Group Takes Aim At Walker Park Disc Golf Course

Trey Graves uses a chain saw as he clears invasive plants Sunday to make way for a planned disc golf course
at Walker Park in Fayetteville.
Trey Graves uses a chain saw as he clears invasive plants Sunday to make way for a planned disc golf course at Walker Park in Fayetteville.

FAYETTEVILLE — Disc golfers could have a new place to hone their skills this spring.

Members of the Northwest Arkansas Chain Gang are partnering with the city Parks and Recreation Department to build an 18-hole disc golf course in a wooded area in Walker Park near the Senior Activity and Wellness Center.

The course will be the sixth that has popped up in Northwest Arkansas in recent years.

“We’re one of the fastest growing disc golf communities in the nation,” Ray Moore, president of Chain Gang said Thursday. The group, formerly called the Northwest Arkansas Disc Golf Association, has gone from 20 to 92 members this year, Moore said. The group’s name comes from the sound a disc makes when it hits a chain-link basket, signifying the end of a disc golf hole.

Disc golf is similar to the traditional sport played with balls and clubs. Participants “tee off” from a concrete pad using a driver disc. They then use midrange discs or a putter to try to reach the basket in as few strokes as possible.

The group has hosted tournaments at the city’s only other 18-hole disc golf course at Lake Fayetteville. For the past two years, the group has sent an Arkansas representative to the U.S. Disc Golf Championship in Rock Hill, S.C.

At A Glance

Disc Golf Courses

The Walker Park course will be the sixth 18-hole disc golf course in Washington and Benton counties. Others are:

• Lake Fayetteville: 1153 E. Lake Fayetteville Road, Fayetteville

• Sports Life Park: 1409 Johnson Road, Springdale

• J.B. Hunt Park: Silent Grove Road and Fleming Drive, Springdale

• Twin Creeks: 2300 S. Dixieland Road, Rogers

• Lake Bella Vista: 3047 Bella Vista Way, Bella Vista

Source: Professional Disc Golf Association

Robert Davis, a University of Arkansas senior, is vice president of operations for the Razorback Disc Golf Club. Davis said the Walker Park site will give collegiate golfers somewhere to practice that’s closer to campus than Lake Fayetteville and that’s more on par with other courses they see during regional and national competitions.

“We’re really excited about the location and having a densely wooded, challenging course,” Davis said. “Whenever we travel, we face courses that are just epic — way bigger and better than courses we have around here.”

Moore said he solicited donations from local businesses to buy baskets. After getting the go-ahead from the Parks and Recreation Advisory Board in December, group members have been cutting back thick underbrush in the Walker Park woods.

Byron Humphry, parks maintenance superintendent for the city, said the group is mostly removing bush honeysuckle, privet and other invasive species.

“We don’t want to cut down anything out there that we don’t have to,” Moore said.

Parks crews are collecting the brush piles and will lay mulch in areas that are expected to get heavy foot traffic. Humphry said the city will install signs showing the layout of each hole and will provide the concrete to make the tee boxes. The Chain Gang is providing volunteer labor.

“It’s a good partnership,” Humphry said. “Those guys work really hard and take a lot of pride in the area. We couldn’t have done this (course) — or the one at Lake Fayetteville — without them.”

Chain Gang members also have helped to install disc golf baskets at four schools: Owl Creek School; Vandergriff and Holcomb elementaries and Holt Middle School. A grant from the Arkansas Department of Education that’s intended to fight childhood obesity paid for the nine-hole courses, said Carol Stone, the school district’s health coordinator.

Moore called disc golf “a great alternative to kids going home and playing video games.”

He said starter kits for beginner disc golfers are available at several area outdoors stores.

“When you’re starting off, try all the discs. Find a disc that works for your form,” Moore said. “Once you get your first hole-in-one, you’re hooked.”

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