing the layout of the course, we want to pour the tee pads close to the walking path and put the baskets away from it. That way at least the angle of trajectory is I’m standing close to the walkers and I’m throwing into the green space, as opposed to the other way around, which is not good.”
Additionally, Hertzler said, holes are kept away from blind corners.
“We don’t want to put baskets near those at all,” he said. “It’s dangerous.”
One hole is planned to be placed in West Point’s South Park, which also has a good parking lot, whereas Pollmiller has a smaller parking area.
“It doesn’t really matter how you number the holes. If parking becomes an issue, it’s very easy for players to start at that tee of seven which is that first one in South Park, and play seven through 18,” he said. “And then like I said, it’s one big figure eight so they can do one through six and end up back where they parked.”
West Point Councilman Joe Loving said West Point is in the process of enlarging that parking area as well.
Hertzler said all the golfers he’s ever played with understand that pedestrians have the right of way on the trails.
“If anytime there’s somebody even near where I’m throwing, I will wait for them to get out of the way. I’m not risking hitting them,” he said. “It’s very courteous.”
There’s been no fundraising yet, as the project’s been on pause during the winter and waiting for direction.
Hertzler said last year when he ran some numbers for materials, it ended being around $18,000 for an 18-hole course. Now as the cost of materials has risen, he said a realistic estimate is around $20-23,000.
“The cost of the metal baskets that are put into the ground has gone up,” he said, “between labor, concrete and wood and stuff for tee pads and such.”
Hertzler said he plans to purchase all 18 baskets from a local retailer and those baskets would be approved by the Professional Disc Golf Association, a requirement for tournaments.
“If there’s ever a tournament that wants to be held at the course, which is an awesome fundraising opportunity for the community,” he said, “it has to be PDGA sponsored and PDGA approved.”
Disc golf is very popular, Hertzler said, and practically free for players.
“Buy your one disc and you’re good until you become addicted to it,” he said.
There are three disc golf courses located in Rodeo Park; another is being planned for Ivanhoe Park. A nine-hole course is located at Denning Conservation Area. Westview Disc Golf Course can be found in Donnellson.
CVB grant to help fund Lake Hastings disc golf course upgrades | News
anjanette bonham, beckenhauer construction, bid, building industry, commerce, construction, economics, finance, grant, institutes, lake hastings, tee, trevor wilkerson
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The baskets and tee pads at the Lake Hastings disc golf course soon will be upgraded.
Members of the Adams County Board of Commissioners voted 7-0 at their regular meeting Tuesday to approve a pair of improvement grant applications from the Adams County Convention and Visitors Bureau including $6,000 to help the Hastings Parks and Recreation Department make improvements to the disc golf course.
Anjanette Bonham, executive director of the Adams County Convention and Visitors Bureau, told the commissioners that Trevor Wilkerson with the local disc golf community attended the CVB board meeting to make the pitch for funds.
“He was very excited for their future improvements at the disc golf course at Lake Hastings,” Bonham said. “If you drive by there at any time of the day or the week, you usually see somebody out there playing. It’s just a very popular and growing sport for people of all ages.”
Bonham said the basket chains are breaking and the concrete tee pads are cracking at the 20-year-old course.
Wilkerson wrote in the application that the course hosted tournaments that brought 90 players to town in 2020 and 75 players in 2021.
Wilkerson also wrote that Lake Hastings is rated among the top five courses in Nebraska.
“That is really huge and exciting for our community to have that here in Hastings,” Bonham said. “Besides the many locals, it brings people in from out of town to play the course. These improvements will help increase those numbers.”
The commissioners also unanimously approved authorizing $25,000 in improvement grant funds for the Hastings Family YMCA’s $13.9 million capital campaign.
Hastings Family YMCA CEO Troy Stickels attended the CVB board meeting and presented the grant request.
“He just was very informative and excited and passionate about their future improvements of bringing their facilities under one roof and one location instead of the two buildings they currently have,” Bonham said. “I’m just excited for the Y and the improvements they are implementing because this facility is going to be amazing and beautiful. It’s going to benefit their programs and their activities even further than what they are able to right now.”
The grant funds would help the Y offset expenses toward the final phase of fundraising for the capital project.
According to the Y’s application, $11.028 million of the project cost had been raised as of Dec. 13, 2021.
