The Springside Disc Golf Course was ‘officially’ opened at a small ceremony last Thursday to say thanks to course sponsors.
“We’re really thankful to our sponsors who helped cover the costs of the course install and signage, without their support this course wouldn’t be available to the community,” said Shauna Stanley Seymour, Community Wellness Program Coordinator, who took the lead in getting the course off the ground in Springside.
The new course is an 18, Par 54, using tonal targets. It winds through a park in the community that had not seen as much use as it could have in recent years.
“We had this nice park in town that was under-utilized. When the idea of a disc golf course came up it seemed like a great fit,” said Seymour. “It was low cost to install, and is an outdoor recreation/sport activity nearly everyone can participate in at some level. Those things are important in a community like Springside to keep residents active and enjoying the outdoors.”
The course was designed by Calvin Daniels and Trevor Lyons.
“We’re very happy with the course,” said Daniels who attended the opening. “It’s not a particularly long course, about 2400-feet for the 18, but there are enough trees to provide challenges.”
Daniels, who has been involved in designing a number of area courses, said it really came down to working with what the area offered.
“You have to use the natural attributes of any course area. Here the park was not huge, so we used some doglegs, and then of course the trees,” he said. “Initially we weren’t sure we could make it an 18, then my son wandered into the bush and came up with five in the bush which allowed us to go with a full 18.
“It’s pretty special for a small community to have a full 18.”
When first designed the course had a lot of undergrowth in the trees that was distracting, but the community did a lot of clean-up to open up the area over the summer.
“The park needed a good clean-up and the new course was a good reason to get it done,” said Seymour. “It’s a lot more appealing with the undergrowth scrubbed out, and that has people in the community talking about the park and course.”
Daniels said the clean-up has opened the course to a few modifications.
“We’re going to work with the community to adjust a few tonals and tees,” he said. “In some cases it will be to better hide the tonals which are now open after the clean-up, like numbers 7 and 18 which we’ll tuck into the trees again.
“In other cases we can add some length to challenge a bit more. We see that as important and possible on numbers 4, 12 and 16.”
The course ‘tweaking’ will take place either yet this fall, or early spring 2016, in time for the planned inaugural tournament June 4.
“We’re really looking forward to having the tournament here,” said Seymour.
The event will likely be a ‘Birdie Bash’ which is a program of tournaments held around the world.
“It’s an ideal event for a shorter course,” said Lyons, who has acted as Tournament Director at a number of events this summer.
The tournament series is part of the plans of a new regional association that should be in place with a few weeks. There is an organizational meeting planned for Yorkton Nov. 14.
“The tournament will also be one of the first in a new regional series which will we hope to see in 2016.”
As for Springside residents wanting to try out disc golf Seymour said thanks to donations they have purchased a few starter sets of discs which are available for the public to use.
“They will be at the China Diner. We are asking for a deposit, you use the discs, bring them back and are refunded the fee,” she said.
Seymour added they plan to work with the local school to host a clinic on disc golf in the spring.
