Recommendations for getting a local course started?

[Jimb]

Hello. There are no local courses in my area (Cumberland, MD). I need to travel a minumum of one hour to get to the closest courses so I don't get to play as much as I want.

I've layed out two whole 9 hole courses in my area (at a school and a college) and several other holes at other local parks with my portable baskets. I have really good ideas on how the courses could be layed out.

Does anyone have any serious recommendations regarding how to propose my ideas to the appropriate people? Cumberland just loves its' tourism, as most of our industry has left town. I know that Disc Golf courses might not be the biggest revenue makers, but I do believe that a course or two in my area would be great for both the local business community and the people from the area.

Thanks. Jimb

[gcoghill]

I was just thinking the other day that this topic would be a good thread, and once it got to a good point it would be a good sticky post. I am curious about how to go about this as well.

I have culled some resources in the past, I will have to dig them up and post links.

[maniak]

Innova has a very useful guide on the basics of building a course.

http://www.innovadiscs.com/coursedesign/index.htm

[PA_Disc]

IMO, I would check to see if your local municipality has a Park and Recreation Board. If in fact they do, these would be the first people that you would want to talk to. Most of the time these boards will meet at least once a month to discuss park maintenance issues, new ideas, events, etc. Attending one of theses meetings would be your first opportunity to share your idea about a DG course. I would not go to the meeting asking right away to build a course in "X" park, but rather introduce the people to A. What the sport is; B. How you play; C. The type of demographic that the DG course will reach. Do some homework on the local demographics to find out what the core age groups are in the area that you are wanting to target. Find out if they are receptive to the idea. Bring lots of pictures and some discs to show them. Don't be too overbearing with information and let them ask questions. Once you get a feel for how they receive the information, you can come back to another meeting to further share your ideas about where how and how much it will cost.

Depending on the number of holes and the density of the understory, you will be looking at around $10,000-14,000 for 9 holes.

[Amorybulldog]

I have built one course(not finished) and I am currently designing another. The first thing you need to do is meet with the Park and Rec folks if you plan to do something on city property. If you have a college campus in mind that is a different set of folks, usually recreation orientated. DGA offers a program where they will pay for 9 of 18 baskets for a college course, not sure what all the qualifications are but you should really look into that. Very easy to get a course if you already have half of it paid for. I can offer what not to do. If you approach the city, whatever you do, don't offer to raise all of the money yourself. We made that unfortunate mistake and two years later we still only have 15 holes. The good news is that if they city decided to rid themselves of us they couldn't take our baskets, they belong to us, not the city. I agree with PA Disc about approaching the city with informative meetings first. Do you have a rival city? I say this because the city I am currently designing a course for hates the city at the other end of their county(very political but it has spilled into the community), their high schools are huge rivals as well. I started visiting the area for work and lo and behold their rival has a 9 hole course. I started razzing the folks I work with and let that settle in for a couple of weeks and then called park and rec guy. He said he had already been hearing about it. He said I have the money and the park, and I offered to design it. I hope to have it done by Spring. That is one approach but if your nearest course is any hour away I would exploit that. Do you have some demographics on how many course are in your state or within say a two hour drive. Make sure to include some EDGE paperwork in your presentation too. Good luck, if you have any questions feel free to pm me.

[brokenfixed]

I think that concrete tee pads are more of a luxury than a necessity. All you need is 2 bricks in the ground with a good map. Moneys tight right now for people and if you can get a good course laid out with the bare minimum you'll be able to add the luxuries later on. The course near me has 2 bricks in the ground and an arrow at the basket, and I could care less. In fact I'd rather them have bricks in the ground with 18 holes, than a 9 hole with concrete tee pads. Pouring concrete takes alot of time and money and for what? Kids keeping their shoes clean?...bleh

I myself live in Southern New Jersey and would probably consider taking a ride down your way for an 18 hole course but would think twice about a 9 hole. Your terrain and balance has a lot to do with it too.

Also another thought would be to maybe try and get involved with the boy scouts around your way. There was a little 4 hole course that was put in near me by the boy scouts. Those little guys are cheap labor waiting to be tapped...haha That would probably help sway some people on the fence if youre working with the boy scouts. Plus youre introducing the sport to alot of younger kids that could possibly be interested in playing the course because they helped with the project.