Also during the meeting, Bill Barritt and Jan Beran with construction manager Beckenhauer Construction of Norfolk gave an update on the county’s planned jail project.
“Over the next month, it’s going to be a pretty busy time,” Barritt said.
Nearly complete design plans from project architect Prochaska and Associates are expected at the end of the week.
Beckenhauer will put a public notice in the Hastings Tribune in the beginning of February for bid package 3, which is the final bid package for the project and includes the rest of the trades that haven’t been bid so far.
The commissioners on Tuesday approved the six components of bid package 2.
That includes the following:
- Cast-in-place concrete for $1,032,783 to Heartland Concrete and Construction of Hastings
- Masonry complete for $2,924,486 to Kehm Contractors of Omaha
- Detention equipment for $2,389,727 to Sweeper Metal Fabricators of Drumright, Oklahoma
- Detention cell modules for $2,279,792 to Sweeper Metal Fabricators
- Site clearing and earthwork for $315,979 to Van Kirk Brothers Contracting of Sutton
- Water and sanitary utilities for $293,343 to Van Kirk Brothers Contracting
The two detention items totaled about $4.7 million. That is far less than the $9 million that Barritt said Beckenhauer had estimated.
The masonry bid from Kehm Contractors was the only bid for that item. It was nearly three times the $1 million Beckenhauer estimated.
Barritt said the other best bids fell in line with estimates.
Those approved bids, plus the contract administration, total $9,453,655. Including the previously approved first bid package of $2,930,552, $12,384,207 has been approved so far.
In other business, the commissioners:
- Unanimously approved one-year appointments of Neil Gerloff and Robin Stroot to the Adams County Extension Board.
- Unanimously approved surplusing two county-owned vehicles, a 2007 Ford Escape and 2007 Ford Edge, and sending the vehicles to public auction if no other county office wants the vehicles.
- Unanimously approved tax list corrections.
- Unanimously approved the chairman’s signature on a contract with Oden Enterprises of Wahoo for materials at $236,215 for a bridge to be constructed on Palamino Avenue between Pauline Boulevard and Cimarron Road.
- Unanimously approved for submission the Adams County weeds report from Weed Superintendent Eric Walston.
A Wet, Wild Wednesday Leaves McMahon and Heimburg In Charge | Free
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The late Dr. Stancil Johnson, PDGA No. 009, was fond of quoting Michael Murphy’s 1972 classic, Golf in the Kingdom, which casts the sport as a contest between the golfer and the golf course; an effort to master one’s surroundings.
“Where other sports are combative in nature, force against force,” Johnson wrote in the Winter 1991 edition of Disc Golf World News. “Golf is an effort to harmonize with the ‘forces of the field’, as Murphy calls it. I would describe it as becoming one with nature. As such, a game of golf is a symbolic journey through life.”
On Wednesday in Emporia, through downpours, lightning strikes and the death of a beloved family member, mother nature proved to be a formidable foe.
The day began with tragic news of the sudden passing of Ricky Wysocki’s sister, Lauren Mayse, from complications caused by brain cancer.
Wysocki, a strong favorite to win his third-consecutive PDGA Elite Series event this week at the DDO, departed from Emporia on Tuesday after learning of Lauren’s condition and was questionable for his start until just before his 1:20 p.m. tee time.
When he did return in time to take his place alongside Paul McBeth, Nikko Locastro and Chris Clemons on the DGN live broadcast feature card, the usually-raucous atmosphere surrounding the first tee was replaced with an air of somber respect for the two-time PDGA World Champion.
The weight of life and death have a way of putting even the most illustrious sporting events in perspective.
It took the better part of an hour for Wysocki and McBeth to find their rhythm, and it wasn’t until hole 6 that both players found their way below par for good. Once they got rolling, however, it was a vintage battle as both players scorched the back nine to finish at 10-under par.
The hot scores of the day, however, came from Eagle McMahon and Calvin Heimburg, who were battling it out on 1:00 p.m. feature card.
McMahon got off to a tough start after throwing his second shot out of bounds on hole 1, only to hear the weather delay horn blow a few seconds after the red OB flag was waived.
“It was a weird start because I threw two shots and then they blew the horn,” McMahon said following his round. “On the second shot—as soon it left my hand the disc was going straight to OB. I had to sort myself out during the rain delay, and I just came back and told myself to play one hole at a time.”
