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At Burbine Memorial Forest Disc Golf Course's 10th hole, the difficulty for players isn't in the distance — 270 feet from the top of the tee box to the basket — or the pond hazard in between, or even in the many ladybugs that like to live and fly around there.
Success or failure for the par 3 hole is all about choosing how to play depending upon the way the wind is blowing.
Mark Hay, a member of the Capital Region disc golf club, DisCap, was in charge of the 2nd annual Blues at Burbine disc golf tournament on Saturday. The event with 10 different divisions of competition drew 72 players, including amateurs and professionals, from throughout the state and the region, from states like Vermont, New Jersey and Massachusetts, to a picture-perfect fall day at the Montgomery County-owned Thomas H. Burbine Memorial Forest in the town of Charleston.
Hay, who lives in the town of Carlisle in Schoharie County, watched as a professional player fail to get his disc over the pond hazard at the 10th hole, splashing his disc into the water, incurring a penalty stroke.
"The wind is a huge factor on this hole," Hay explained.
The pond hole has become one of the more memorable features at the Burbine course. First prize among professionals in the tournament Saturday was $350, but every player got a knit cap, pint glass and a disc stamped with the tournament logo, featuring a picture of the 10th hole, all paid for from registration fees, donations from the Thomas H. Burbine Family Memorial Fund and political candidate Steve Helmin, who sponsored the 4th Hole, in honor of his run for Montgomery County's 4th Legislative District.
Hay said disc golf players typically have at least 20 different discs they use of varying sizes and capabilities. He said in disc golf the environment itself is a player in the game.
"You are going to choose your disc based on the wind," he said. "If there's a headwind, you're going to use a disc that is more 'overstable,' that can fight through that wind better. If there's a tailwind, you're going to pick a disc that's more 'understable,' to let it keep going straighter. The guy who just threw it in the water, he can throw the disc like 400 feet. So, it's not a question of distance. It's just picking that right disc, and what the wind is doing at the time."
One could say the same thing about Montgomery County's choice of pick the growing sport of disc golf as the county's first signature tourism attraction.
When Hay first approached Montgomery County in February 2020 about the possibility of creating a disc golf course on the unused portion of the Thomas H. Burbine Memorial Forest, there were very few disc golf courses between Albany and Utica.
Shortly after that, the coronavirus pandemic hit, leaving money from the county's Occupancy Tax Reserve Fund, normally used to bolster tourism events, available for other tourism-related purposes. The county Legislature in August 2020 approved spending $13,000 from the reserve fund to help pay for the tee boxes and disc golf baskets to be installed at the new 18-hole disc golf course designed by Hay.
After that, the county used money from the $9.4 million it received from the U.S. American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 federal grant program to pay for $100,000 worth of improvements at the new course.
During the first disc golf tournament at the Burbine Memorial Forest course in 2021, it became apparent the investment would pay off. Seventy-two players reserved every slot available in the two-round, shotgun start tournament, with foursomes on every hole.
Economic activity generated by Saturday's tournament included players buying meals at the Stockyard Public House in Sprakers, Bavarian-style beer sold to players by the Eisenadler Brauhaus brewery located in Nelliston, apples and cider donuts sold by Bellinger's Orchard of Fultonville and new discs sold by ADK Discs of Johnstown.
Jeff Wiechowski, from Saratoga Springs, is DisCap's tournament director. Both he and Hay work together at General Electric in Schenectady. Wiechowski said when he first moved to the Capital Region in 2007 from Michigan there were only three disc golf courses within an hour drive from his new home.
"I started with this sport in 1985 and I had a dozen disc golf courses near where I lived in Michigan," he said. "Now, DisCap has upwards of 140 members, COVID really made it blow up."
Hay said over the past two years at least five disc golf courses have been built in the Capital Region and he knows of at least three more courses in various stages of development, including one proposed for the Dove Creek area in the city of Amsterdam, near Sassafras Park, close to the Amsterdam Municipal Golf Course.
"During the pandemic, everything was shut down, but disc golf courses were still open," Hay said. "It was a free way of recreation for people. Discs are cheap, most courses are free to play and you get to be outside, still do social distancing."
Montgomery County Executive Matt Ossenfort said the timing was perfect for his county to support disc golf-related tourism.
"We thought this was [a trend] we could really get ahead of," Ossenfort said. "We were just lucky that we had the people who had the passion to put the work in, with the county in a supporting role."
Ossenfort said, before the disc golf course idea, the Thomas H. Burbine Memorial Forest only featured a nature trail and lean-to maintained by the Montgomery County Soil and Water Conservation District, but that was on the other part of the forest, located on the opposite side of Corbin Hill Road.
"This has been all about building something out of nothing," he said. "This land wasn't being used. Not so far from here is where the animal carcuses would be dropped, after people hit them on the road, over there, and literally there was a pile of carcuses. It was basically this asset that was left untouched, and this is a year-round activity.
"In the winter, people tie ribbons around the discs, so they won't lose them in the snow. It's healthy, and it's free. There are no fees, like our bike trails. Compare that to a normal golf course, where you're looking at at least $1,000 in annual fees. Here you don't have to worry about any of that."
Ossenfort said Montgomery County will likely seek to help the Dove Creek disc golf course idea being spearheaded by Terry Hudson, a graduate of Amsterdam High School, who now lives in Clifton Park. Hudson was one of the players in the tournament Saturday, finishing seventh in the recreational division.
"I've been working with Mayor [Cinquanti] and Rob Spagnola in the city Recreation Department for the approvals, and I've gotten the approvals," Hudson said. "Funding is the next step, and Matt has said the county may want to help. It would be about $15,000 to make a very nice disc golf course. We're going to call it Dove Creek, that's the tentative name. If we can get started in the spring, the soft opening could be late summer."
Ossenfort said he believes having disc golf courses in the city of Amsterdam and in the Thomas H. Burbine Memorial Forest will create the opportunity for multi-day tournaments.
"What we want to do is build it," Ossenfort said. "Eventually, what we want to do is have like B-level minor league tours, and we could host some of those, and the dream, for me, is to get this place on ESPN. That will take us working at it, year after year, but this will continue to be a focus of ours, and having another course in the county will only help."
Hay said he's traveled to over 60 disc golf courses in the Northeast, which he said is typical of people involved in the disc golf lifestyle.
Cameron Tarbox, of Johnstown, was another competitor in the tournament Saturday. He said the Burbine Memorial Forest Disc Golf Course is what is known as a "tight, technical" course, with a lot of trees players have to avoid in order to throw their discs into the course's baskets. He said Burbine will continue to have high appeal for players irrespective of any other disc golf courses in the area.
"This is a great course to come out to all of the time," Tarbox said. "I live about 20 minutes away, so I'm out here probably every morning before work. My favorite hole is probably No. 2. I had not ever birdied that, and I parred it today, put the disc five feet away from the basket."
HOLE 10
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