The Craftiest Workshop

Before moving to Grande Prairie, we had never tried disc golf. When we first arrived, we spent a month living at my brother in-law’s house. He has been disc golfing for a few years. He took us out golfing with him at a couple different courses in Grande Prairie. After we moved into the apartment we spent six months in, my husband would meet his brother at least once a week for a game. I was injured with my torn ankle and, truthfully, I kind of suck at throwing the discs.

When we bought our house out in the county, one of the comments my husband made was that it would be ideal for creating a disc golf course. I kind of thought he was joking at the time or that he meant just setting up a disc basket to practise throwing. Earlier in the spring, he bought a metal disc basket from Canadian Tire. It is light enough to carry in and out of the garage. When he wanted to practise throwing far, he would put it in the wagon attached to the lawn tractor and drive out into our front yard/field.

Last week he spent some time drawing on a photo of our property.

Then he went in the garage and started putting together some square 2X4 pieces to make tee markers. He jammed a bent tent peg in between the two pieces of 2X4 then nailed them together with his nail gun. A quick Rustoleum spray paint and all 9 tee offs were ready to be placed.

He painted the top of two rounded fence posts that were left on the property.

Using the lawn tractor and wagon, he drove the fence posts, a sledgehammer and a step stool out to the two corners of our front yard/field next to the road.
Standing on the stool for leverage, he pounded the posts in.

He stapled pink marking tape to the top to provide a better visual of the post.
The marking tape also makes a great wind sock to tell me where the wind is coming from.

The actual disc basket was placed on the opposite side of the house in front of the garage/driveway.

At this point I still didn’t quite understand how only one basket and two posts could make a nine hole golf course.

When we finally walked the course, it made everything clear.

The holes go like this:

Tee	Hole to throw to
1	SE post
2	NE post
3	basket
4	NE post
5	SE post
6	basket
7	NE post
8	SE post
9	basket

We walked the course twice, moving and throwing quickly. It took us about an hour.

We have been missing our walks that we used to do every evening in Fort Mac and while we lived in the apartment. Walking through bush after green up is very buggy and the wild rose plants everywhere are very prickly. This is a good walk and we are moving fast enough to get our heart rate up and work up a sweat.

The rule for the posts is that the disc has to be within the marking tape length of the post. If it hits the post but bounces or rolls away, it does not count; it has to stop within 2 ft-ish of the post.

Even though I do horribly at throwing the discs, I know there is no one behind us wanting us to play faster.
There aren’t too many chances of losing a disc although I did have to wade across ankle deep water in the creek to retrieve my disc at one point. There is a slight chance of that happening when throwing to the SE pole…more so if I am the one throwing.

We do tend to bounce a disc off the garage part of the house once in awhile on holes 6 and 9 but haven’t hit any windows…yet.

When we tire of the placement of these holes we can move them around, expand into the other field or even utilize the quad track through the creek. There is a lot of versatility on our property for hole placement. Given enough space, anyone can easily create their own disc golf course.