The strategy appears to have worked, as McMahon rallied off a string of birdies that culminated with a 50-foot putt on hole 18 that just caught the bottom of the band and dropped in. It was a dramatic finish that left the 2018 Glass Blown Open champion with a smile on his face.
Following his bogie on hole 1, McMahon went 15-under through the remaining 17 holes to finish at 14-under par.
Heimburg completed his own 14-under demolition of the Jones Gold track in less dramatic fashion, dropping-in a ‘routine’ 27-footer for his birdie on hole 18. He matched McMahon by limiting himself to a single bogie on the day (hole 7) and bested him with 15 birdies on the day.
“I definitely didn’t expect to shoot a 14 when I saw the forecast with rain in play,” Heimburg, a two-time National Tour champion, said. “But luckily even though it rained on us it wasn’t pouring and the wind kept down for most of it. When the wind is down here, you have to shoot really hot to be competitive.”
Sitting just behind McMahon and Heimburg on the leaderboard at 13-under par are Ben Callaway and Andrew Presnell, who benefited from earlier tee times that were largely unaffected by the inclement weather, as well as 2020 USDGC Champion Chris Dickerson, who battled alongside the tournament leaders on the 1:00 p.m. feature card.
They’ll be joined by a tight grouping atop the MPO field which includes 17 players within four shots of the lead.
Players will return to Jones Gold for round 2, with the lead card teeing off at 1:20 p.m. CT live on the Disc Golf Network.
Professional disc golf tournament coming to Crandall Park | Local
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GLENS FALLS — A professional disc golf tournament is coming to Crandall Park later this year.
The city’s Recreation Committee on Wednesday approved plans submitted by the Crandall Park Beautification Committee to host a pair of disc golf tournaments in the park for the weekend of June 12 and 13, including a Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned tournament with nearly 80 competitors.
The tournament will coincide with the official opening of the newly constructed 18-hole disc golf course spread throughout the park.
People have been playing the course for months, but rubber tee pads and other amenities have yet to be installed. The finishing touches for the course should be completed sometime in May, said Elizabeth Little Hogan, the president of the Crandall Park Beautification Committee.
“I have to tell you, I underestimated the popularity of this,” she said.
The weekend will get underway on Saturday June 12 with a “Learn to Play” event from noon to 2 p.m., according to the plans.
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Families or household groups of four to five will be assigned a tee time and will play the first two holes of the course with an experienced disc golf player, who will show them how to play the sport.
Each group will be allowed to play either the front or back nine, and groups will be spread out to ensure social distancing. Volunteers will be on hand to help direct players and ensure there are no large gatherings.
There will be a $25 registration fee, which will include four or five discs. Families who cannot afford the registration fee can apply for financial assistance.
All participants will be required to register for the event online in advance.
Beginning at 12:30 p.m. that same day, an 18-hole recreational tournament will be held.
The tournament will be broken into separate divisions including novice, men’s and women’s, and youth.
A $35 pre-registration fee is required, which will provide participants a pack of two new discs and a coupon book to Stewart’s Shops.
Everyone would be required to sign up online in advance and mask wearing will be mandatory, according to the plans.
Participants would begin play at separate holes in order to ensure social distancing.
Prizes for the tournament will be awarded via PayPal.
On June 13, a Professional Disc Golf Association tournament will be held, with an expected 72 participants.
The tournament will include players of all skill sets from professional to beginner.
A registration fee ranging from $25 to $55 will be required, depending on the player’s ranking, according to the plans.
The tournament will consist of two rounds, and all players will be required to stay within their group.
The first round of the tournament will start at 9 a.m. and the second will begin a 1 p.m.
There are also plans to reach out to local restaurants to sell food during the event, though whether those plans would be allowed depends on the pandemic.
Members of the committee were eager to approve the plans, though Mayor Dan Hall said he has concerns about parking.
The disc golf course is adjacent to a playground in the park, and with outdoor recreation becoming increasingly popular, there’s a concern about safety.
“I’m starting to be real nervous about parking in Crandall Park,” Hall said.
Little said she shares the same concerns and will be directing all participants to park near the soccer fields and is working on applying for permits needed to temporarily close roads near the course during the tournament.
“We’re on the same page,” she said.
Chad Arnold is a reporter for The Post-Star covering the city of Glens Falls and the town and village of Lake George and Washington County government. Follow him on Twitter @ChadGArnold.