Local group hoping to make Huntsville a mecca for disc golfers

It’s a sport that has been around for decades, and Huntsville has had its own course for 10 years now, but disc golf in the area has been slow to catch on. A local group of players hopes to change that.

They call themselves the Evergreen Fields Disc Golf Club and they have big plans for disc golf in Huntsville.

“Muskoka is known as a golf destination and we want to do the same thing for disc golf,” says club member Kevin Farley.

The two sports are more similar than you might think. Traditional golf is played with a ball and clubs used to propel that ball varying distances. Disc golf is played with flying discs—what many people would refer to as a Frisbee—of varying sizes that serve as both ball and club in one. In both sports the objective is to get from the tee to the the hole, which in disc golf is a steel basket, with as few shots or throws as possible. In both, there are different tee locations to accommodate players from beginner to advanced levels.

Although players have been using the course at McCulley Robertson Recreation Park since it opened, there wasn’t a dedicated group in Huntsville to take care of it beyond general maintenance by the Town. “It’s been a loose association without any defined rules about what we are allowed to do to maintain the course, and whether we are allowed to change it,” notes Farley. But with an eye to improving the course in order to attract more players and to be able to host tournaments and other events, the group recently approached Town staff with some ideas.

“One of our big goals is to attract people that have not played the sport before,” says Farley. With minimal equipment required, it’s an easy one to get into—you can start with a single disc that will cost you about $10. From there a basic set of discs with a putter, mid-range and driver will be enough for most people. More advanced players have multiple discs that they can throw different ways. Farley carries 22 with him when he plays.

Once you have a disc, you just need a course on which to play. Ninety-five per cent of courses out there are in public parks and are free to play, says Farley. The best of them are suitable for all levels of players. Huntsville’s wasn’t.

“One of the issues with our current course is our short tees are too long or too tight, and the long tees are too short,” he says. They’ve come up with a new design for the course to make it more approachable for new players, and in particular youth, while still keeping it challenging for those who are more advanced.

Following a meeting with the Town’s Manager of Parks and Cemeteries, Colleen MacDonald, and Councillor Bob Stone, the group was given permission to make some of the more basic of the proposed changes, things like putting in new tee pads and reorienting a few of the holes. Next, they’ll pay a visit to councillors at a future General Committee meeting to present a five-year plan for the facility that includes rearranging the current holes and adding an additional eight within the same footprint they are using now to bring the number of holes to 25.

“We will start to use more of the space that we have,” says Farley. “We are actually pulling away from the soccer fields and the baseball diamonds where we can to try and increase the space between us. We are hoping to have less overlap with those and use the space more efficiently so we can fit more into it.”

The club plans to fund the expansion through sponsorships and donations.

The Evergreen Fields Disc Golf Club master plan at McCulley Robertson Recreation Park. Holes marked in yellow are part of the phase one reconfiguration starting this year; phase two in orange will happen next year after the club has done some fundraising (supplied)

The increased number of holes will allow for up to 100 players at a time on the course, which will make it more attractive to players travelling from a distance for tournaments.

“Our goal is to increase the density of really nice courses so that we can take advantage of the tourism infrastructure that we have here to draw players in that are willing to travel,” says Farley, who has travelled as far as Sudbury for tournaments and notes that other players he knows have attended tournaments in the U.S. “It’s really about economic development. It will be a good thing for the town.”

The sport can be played by all age groups and, unlike traditional golf, can be played year round. People interested in playing at a higher level can work their way from recreational and novice divisions right up to professional divisions.

The club hopes to get local schools involved as well, with clinics and perhaps intra-school competitions. Farley points to Finland as a great example of how the sport can involve youth and grow as a result.

“Finland has 700 courses and they are a third the size of Ontario,” says Farley. “The reason they have so many is they started to develop a school program in the early 1980s. Now it’s become a major draw to the country, having that kind of infrastructure and the quality of courses that they do. In Ontario, only in the last five or so years have we seen new courses popping up around the province.”

For more information about Evergreen Fields Disc Golf Club, visit their Facebook page here.

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