Fore! A new disc golf course is coming to the city of Aurora.
Outgoing City Recorder Scott Jorgensen, who has been leading the design and implementation of the city’s newest recreational feature, said the baskets for the nine-hole course have been delivered, and he spent Monday marking out the course. Installation is set to begin Tuesday.
“We’re excited about it,” he said. “It’s a small investment, but it’s something that people in town can use, and may draw people from out of town.”
Jorgensen said the idea began with the city parks board, whose members had about $10,000 in available funding that they wanted to put toward tangible improvements. An avid disc golfer himself, Jorgensen said his experience and site visits to various courses has helped guide what he believes the city’s course should look like.
“In fact, I’ve been doing some research lately, and I lost a couple of discs at McCormick Park at St. Helens. And this last weekend, I lost a disc at Blue Lake Park over there by Fairview,” he told the Canby Now Podcast last week. He laughed. “Those were hard courses.”
He doesn’t want the Aurora course to be so maddening, but it should have some element of challenge. There’s a sweet spot that the city is aiming for.
“It’s a balance,” Jorgensen said. “You don’t want it to be so complicated it deters newer players, but you don’t want it to be so easy that experienced players aren’t going to come.”
Aurora’s will be based more along the lines of the popular course at Memorial Park in Wilsonville, which has nine holes, 3 par each.
Jorgensen said Aurora’s course is being designed roughly around the park’s perimeter and is intended to complement the existing features as much as possible. The existing groves of trees will be directly incorporated, with some holes weaving in and out between the trunks.
Canby also boasts a disc golf course, a short, 12-hole loop tucked into the woods at Eco Park near the Willamette River.
A newer private course, dubbed The Hoot, has also been built at Canby’s Lavender Owl Farm on Highway 211 south of town. It’s a nine-hole course, with difficulties that range from three to four par for each hole.
Disc golf is a game played much like traditional golf, just with flying discs or Frisbees instead of balls and clubs. Easy to learn and cheap to play, the game is designed to be enjoyed by all people regardless of age, gender, athletic ability and economic status.
The game is played all over the globe, with more than 8,000 courses available worldwide, and even boasts a professional association with 120,000 players hailing from 54 countries.
