One mans mission to cleanup/expand his local course. PLEASE HELP DGCR!

[akguanja]

So I've been playing disc golf for the past 6 years here locally and in my town (Wasilla, Alaska) we only have 1 course it currently has 9 holes but for years people have been talking about getting 9 more making it a full 18 hole course.

When I started playing it was 1/2 way decent but over the years of use and misuse and abuse by locals(mostly the young kids) the place had gotten run down and was starting to dwindle as far as life expectancy was going.

The Borough had even threatened to yank the course out!

So I sat out this summer to make this course try and be everything it could be...

First off I started by trying to get locals to help cleanup the course by contacting the state via emails/phone calls to get the pickup of trash expanded to once a week instead of bi-weekly. After months of complaining/submitting pictures I finally managed to get that to happen. Between the borough and the local players helping this changed things significantly in the appeal of the course it was starting to look a lot cleaner and I know people appreciate and are more willing to play on a clean course.

Next on the agenda was the baskets..... over the years of use/abuse the baskets had taken a beating the winter freeze/heaving of the ground and again abusive kids caused most (7 of 9) baskets to come up out of the ground and the past few years had only been held in place/standing by small branches/trees/rocks people would shove in around the concrete bases that were almost completely out of the ground and sometimes even falling over.

So I tackled this by re burying all the baskets and straitening them/repairing them as needed.

A couple years back a local boyscout decided to get some community backing and got funding for signs/wooden Tee boxes for the course and he installed those but when they were installed things didn't get burred very good so over the past couple years the signs had eventually all got knocked over/vandalized/drug way out in the woods by unappreciative kids and hooligans.

To combat this I found/repaired/replaced the signs and reburied them all (3 feet deep on the posts this time) and cleaned up the graffiti. The tee boxes or whats left of them still have a lot to be desired but things were starting to look pretty nice at this point with a clean course strait/buried baskets/and signs all in there correct places.

Next me and a few locals cleared the dead fall and dangerous leaning trees/stumps out of the fairways and greens on all 9 holes. At this point everything was looking really nice and there were a lot more people showing up to play and interest was defiantly on the rise....

I started a Facebook page for the course and am currently trying to bring the different groups of players together in one place where they can communicate with each other. This will help with holding events etc and with digital media the vandals or anyone cant simply tear a flyer/information down from the signs at the course.

http://www.facebook.com/AlcantraDGC Check it out and like it!

So now with all the added traffic and people playing at the course i started to notice long waits on holes because of the amount of players on the course at any given time so me and a friend took some information off here and built some benches for the holes and a place for locals to rest and wait on the hole to be clear.

So as you can see things are looking up around here but this is where YOU come into play....


I know there are a lot of you that have had experience with these things so tell me how can I get some sponsors/donations for the course possibly to expand the course to the full 18 holes it was originally intended to have when built years ago...

I have managed to so far get a local company to donate time/machine time to make 'bag tags' for the course and 100% of the profits would go to the baskets but from research ive done the baskets and shipping alone would be close to 4000$ Anyone know of better deals(remember shipping to Alaska!)

Does Innova or Discraft help with this kind of thing? are they or are other companies willing to sponsor courses some of you must know the emails/phone numbers i need to be calling to get help with this course!

If you have any information/possible contacts to help us make this course ALL that it can be please post up and help us Alaskans get our course up to PAR!

 

[jtreadwell]

Fantastic job! Seeing as you now have a ton of people playing the course, I'll bet you could get a pretty decent crowd together for a tournament or two to raise money. You could likely get away with a $20 entry fee for a 4 round, 36 hole stoke play tourney and have $10 go to prizes and $10 go towards the course funds. Offer a small prize (a couple discs maybe) for whoever brings in the most garbage too so everyone will pick up as they play. You could speak with local businesses (especially ones that sell discs/sporting goods) and ask them to sponsor baskets and get an ad on the tee sign for eternity. I'm sure others will have some great advice for you too but hopefully this helps get you thinking.

 

[jobwilson]

What amazes me is that people can actually wear shorts in Alaska.
Way down here in the Middle West/Southeast, I envision all of Alaska being igloos and snowmen.

