Community donations fund disc golf course in Prospect
July 20, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
PROSPECT – The Prospect Community Park is the home of the area’s newest disc golf course thanks to continued support from the community.
Volunteers installed a nine-hole disc golf course at the village park as the sport continues to grow in popularity. It is the second new feature to be totally funded by donations at the park.
The idea originally came from Prospect resident Sean Mehaffey, who discovered the sport while searching for a new way to get in shape. He had been posting his disc golf adventures on Facebook and suggested it would be nice to have a course in Prospect when village park board member Scott Pierce saw the post and reached out to Mehaffey.
“It’s an added feature to our park,” Pierce said. It’s an easy sport to learn and an inexpensive one to play.
The Disc Golf Association describes the sport as being similar to golf, except players use discs and aim for a disc pole, which sticks up from the ground and contains a wired basket in which the disc lands. Players compete to finish the course in the fewest number of throws as they start from a tee area and throw toward the pole.
Mehaffey said he was attracted to the sport because it’s cheap to buy the equipment, and it’s a sport one can play alone or with others. It is also free to play at most places.
He said discs can be purchased for $10 or less at area stores including MC Sports at 230 McMahan Blvd. in Marion and Dunham’s Discount Sports at 1300 Mount Vernon Ave. in Marion.
Prior to the course he traveled to either Sawyer-Ludwig Park in Marion or Delaware State Park near Delaware in order to play.
Mehaffey said the Prospect course is also friendly to beginners and children because it has both short tees, more preferred by beginners, and long tees.
“You can get more people playing,” he said, adding that the Marion course can be a bit overwhelming for beginners.
Pierce said he just recently picked up the sport and finds it fun to play. Mehaffey said he often sees someone new playing as he stops by frequently.
The course is currently playable but has a temporary setup. Mehaffey said the plan is to play the course over the summer and determine if any of the sections should be moved before putting in concrete tee areas.
Sponsors paid for the entire course including the equipment. Ken Rollins, an Ashley resident who helped bring the 2010 Professional Disc Golf Association Amateur and Junior World Championships to Marion, said they raised enough money in about a month.
Rollins, who helped set up the Prospect course, said with municipalities and park departments seeing cutbacks there was no way the park board could have done it on its own.
“None of this came out of our park fund,” said Pierce. It is the second time in as many years that donors have come forward to pick up the total expenses after donations paid for a new field for Prospect Baseball for Youth T-Ball in 2010.
The Prospect Community Park, located at the end of Fourth Street, also features baseball fields, basketball courts, a horseshoe pit and a shelter house.