[ERicJ]

Here's the link to the PDGA's suggestions: http://pdga.com/cd_start.php

ERic

[Three Putt]

The good news is that if they city decided to rid themselves of us they couldn't take our baskets, they belong to us, not the city. Check your local laws on this. In the State of Missouri if you install something in a public park, it becomes the property of the agency that administers the park. That is done to protect the park. People had been doing things like donating materials for baseball backstops, then using them as political leverage..."give me a zoning abatement or I'm going to go take my backstop back." The law was changed to put an end to that. So in Missouri if you buy baskets and put them in a public park, the City that administers the park owns those baskets the minute you install them. If the City subsequently decided to pull the course and sell the baskets, you would have no legal recourse even if you had the receipt in hand showing that you had paid for them.

[gcoghill]

I'm going to post a few links I found, don't have time to look at them in depth but all look helpful:

http://www.platypusdisc.com/resource_pages/resource.htm -- this link has lots of links on it.

http://www.discgolfassoc.com/discgolf-course-design/

http://www.disclife.com/propdoor.shtml -- downloadable proposal template

http://www.davidestrada.com/discgolf/CourseProposal.html -- Another course proposal guide, from a group that was successful in making it happen

http://www.chico-outsiders.com/TheOutsiders/Documents/dg_info/Hooker%20Oak%20Recreation%20Area%20proposal.pdf -- PDF file of an actual proposal for reference.

[Jimb]

Thanks much for all of the posts thus far. I've gotten more information and resources in less than a day then I'd have been able to track down on my own in a week of searching elsewhere.

[gcoghill]

FYI, I typed in the words 'disc golf course proposal' (no quotes) into Google, came up with a good number of results. I only went through the first couple pages.

I would also suggest looking at some of the pages that talk about rejected course proposals (I saw a few), as that might help with what to consider in a proposal, or answers to roadblock questions people might bring up.

[Geoffro]

I think that concrete tee pads are more of a luxury than a necessity. All you need is 2 bricks in the ground with a good map. Moneys tight right now for people and if you can get a good course laid out with the bare minimum you'll be able to add the luxuries later on. The course near me has 2 bricks in the ground and an arrow at the basket, and I could care less. In fact I'd rather them have bricks in the ground with 18 holes, than a 9 hole with concrete tee pads. Pouring concrete takes alot of time and money and for what? Kids keeping their shoes clean?...bleh

I myself live in Southern New Jersey and would probably consider taking a ride down your way for an 18 hole course but would think twice about a 9 hole. Your terrain and balance has a lot to do with it too.

Also another thought would be to maybe try and get involved with the boy scouts around your way. There was a little 4 hole course that was put in near me by the boy scouts. Those little guys are cheap labor waiting to be tapped...haha That would probably help sway some people on the fence if youre working with the boy scouts. Plus youre introducing the sport to alot of younger kids that could possibly be interested in playing the course because they helped with the project.

With regard to the concrete tee-pads, I have played courses with really cool hard-pack gravel pads framed by four-by-fours. This would be less expensive and actually healthier for the knee and ankle.

Good luck with the project.

[Amorybulldog]

Not sure about that here in Mississippi. The mayor and I are friends so that would not likely be a problem unless we had a new mayor. I also have some ears in the city government building so I would probably hear of this prior to anything happening. I hold all the keys to the baskets. I suppose if the city decided to get rid of our course, they wouldn't have to worry about our baskets, they would disappear never to be found all by theirselves:)

Check your local laws on this. In the State of Missouri if you install something in a public park, it becomes the property of the agency that administers the park. That is done to protect the park. People had been doing things like donating materials for baseball backstops, then using them as political leverage..."give me a zoning abatement or I'm going to go take my backstop back." The law was changed to put an end to that. So in Missouri if you buy baskets and put them in a public park, the City that administers the park owns those baskets the minute you install them. If the City subsequently decided to pull the course and sell the baskets, you would have no legal recourse even if you had the receipt in hand showing that you had paid for them.