• Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
    It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)

Baskets stolen at new Kentucky course

That's just awful news and one of my biggest fears as a designer. Hopefully, the perps get caught soon. I watched the news clip and saw the locks that were used. A decent pair of bolt cutters can defeat those things in seconds. I highly recommend something like these:

locks.jpg
 
The park went ahead and welded the pole to the sleeves for the 10 that are currently in place. (They had 6 baskets in storage for a possible future expansion.)


Best solution but determined thieves will probably just uproot them, concrete and all.

Sucks that it happens and really sucks that it happened to a relatively new course and on such a large scale. Definitely more than one person was involved. Hopefully they can catch the culprits.
 
We have a course here in West MIch (Johnson) that originated as a pole course in the '80s. At some point baskets were installed. Stories I've heard state that because the park was on the outskirts of multiple municipalities (Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Grandville & Walker), it did not get regularly patrolled by the fuzz. So it was easy pickings to snag a basket. "They" got tired of replacing the baskets & removed all of them & put the poles back in (baskets were put in a few year back). Hopefully no one gets the bright idea to install poles at this Cincy course.

On the other hand, a pole course is typically less populated... I use to be able to play Johnson without hardly ever seeing another soul.
 
On the other hand, a pole course is typically less populated... I use to be able to play Johnson without hardly ever seeing another soul.

Funny, I play Little Lehigh Parkway in SE PA and it is an utter ghost town. Played 4 or 5 times this summer and the only time we saw anybody throw was when we finished our round and were driving away.
 
Best solution but determined thieves will probably just uproot them, concrete and all.

Sucks that it happens and really sucks that it happened to a relatively new course and on such a large scale. Definitely more than one person was involved. Hopefully they can catch the culprits.

The concrete weight alone weighs about 90 pounds so that should discourage someone from stealing them and would reduce the resale value considerably.
 
Funny, I play Little Lehigh Parkway in SE PA and it is an utter ghost town. Played 4 or 5 times this summer and the only time we saw anybody throw was when we finished our round and were driving away.

What a shame, it used to be one of the best courses in the Lehigh Valley and was one of the '05 Worlds courses. I grew up there and played it regularly starting in '06 until I left town in '10. I'm up that way in a few weeks, hopefully it will look decent when I go. I usually play a lot of Jordan, Covered, and South when I'm in town.
 
Playing disc golf is a way cooler hobby than crime… if 1+1=2 here, the criminal is probably known in the local DG scene.

TBF if my local installed Prodigy baskets I would also steal them and chuck them into the nearest river.
 
What a shame, it used to be one of the best courses in the Lehigh Valley and was one of the '05 Worlds courses. I grew up there and played it regularly starting in '06 until I left town in '10. I'm up that way in a few weeks, hopefully it will look decent when I go. I usually play a lot of Jordan, Covered, and South when I'm in town.

Yep, 'tis a far cry from way back when that kid in the Yanks jersey impressed at the Worlds there. FWIW, it is still very playable. 6,7, and 8 really need the fairway cut- watch out when teeing off! Beware of 10 also when throwing over the creek. 11 would be a nice ace run down hill but the gap through the trees is not even a gap anymore! Still has 18 baskets in the ground, though!
 
Sounds like the thieves were able to drive around snagging the baskets.

There are few padlocks that can't be opened pretty easily if you know what to do. Most can be brute forced with a hammer. There are also hydraulic cutters. Not cheap, but tools of the trade (theft).
 
We have a course here in West MIch (Johnson) that originated as a pole course in the '80s. At some point baskets were installed. Stories I've heard state that because the park was on the outskirts of multiple municipalities (Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Grandville & Walker), it did not get regularly patrolled by the fuzz. So it was easy pickings to snag a basket. "They" got tired of replacing the baskets & removed all of them & put the poles back in (baskets were put in a few year back). Hopefully no one gets the bright idea to install poles at this Cincy course.

On the other hand, a pole course is typically less populated... I use to be able to play Johnson without hardly ever seeing another soul.

*cue adolescent Johnson/pole chuckle*

Glad I have the chance to play it with TVK and you prior to thievery. I remember getting a tree kick that sent me waaaaaay down a hill, damned near the road adjacent to the park. Worst roll I ever recall. Can't remember what hole # it was, but it was pretty late in the round.

Shame, because Johnson's a good course. I get that poles/object golf can be cool/nostalgic, but I can't say I enjoy that as much as playing on baskets. :\
 
We have a course here in West MIch (Johnson) that originated as a pole course in the '80s. At some point baskets were installed. Stories I've heard state that because the park was on the outskirts of multiple municipalities (Grand Rapids, Wyoming, Grandville & Walker), it did not get regularly patrolled by the fuzz. So it was easy pickings to snag a basket. "They" got tired of replacing the baskets & removed all of them & put the poles back in (baskets were put in a few year back). Hopefully no one gets the bright idea to install poles at this Cincy course.

On the other hand, a pole course is typically less populated... I use to be able to play Johnson without hardly ever seeing another soul.

I first played Johnson in '98 on their Mach 2's and was saddened to discover they'd been pulled some years later. It was quite awhile before baskets were reinstalled there if memory serves. I keep meaning to go back and play again and haven't gotten around to it.

Back then, it was one of only 3 courses in Grand Rapids with baskets (along with Brewer and Riverside). Sheesh, how many are there now within 30 minutes in all directions of G.R.? It's surreal, as you can probably also testify, to see the growth we've witnessed in such a short time.

My heart goes out to the Cincinnati people in this story. I know firsthand what it's like to have neighbors near a new course who want nothing to do with Disc Golf in "their" park. When I was helping out with McGraft in Muskegon there was a neighborhood lady who kept trying to scare us off by being nosy and, shall we say, not very personable. Also, when Oshtemo was in the planning stages in Kalamazoo (I wasn't involved with this one but it was occurring at the very same time), a crazed local showed up to the park board meeting with a Disc, and when he got the chance to speak, he took it and threw it at the wall, saying something along the lines of, "Somebody's gonna get killed by these things!" From what I've heard from those who were there, it backfired for the guy because people thought, geez, what a lunatic, and helped turn the mood in our favor.

McGraft would be Liz Carr-Sypien's first course and exposure to the game, and of course, Oshtemo would go on to host worlds a couple of times...
 
That's just awful news and one of my biggest fears as a designer. Hopefully, the perps get caught soon. I watched the news clip and saw the locks that were used. A decent pair of bolt cutters can defeat those things in seconds. I highly recommend something like these:

locks.jpg

These locks can also be defeated or bypassed in under a minute. Welding the the pole to the sleeve, depending on how it is done can increase that time to over a minute, assuming that the perps don't want to have to extend the pole to reuse it. If they don't mind doing that, we're back down to under a minute no matter how you attach the pole to the sleeve.
 
Concrete and locks are easily defeated with a $20 pipe cutter from Harbor Freight. That being said, I'd still use concrete and locks to deter the halfhearted scum.
 

Latest posts

Top