CO-OP COMMUNITY DISC GOLF COURSE AT EVERGREEN PARK

The Grande Prairie Disc Golf Club and New Horizon Co-op officially opened the new disc golf course at Evergreen Park in May of 2021.

Construction on the 18-hole course began in the summer of 2020 and was built thanks to a $40,000 grant given to the club from the Co-Op Community Spaces Program.

Phil Duffy, the Vice President of the Grande Prairie Disc Golf Club, tells EverythingGP they felt building a course at Evergreen Park was smart, as lots of the land was underutilized.

“The area traditionally has been used for illegal dumping, illegal tree cutting, and there was a lot of illegal activity we wanted to deter,” explained Duffy.

“By installing the course and increasing foot traffic through the area, we’ve basically eliminated people dumping their garbage on the property and have eliminated the tree cutting.”

Since last summer, volunteers of the Grande Prairie Disc Golf Club spent over 500 hours cleaning up the facility and, in the process, removed 1,500 pounds of garbage, all to make the course a reality.

Duffy says when creating this course, they wanted to make it as environmentally-friendly as possible.

“When we built this course, we didn’t cut any trees down. About 10 years ago when mountain pine beetle came through the area, they (workers) had to log an area and the design of the course follows that area. It’s really nice because there are lots of nice tunnels and walking areas.

The course will be used for tournaments, including the Alberta Disc Golf Provincial Championship, which is being held in Grande Prairie this August.

It features custom nets and a newly built clubhouse area.

Duffy encourages anyone interested in playing disc golf, to drop by this and give it a shot.

“It’s free to play and all you need is a disc. If you really enjoy it and find yourself playing quite a bit, we do encourage that you buy a disc golf membership and that helps us for course maintenance, because everything is maintained by volunteers currently.”

The course is open 24/7. Users are reminded that public health restrictions are in place and must be followed at all times. The full list of restrictions on outdoor social gatherings and outdoor recreation can be found here.

You can get to the course by heading south down 98th Street, which flows into Resources Road. Turn east at the lights at Hwy. 668 and Resources Road and then take your first right after crossing the tracks. The course is about a kilometre south on the gravel road. There is a sign on the east side of the road as you approach the course.

Duffy recommends people download the app udisc, it's free and has directions to the course, has the course maps and it can keep your score for the round.

You can also access the Co-op Evergreen Park Community Disc Golf Course website here.

- With files from Shane Clausing, EverythingGP