BOISE, Idaho — It's been years in the making, but disc golfers now have the opportunity to try out a pristine 18-hole disc golf course, which is part of a $600,000 upgrade to Veterans Park.
A new natural playground for kids was also included in the improvement.
Corey Drydo is the vice president of the Gem State Disc Golf Club, and he's been playing disc golf for the past 30-years.
Drydo designed the new course, and we asked him to name his favorite hole.
Check out the video to see what this new course is all about.
"Oh man, that is a tough question," said Drydo. "I would have to say hole 17 because it is a corridor of pine trees. I grew up in Portland, so it brings me back to my home style of throwing through some really big pines."
Veterans Park features a nice variety of holes, including some that use the natural landscape of the park to create tight windows through which to throw a disc.
Drydo enjoys that disc golf can be played by anyone, so he designed the course for a wide variety of skill levels.
"It’s not a championship level course, and it is not a beginner course," said Drydo. "You are going to get the elevation, you are going to get the trees, and you are going to get the open fairways. It is going to challenge you, but it is going to make you have fun."
Drydo told us he redesigned the course around 50 times over several years while working with Boise Parks and Recreation. Both entities had a goal to make the course safe not just for disc golfers, but for all the users that enjoy the park.
"We have got our Veteran’s Memorial, we’ve got a natural area with trails, and so we really wanted to be deliberate and thoughtful about the layout," said Sara Arkle, the director of Boise Parks and Rec. "The design team worked for 18 months in terms of planning the layout of the course."
Boise Parks and Recreation did a survey prior to releasing their master plan for the park. A disc golf course and a natural playground were the top two choices.
The improvements were paid for with impact fees, and kids were playing on the natural playground on Thursday.
"This feature is really great to connect kids with their environment and get them out playing on rocks, tree stumps, and sand," said Arkle. "We have also been hearing from the disc golf community that they would like more opportunities to play a full course."
Ann Morrison is busy with disc golfers year-round, and now people have two different courses to play in Boise to go along with all the other courses in the Treasure Valley.
"Getting this park and getting another 18-hole course is a really big deal because Ann Morrison was the only 18-hole course since the 1990s," said Drydo. "We had a whole bunch of people working on this project, and it was good to work with the city."
Some things to watch out for on the course include a blind shot on hole three. Drydo installed a cowbell that players should ring when they finish the hole to alert the next group that it is safe to play.
A pair of holes sit next to the irrigation canal, and while that is dry now, when it runs, it has a significant current, so players should not go in that water after their disc.
"Those canals are really fast, and we are going to do everything possible to put some signs up," said Drydo. "If your disc goes in it, don't try to get it; unfortunately, it is gone, or we will get it down the road."
The park also gets used by an outdoor school in the mornings on Monday and Wednesday, so disc golfers also need to watch out for that group, which has been permitted to use the park since 2020. This affects mainly the first three holes.
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