I am stupid.

Great job on the course, btw. Glad to see such incredible passion and hard work being put into improving disc golf.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

WOW !!! Talk about diving in headfirst. Congrats on what sounds like a huge undertaking.

Sounds like you have a solid local player base. What you need to do is get a doubles league started. Charge $6 and use $5 for payouts and $1 for course improvements. We did that for 6-8 weeks and got enough to fund pavers for the tees.
If someone offers to help but cant be there on workdays, ask for $$.

Innova and Discraft are a tough sell.

As fas as bag tags go, keep it simple. We went with handmade cedar ones using wood from the course and we sell 35-40 every year.

 

[Clonan]

Offer a small prize (a couple discs maybe) for whoever brings in the most garbage too so everyone will pick up as they playQUOTE]

Awesome idea! Sorry, thats all i can contribute here.

great job on bringing the course back to life btw

 

[akguanja]

You could likely get away with a $20 entry fee for a 4 round, 36 hole stoke play tourney and have $10 go to prizes and $10 go towards the course funds. Offer a small prize (a couple discs maybe) for whoever brings in the most garbage too so everyone will pick up as they play. .

Awesome idea I had thought about having events but those will most likely end up having to be next season since were nearing the end of our summer season.

What amazes me is that people can actually wear shorts in Alaska.
Way down here in the Middle West/Southeast, I envision all of Alaska being igloos and snowmen.

lol ya, but we can only wear shorts for about 4 months a year lol! in the winter we have to shoot at baskets like these.

What you need to do is get a doubles league started. Charge $6 and use $5 for payouts and $1 for course improvements. We did that for 6-8 weeks and got enough to fund pavers for the tees.

Man I never thought of using pavers... I was thinking about taking my portable concrete mixer to each hole and mixing/pouring them solid... pavers would be MUCH cheaper i bet. only thing is they might get really un even and cause tripping with the frost heave in the winter up here... I wonder how that would go...

The bagtags tho I have a friend who owns a CNC machine shop and he said he will cut them for free out of phenolic 2 color plastic so I have those covered for only plastic material cost (which isn't a whole lot for small tags)
here is the tag image I made.

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

We got really lucky with pavers......... local landscaper guy got some salvaged ones that are 2 foot squares that are 3-4" thick. They aren't perfectly flat but WAY better than gravel that you have to keep filling in.

 

[akguanja]

We got really lucky with pavers......... local landscaper guy got some salvaged ones that are 2 foot squares that are 3-4" thick. They aren't perfectly flat but WAY better than gravel that you have to keep filling in.

Looks like ill be calling a few landscaping buddies lol

That looks great btw!

We have some tee boxes that are just 4x4 treated boxes with some gravel left in them but mostly all of our tee's consist of roots under foot and some skilled foot placement/steps for the drives lol...

 

[CaptainAnhyzer]

The town got sick of us begging for gravel every year so they caved and let us put in the pavers.

Lots of locals really stepped up to help. We busted out 27 tees in about 6 weeks time(just in time for NY States).

 

[TheArnoldPalmer]

Just a rough idea...

See if you can get permission to possibly put in a locked box by tee pad 1 for an optional donation.
Empty it every night or every other night to prevent any problems with hooligans trying to steal.
But make sure to write up a little description of what you're trying to do with the course - New baskets/better teepads/ maybe even buy garbage cans for each hole?

i'm sure you will have good souls in your community donate at least something... And every little bit helps!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

 

[akguanja]

Just a rough idea...

See if you can get permission to possibly put in a locked box by tee pad 1 for an optional donation.
Empty it every night or every other night to prevent any problems with hooligans trying to steal.
But make sure to write up a little description of what you're trying to do with the course - New baskets/better teepads/ maybe even buy garbage cans for each hole?

i'm sure you will have good souls in your community donate at least something... And every little bit helps!

Good luck and keep up the good work!

Great idea. We do have garbage cans on every other hole but the lockbox would be a great idea. I know there are alot of people willing to donate to this course to help keep it open and make it better.

