Still waiting for them to figure out how to cover all courses with one pass. They have it figured out for the boat landings across more municipalities and locations with a much larger group of users, so a few parks shouldn't (hypothetically) be a problem.
This has been discussed before Madison went P2P, and since then. Short story is that neither side was very much interested in it, for different reasons. Options, including those such as Steve West has promoted, will undoubtedly be discussed again. I know the City wanted to see how things went for a few years.
Hiestand was a dump a few years ago when us disc golfers were in charge of clean up. Ill pay 40 a year just for the trash removal. Anything else is just a bonus I feel.
This was one of the biggest reasons the club supported the concept, and has been one of the biggest benefits. The only reasons there were trash cans in the first place (before P2P) were because the club got them donated and agreed to empty them. There were thoughts of pulling the courses before that due to the amount of litter that disc golfers created. I never understood how some of our fellow golfers could happily carry in a full 6 or 12-pack of beer, yet couldn't be troubled to carry the empties off the course and at least throw them in one of the dumpsters / containers on the way back to the parking lot. Even with trash cans out there, far too many cans and bottles ended up in the brush and off the side of the tees / fairways. Honestly, if disc golfers had respected the ban on glass bottles, the Adopt-A-Hole program would have been much easier to maintain.
Take a look at Charlotte. Charlotte has phenomenal courses and they're free to play and the city's population is almost twice that of Madison.
Madison's Park Operations manager came from Charlotte / Mecklenburg County parks, and was actively involved while they were putting in new courses in prep for Worlds a few years ago. Interestingly enough, he's the one who spearheaded the P2P effort in Madison, knowing what it would take to maintain, restore, and improve the local courses. He's a former ball golf course superintendent with a background in turfgrass management, and is very interested in improving the conditions of the disc golf courses.
So you've got a part-time ranger, course improvements, and some piece of that emerald ash borer mitigation. The season passes probably don't cover it.
Dane County, whose courses have been P2P from the beginning, have confirmed that their fees do not cover the costs of providing disc golf. I strongly suspect the same is true for Madison.
At Hiestand Park...
Ranger? Last year I only saw a Ranger appear at #1 tee area.
...
I'd like to see a couple free courses debut in the City. And baskets in Parks, like jungle gyms. 2- 3 baskets for kids to learn on and others to practice. Hope some of the revenue goes in that direction.
We agree that the ranger presence should be intensified, and have brought it up a number of times. We'll see how it goes this year.
As my previous post showed, we also want the City to provide some free (likely 9-hole) courses. We've also suggested smaller practice areas with a basket or two. There is already one City park with two baskets, but that was primarily due to the neighborhood homeowner's association. The City of Middleton is currently planning to add some practice baskets in a few parks, and we'd certainly recommend other communities to do the same.
A couple free 9 hole courses would help a ton in Madison. Milwaukee is doing that, and it should help with traffic. Give the uber-casuals a place to go play for free.
Agree 100%.
More communication, more involvement of rangers, a consortium, and some winter disc golf for the community: add that to my list of wishes.
The City (and other municipal) and County parks departments probably talk a lot more than people think. As brought up by others, they already share passes for things like dog parks, X-C skiing, and boat landings. The Parks Director in Marshall is new and we've already discussed disc golf with him. Communications between the various parks departments is something our club continues to try and encourage and facilitate. There have been conversations with the City about providing winter disc golf, whether on an existing course or other location, and I know we will revisit the topic this year.
Removing the holes on the hill has been discussed, but there's nothing in the works at this time. The topic may be revisited in the future.
Yup. Duster (the original designer) and others have looked at possibilities, which also include additional holes. The City's priorities were to rework a few holes (#8, 9, 14, 16) and make some progress on erosion issues. I suspect the issues with the first few holes will be fairly high on the list of things to do next at Elver, but could also be part of the possibility of adding more holes to the course. There is plenty of room.
