Me and a few friends are trying to get a course put in a park in our city, what would be the initial steps to get this thing on the roll??

Get invloved with your local club.

Get invloved with your local club.



Do you know of any useful data that could be helpful when trying to persuade a parks department to install a disc golf course, i.e. increased local revenue, fitness, etc.?

Disc golf courses can add foot traffic to parts of the park like jogging trails. The price to install one is CHEAP compared to a play ground or basket ball court! These are some of the points I heard when I was trying to get a park installed. Good luck, I need more courses!

Another point is that Disc Golf courses can go into land that is not useful for anything else except mountain bike trails.

Another point is that Disc Golf courses can go into land that is not useful for anything else except mountain bike trails.



Gary, there are few on this MB that will find the humor in that one ........ But I thought it was quite funny ....

Looking forward to playing the full 18 out there someday.

Do a little leg work first to understand who in the local community can make such things happen, or not happen. Most important, is there already a "master plan" to guide parks development. If so, what is already planned for that park, maybe 5 years down the road?

Who in the local staff (planners, architects) would have to manage the design and construction? Who would have to maintain it? What kinds of elected or appointed advisory (parks advisory board?) or governing (city council) groups would have to give permission? What other local groups might be concerned (neighbors, Audobon Society, Sierra Club) or would like to use the property themselves (BMX bikers, etc.)?

Try to locate publicly-owned courses nearby and solicit testimonials or support from the officials responsible for those courses.

If at all possible find a disc golfer who can talk to each of these groups as a peer. You know, someone who can put on a suit and tie to go to the city council meeting, if appropriate. Check around, you might find that there are disc golfers in some of those positions, which would certainly help.

Do not go out and start cutting things down, or even marking on trees or with little flags or plastic ribbons until you have touched all of the above bases.

If the park in question currently has problems about bad things happening there, one good argument is that a disc golf course will bring more foot traffic into the park and clean things up. That's worked in a lot of places.

Those who make and sell baskets will often provide good advice by phone or email. Your new course is in their best interest, too.

And if you have not read this yet...

http://www.pdga.org/club_affiliate/club_af_hometowncourse.php

Thank you...although a bit dated, it was a very helpful article which provided a wonderful template for topics/format of a proposal. I appreciate your help. :)

welcome to the board Stacia

ANYONE CAN PROPOSE A DISC GOLF COURSE TO THEIR LOCAL PARK DEPARTMENT

Written By: Bill Ashton

Do you have an interest in Disc Golf, but don't have a course in your hometown or city? I'm hear to tell you with a little dedication and good organizational skills you can spearhead a disc golf course project in your area and propose a course to your local park department. It's that easy! Over the past 29 years, I have successfully helped to establish a total of ten courses within the state of Minnesota by merely contacting local park departments. Every course project was a unique challenge and I certainly look forward to continuing my interest for promoting and designing even more disc golf courses here in Minnesota.

One advantage of securing an interest with your local park department is to show a local interest or form a group willing to get a Disc Golf Course organized. Now that the sport of Disc Golf has been around for 30 years, most park departments have some sort of knowledge about the sport. So today, it's become more popular and recognizable as a beneficial recreation for park departments to offer within their park systems.

In my course development experiences here in Minnesota, I feel most of the park departments I personally worked with however, lacked experience and knowledge in terms of implementing and designing a course. I've also noticed that some park departments struggle with knowing which type of parks worked best for a course. I would almost bet there are probably some park departments out their today that are interested in getting a course, but don't quite know how to go about getting the project started and facilitated. So this is where course designers or course promoters such as myself can step into the picture nowadays and get involved with organizing a course. Even a person with a local interest can begin to pursue and propose a course to your local park department. You certainly don't need to be a certified course designer to get a course installed. You just simply need the interest and desire to want to organize a course in your area. If you are interested in learning more about course design, I would suggest looking into joining the yahoo online discussion group called the Disc Golf Course Designers Group. This is an excellent medium to discuss and learn aspects of course design by dedicated players and organizers from around the country that are working to establish courses in their areas.

It helps to be a resident of the town or city your trying to propose a course, but it's not necessary. I have worked with several communities in which I wasn't a resident of the community, so don't let that stop you from getting a course started. Some of you may have the perfect park in mind all ready. If you do and your interested in pursuing the idea, you'll need to determine if the park is recognized as a city, county or state park in order to direct your focus to the appropriate municipality that would consider your proposal for disc golf. All city, county and state park departments each have their own offices and departments to coordinate and deal with new proposals. City parks can vary in size and you usually need to work around other park activities such as baseball, soccer fields or even tennis courts come to mind. County Parks are generally larger parks and have much more space, so there's a lot of potential with creating a course if you discover the right county park. The possibilities are endless no matter what type of park. There are literally over 1500 courses worldwide and each of them have a uniqueness in their own particular variety of landscapes. I know for myself, I love to seek out new courses and compare them to others I've played. By playing different courses you can also analyze and review how other courses were designed to get a feel for laying out a course in your area. Be observant on what you liked about a certain hole and how the fairway played a particular way. What worked? What obstacles were present? Make some mental notes.

If you decide to take the steps toward approaching a park department about a course, you'll want to contact your local community park director. Generally speaking, park directors will be able to tell you whether or not disc golf is a viable recreational program in terms of implementing an actual course within their park system. If you receive a positive response back from the park director, be prepared to give a brief presentation explaining and describing the sport of disc golf. You can easily research and gather information on the internet today to help you with providing support material. You could even set up an appointment with your local park director to play and walk through an actual disc golf course (where available). This would provide a great on-site visual perspective and be an excellent selling point. It would also allow the park director an ability to see a course first hand. I can't think of any better way for the park director to get excited about Disc Golf. What an ideal and effective way for them to go back and talk with other staff members positively about Disc Golf. Another interesting note to mention in regards to visiting an actual course, is that the park director will not only actually visualize how active the course is, but they'll be able to gauge some demographics as well by viewing an analyzing play during the walk through.

Once a park director is interested in getting a Disc Golf course project going, they'll establish dialog on the topic within their monthly park board meetings to determine whether this would be an appropriate recreation within their park system. In order to get the disc literally flying, disc golf must first be put on the park boards agenda and master plan. From there, discussion pertaining to Disc Golf is reviewed by the park board. Typically park departments have master plans for each of their parks, so you'll need approval to move forward and get the project onboard. Once a park department approves the idea of implementing a course within their park plans, it can generally take anywhere from six months to a year or possibly even longer depending on the master plan for the park before a course is actually installed. So don't get discouraged. Your sweat and passion for a course will eventually come to fruition. Your dream of a course can soon become a reality.

I know I believe in the sport of disc golf and I find it to be one of the most appealing and cost effective recreational activities that a park department can offer today. It allows all age groups to participate and it can be a family recreation as well. For those that play disc golf, I would say most love it! So as the sport grows, so will those that want to help get new courses. Anyone with an interest and desire for getting a course installed, can really make it happen. I say grab some initiative and go for it! Looking back, I can't begin to tell you how many people have played on the courses I've helped establish, but I know that it would be a tremendous amount of people. It's rewarding in a personal way to know that I've helped to establish disc golf as a recreation within many Minnesota communities. I am certainly proud of those accomplishments. It's just a great feeling to know that I've played a part in so many peoples enjoyment throughout the years. That my friends is priceless.

Bill Ashton
Roc Solid Design
MFA #425
PDGA #2747
DGCD #67