 

[MrFixIt]

Do you know how much the tags will cost?
I would buy one if not too expensive...

 

[tripp]

Do you have the other 9 holes designed? You can put up homemade tone poles temporarily and then replace them with baskets as your club raises the funds.

 

[akguanja]

Do you know how much the tags will cost?
I would buy one if not too expensive...

I'm thinking like 15$ depending the price of plastic maybe more maybe less. When I get the tags made they will be available on our Facebook page.

http://Facebook.com/AlcantraDGC

 

[jtreadwell]

Does Alaska have a bottle redemption program? If so, go out every week or so and collect the glass bottles out of the trash cans then trade em in for cash. It can be a dirty job but at my home course a couple comes every 2 weeks or so and fills a van with $.05 cans. It adds up.

 

[akguanja]

Do you have the other 9 holes designed? You can put up homemade tone poles temporarily and then replace them with baskets as your club raises the funds.

Yes the other 9 holes are designed so to speak. They have been plotted out and another local guy has actually went through and put posts where the baskets were originally intended to be placed. Although I'm thinking some of the holes will be made a bit longer than originally designed when we actually put the real baskets in.

Currently he has posts and 5 gallon buckets on the posts for a tone pole so to speak.

The main thing thoe is it needs to be brush hogged and cleared of deadfall/rotted trees and spruce before any decent shots are going to be available on those holes.

Getting community help physically isn't the issue here its the funding for the baskets and tee's etc.

 

[akguanja]

Does Alaska have a bottle redemption program? If so, go out every week or so and collect the glass bottles out of the trash cans then trade em in for cash. It can be a dirty job but at my home course a couple comes every 2 weeks or so and fills a van with $.05 cans. It adds up.

Ya we have 4 55gallon trash cans that get emptied weekly by the borough usually they are all full and or over flowing with cans and bottles.

Alaska doesn't have a refund per can/bottle redemption program like some other states although, just a scrap metal program and at that price I'm not sure how much it would make for us but that's defiantly something to look into.

 

[tripp]

Yes the other 9 holes are designed so to speak. They have been plotted out and another local guy has actually went through and put posts where the baskets were originally intended to be placed. Although I'm thinking some of the holes will be made a bit longer than originally designed when we actually put the real baskets in.

Currently he has posts and 5 gallon buckets on the posts for a tone pole so to speak.

The main thing thoe is it needs to be brush hogged and cleared of deadfall/rotted trees and spruce before any decent shots are going to be available on those holes.

Getting community help physically isn't the issue here its the funding for the baskets and tee's etc.

A 5 gallon water jug makes a better tone pole than a bucket. I think once you get the other holes playable you will get a lot more interest in getting baskets for them. We've started to raffle portable baskets at tournaments to raise funds.

 

[Tucker33]

First off props for the IPA in the picture, that is one tasty beer.

Have you thought about seeing if someone local could make baskets for you? I know there are a few threads on here about building DIY baskets. There has to be a few handy welders/fabricators in the area.

I am no expert on course design or construction but what would you think about putting fly pads down for your tee boxes. As far as i know all you need is a good base, say a box with a gravel base. You could pull out the tees in the late fall and put them back down in the spring. Or you could leave them in all year. In you get a lot of ground movement you should be able to tap it back down. Might work, but I'm no expert.

Good luck. Hope it goes well. I'd love to come play it and then get some salmon fishing in.

 

[akguanja]

First off props for the IPA in the picture, that is one tasty beer.

Have you thought about seeing if someone local could make baskets for you? I know there are a few threads on here about building DIY baskets. There has to be a few handy welders/fabricators in the area.

I am no expert on course design or construction but what would you think about putting fly pads down for your tee boxes. As far as i know all you need is a good base, say a box with a gravel base. You could pull out the tees in the late fall and put them back down in the spring. Or you could leave them in all year. In you get a lot of ground movement you should be able to tap it back down. Might work, but I'm no expert.

Good luck. Hope it goes well. I'd love to come play it and then get some salmon fishing in.

Making the baskets I haven't looked into but I was really hoping to get official baskets for the other holes.

Do you have a link for these fly pads?