CHOOSING RIGHT PARK SPACE IS KEY TO GOOD COURSE DESIGN

Written By: Bill Ashton

In my opinion, one of the most important steps in creating an overall well balanced disc golf course design is to first survey all the particular parks a city offers within its community. This will allow you to choose the best possible park site. This will also help in determining the appropriate space and land utilization for a disc golf course. I would say the general rule of thumb for determining your total size of course is to simply figure at least an acre a hole. A 9-hole course by this standard would then need a 9 acre park. A twelve hole course, 12 acres and an 18-hole course would need up to 18 acres of park land and so on. Although this is just a guideline, I believe courses can be built and installed on many different types of terrain. So a particular parks natural esthetics and topography really can play a unique role in the overall course design. Once you have narrowed down park locations, you can review which park has the best "potential" for disc golf. From there, you can select the number of holes or size of course for the park space. Remember, not all courses are 18-holes. So don't get discouraged if your choice of park only accommodates a 9-hole layout. Go with it and design the best course you can! After you've chosen the appropriate park space for course installation, you'll need to look at course design. Here there are many factors to consider such as parking, other park activities,safety, are bike or walking paths present? Where are peoples homes in relation to the park? With houses that border the park property, it's good to exercise fairways away from the direction of homes along the park area. Roads that surround the park area can have some safety issues as well, so extra consideration is always needed in terms of designing holes near roadways, sidewalks or bike paths. You also want to see if you can utilize both open spaces and wooded areas to help create a level of difficulty to some holes. Is there a pond or a creek present within the park setting that can be utilized? Wooded holes and holes that play near or along water can increase the challenge and can make a course more interesting to play. Trees, bushes and water hazards are the most common obstacles for disc golfers, so if possible try to involve some of these elements when choosing a final location. Another general rule of thumb per say is to utilize the parking lot area as the starting and ending point to the course. This wil help to provide and create good design "Flow". From here, the design possibilities are endless. I find one of my best attributes with working with course design is choosing the right park. Over the past 29 years, I have helped to establish a total of 13 disc golf courses in the state of Minnesota. 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. I've learned a great deal about course design over the years and each one of my course projects has been a rewarding experience. Here in Minnesota, we are blessed with an abundance of 35 courses within the metro and we now have well over 100 courses statewide.

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

don't get discouraged if your choice of park only accommodates a 9-hole layout



I have to say something here.

If your setting up a DG course in a city thats more than 30 minutes away from 2 or more 18 hole courses it should be at least 18 holes or else people arnt going to bother travelling there unless they are locals. Only exception being a large city where you regularly travel 30 minutes to get across town.

I have seen alot of 9 hole parks around in this area that are built that most of the serious player shy away from because they do not want to travel to play a nine hole course.

I have seen alot of 9 hole parks around in this area that are built that most of the serious player shy away from because they do not want to travel to play a nine hole course.




Who says "the serious player" is the reason for 9-hole courses?

I've just had a parks dept swtich from 2 18-hole courses to 1 Pro caliber 18-hole course, 1 intermediate level 9-hole course, and 1 beginner 9-hole course in a park neighboring a middle school.

My original intent for this article was to provide the necessary information to those that wish to solicit their local park department or city community for a disc golf course. I have often been asked about how to go about this and what channels are necessary to make things happen. To me, this article also addresses the grass roots level of pioneering our sport. Therefore, I suggested not to be discouraged if a person only establishes a nine hole course. As an activist for the sport, I believe we still need more courses no matter if they're 9, 12 or 18 holes. I'm sure everyone involved with promoting and establishing courses would truly love to install 18 hole courses, but the bottom line is, is it affordable and does the community have the land to accommodate an entire 18 hole layout.

From my experiences, many communities have limited budgets, unless you present a course underneath a master park plan. The process of going through a park master plan can take years and is a more time consuming venture. I've found by promoting a nine hole course, communities can easily foresee the popularity of the sport and decide in future years to expand down the line without taking on the larger costs involved for starters. If certain cities can afford an 18-hole course right off the bat, I don't see a problem with that scenario. I for one would love to only promote 18-hole course layouts, but I know through my experiences, communities don't always go for that approach to things. Which is another reason why I still enjoy promoting the sport, so that new people can be turned onto the sport. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go beforethe masses understand the game and our passions for it.

Bill Ashton

I'm working on two 9-holers right now. One, Waterworks/Gordy, may end up adding 9 holes later - there's room - but the other, Bandemer, will never be more than 9.

At Bandemer, we are putting in three tee pads per hole. One is a very short recreational tee for beginners. (This course is on what is becoming a well-traveled riverwalk.) The other two per hole are designed to be somewhat of equivalent difficulty but providing a different persective on the fairway and the pin. The idea is that you could play the A tees for nine holes, then the B tees for nine holes, and get a pretty decent 18-hole experience.

I'm home sick with a bad cold today and it is very tempting to go out and play, since it is sunny and 72 degrees here in Ann Arbor! But I am getting smarter in my old age. Instead, I just went for a nice, slow walk through the Waterworks/Gordy course area to re-imagine some of the holes.

It's going to be pretty nice for 9 holes, with one hole at 700+ feet, starting open and ending up in woods, and another probably over 500 feet, with water breaking the fairway up.

Back to sleep now.

Back to sleep now.



What, did someone invite you to a BOD meeting?