Hey all,

I was wondering if there was anything in the works for new courses south of Pittsburgh. I know that folks have discussed the possibility of courses in other county parks. I am working in Washington, PA, these days and the need for courses south of the city seems evident from my viewpoint (not that I'm biased in wanting a place to play on the way home or anything).

so, any plans? any way that I can help?
-jim k

Hi Jim.....

From what I know, there are no current plans for a course south of the city....at the moment. The Deer Lakes course is attracting a lot of play and once it's completed this summer (tees, signs, etc), maybe Allegheny County will start considering additional courses in other parks. Beaver and Washington counties would be good candidates as well.

I consider myself lucky....I live only 8 miles from Knob and 23 miles from Moraine! :D

Aren't there possible plans for a course at Settler's Cabin Park? (Which is south of the city near the I-79 and 279 juncture)

I believe J Gary has had discussion with Allegheny County regarding other parks suitable for disc golf (Settler's Cabin being one of them), but that's been about it...just talk. My understanding is that the local Park & Recreation authority wants to focus on finalizing the planned improvements at Deer Lakes before considering another course elsewhere in the county.

Thanks for the info. It makes sense to me that they want to see how things do at Deer Lakes first. Settlers Cabin would be a great place for a course. Perfectly almost half-way on my commute! In any case, hopefully I'll be able to get out and play Deer Lakes sometime soon.

I don't know if folks had heard about this. There was a thread in the courses section of the board. But there is a disc golf course proposed for Community Park in South Strabane Township just outside of Washington, PA. It was proposed by Ryan Julian (who I do not know).
article: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/07175/796131-58.stm

In any case, there is a meeting tonight where the proposal is going to be discussed. I am going to attend and hopefully speak in support of it. The meeting is at 7:30pm at the S. Strabane Municipal Building. Maybe other folks should show up in support.

If anyone knows Ryan I would love to talk to him before tonight. Could you send me his contact info? Or I can send someone my contact info.

Well, that was interesting. If you read the Post-Gazette article, you have a feel for the resistance of some of the local township residents. The anti-outsider feel was evident throughout the meeting. I think it helped that a couple of us showed up to help suport the proposal.

The Supervisors gave conditional approval to 9 holes, with some recognition of eventually completing a full 18 hole design. There is some need for additional assistance from folks to make this happen. I'm going to check out the course design (it is flagged) later this week.

I forgot some details above. The current design is for a recreational course. Pretty much 200'-300' holes. The park is not being used outside of a pavilion that was constructed. They recently began construction on a baseball field.

The park is 72 acres, though 14 acres or so is in some kind of limbo state and the proposed course design would require that some holes be located on those 14 acres. Which is partially the rationale behind a 9 hole approval.

Good stuff, Jim. Thanks for representin' the club... :D

I met with Ryan Julian and Jim Kleissler at South Strabane Community Park today and walked the 18 holes that Ryan has laid out.

Ryan is very energetic and has a vision of what could be there...and I think when the township gets some legal issues settled with a tract of land owned by Consol corp (liability for abandoned mine on the property) the park could have a cool 18 hole course.

We agreed today to get the ball rolling to formalize a club in the area and get some money in the club's bank account from hole sponsors Ryan already has commitments from. We discussed using the Disc Golf Foundation as a way to give those sponsors a tax deduction for their contribution. We agreed to work on a 9-hole layout that incorporates some of what Ryan has already laid out but use some other areas not considered. Once we have that, Ryan can go back to the Township with a solid proposal. We also talked about doing the design so that it can be expanded once the mining/legal issues get resolved.

Very productive 4 hours. Jim Kleissler will be a good addition to the club there. Any others want to join a Wash PA Disc Golf Club?