Avg cost of a course?

[gmoney1984]

What would it cost to build a course with natural tee pads and little to no clearing needed in a city park style course? and then what would it cost to build one with concrete tee pads, both 9 and 18 please? I'm trying to lobby for my city to build one so just curious on the prices and the general outline of how getting your city to build a course goes down. Thanks for the help.

 

[Stardoggy]

My local 9 is expanding, and they are having baskets built by a local metals company for $100/per. About another $500 for asphalt teepads...which I'll admit I don't love, but it beats natural.

 

[tdschrock1]

I'm trying to lobby for my city to build one so just curious on the prices and the general outline of how getting your city to build a course goes down. Thanks for the help.

Start by talking to the people who you have to convince. Their biggest concerns may not be money. It will mean a lot more to them to get full realistic quotes on a course setup that they would allow rather than estimates here that are 'close'.

 

[Dave242]

What would it cost to build a course with natural tee pads and little to no clearing needed in a city park style course? and then what would it cost to build one with concrete tee pads, both 9 and 18 please? I'm trying to lobby for my city to build one so just curious on the prices and the general outline of how getting your city to build a course goes down. Thanks for the help.

With all due respect, you will make a much better impression on your parks department if you do your research somewhere beyond an online forum made up of anonymous people.

For starters, I suggest looking at the manufacturers' resources:
http://www.discgolf.com/disc-golf-education-development/disc-golf-course-design/
http://www.innovadiscs.com/course/course-development.html

 

[DavidSauls]

Right.

Costs of the baskets, which is a major portion of the cost, is easy to find.

Labor costs? Are you talking volunteer installation? Parks Dept. employees installing while on the clock? Or extra pay for the parks dept. folks?

Tee pads....size?

Signs you should be able to price locally.

 

[gmoney1984]

Thanks for you answers guys! I was just curious I plan on doing some actual research on it but thought this would be a good place to start. It may help that I know the mayor

 

[scarpfish]

One thing about a disc golf course is that it doesn't have to all go in at once. In fact, ideally it shouldn't.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

One thing about a disc golf course is that it doesn't have to all go in at once. In fact, ideally it shouldn't.

If I might elaborate: It makes sense to put baskets in before pouring concrete for tees or installing tee markers.

This allows people a while (maybe a couple of months) to play the course as designed, and see how it plays or if any unforeseen issues come up. Maybe what looked good "on paper" doesn't quite work so well in reality. This allows for the flexibility to move or reposition any intended tees as needed to improve the course. Once you pour concrete tees, you you really can't move them. Moving a basket location (if deemed necessary) is a lot more feasible.

 

[joesouthfla]

18 baskets with sleeves cost approx 6k
12x5x4" concrete slab cost $100 each (concrete only!)
signs with post figure about $50 each
misc. $400
TOTAL not including labor approx 9k-10k.
If money is a concern then get the baskets in the ground and work on the other items down the road.

 

[1978]

My local 9 is expanding, and they are having baskets built by a local metals company for $100/per. About another $500 for asphalt teepads...which I'll admit I don't love, but it beats natural.

This is silly, pay $350-400 for real baskets and the $100 it would cost in materials for concrete. A tee pad is $90-$120 in crete depending on size. Its like playing golf on perfect greens but egg shaped balls...lol. The target is the most important thing.

 

[scarpfish]

About another $500 for asphalt teepads...which I'll admit I don't love, but it beats natural.

Get back to us on "it beats natural" when the elements have worked on that asphalt a bit. To me, its hands down the worst tee pad material.

 

[Sadjo]

I just sold a 12 hole course this morning to a private school. Their cost for the baskets shipped will be $4,500. They school maintenance department will be installing the course and will be making the signs.

18 Baskets will cost between $5,500 on the low end to 9,000 on the high end with shipping. It really depends on which baskets you buy.

A good starting point for signs is about $1,000 from anyone of the Disc Golf companies that have signs as an option with their course packages. I believe Innova and DGA have signs you can add to a course package. Discraft doesn't. Not sure about Gateway.

Natural Tees just require something to make the front of the tee area. Rubber Fly pads, Concrete, Pavers or crushed rock are all possibilities. Crushed rock is normally the easiest for a medium or larger community because they are likely to have plenty of crush and run available at any given time...so additional cost is simply building the tee boxes.

Depending on the lay of the land, you might want to include the cost of a decent designer. I know most think they could design a course but you're better off having someone with experience. While I have sold a bunch of courses over the years, I've only been lead design on two courses I sold because I was able to get better designers with more experience the design job.

A good designer can be had for as little as $400 a day (plus expenses) with the average being three days work if the property is more open...it takes more time to do a design if more clearing is needed. A top designer can be tens of thousands of dollars...but then you get what you pay for.

 

[davetherocketguy]

I work in road construction and I would NOT use asphalt for tee pads. It can work but concrete is so much better because it can be textured easily and only needs a bobcat or wheelbarrow to transport and a handful of hand tools to finish. Asphalt has to have a very solid base to be placed upon because it is a flexible pavement unlike concrete which is going to be difficult to do in a lot of park settings. Also, asphalt needs to be compacted in thin layers for correct placement. Maybe this isn't as necessary but I can't imagine how asphalt would turn out if you did not compact it. My experience is with roads and highways.

 

[drivinatwork]

Our park went about as cheap as you can go with our 9 hole course. Mach II's and natural tees, ran them less than $3000. City workers installed the baskets, dug the holes in half a day, came back the next day and installed the baskets and a 4x4 post as a tee marker, which also took them about half a day.

It was funny the news did a story on the park improvements, disc golf and a splash pad. At the end the anchor said "cost of the splash pad around $250,000, the disc golf course about $3000". I thought hmm...why did it take me over a year to get them to agree on installing a course but they said yes to the splash pad the first time it was voted on.

 

[Stardoggy]

Get back to us on "it beats natural" when the elements have worked on that asphalt a bit. To me, its hands down the worst tee pad material.

The 9 that are out there now have held up pretty well for a few years in WI weather already. No signs of pitting or cracking. From what I've been told, they were pretty good about solid bases for them. With that said, they could stand to be about 3 feet longer, and they're the pits when wet.

I'll take them over rubber mats. If nobody does the upkeep on those, they just turn into bumpy, unusable pieces of crap.

 

[davetherocketguy]

The 9 that are out there now have held up pretty well for a few years in WI weather already. No signs of pitting or cracking. From what I've been told, they were pretty good about solid bases for them. With that said, they could stand to be about 3 feet longer, and they're the pits when wet.

This just proves what I said about bases for asphalt earlier.

Speaking of water...The other glaring issue for me with asphalt is that you absolutely positively cannot have standing water on the mat after a rain. Standing water on asphalt will destroy it prematurely. This is why most roads are paved with a 2% (2' rise over 100' run) cross slope which gets almost all of the water off the roadway immediately. When I am working on building a road I go to great pains to ensure all the water has a place to drain to off of the roadway. Concrete on the other hand can better tolerate standing water and in the hands of an expert installer can be placed much closer to level and still is able to shed water.