Watson Trail

[chainsmoker]

I played a round here today. It was the first in a couple of months at this park and it looks like the cop shop is expanding. Whatever it is there's major construction going on and it looks like they've permanently moved some baskets. 6 is no longer across the field. Now you tee off from where 7's basket was. 7 is now the old 8. After that it's pretty obvious. Thought someone would like to know.

[Stubborn Puppet]

Good grief, this course needs some attention. It's like 3 minutes from my house and I play there a lot... but just picking up trash is about all I feel I can really do without some kind of permission/blessing.

Many of the tee signs are destroyed or just plain gone, some of the baskets are torn up (all of them are graffiti ridden), 7 and 8 baskets are switched, the tees are barely usable - many are even imaginary and the grounds crew at the park have been using the fairways as a road for their bobcat and carts (leaving ruts).

I'd totally be willing to work on getting this course back up to "par"... maybe some improvements in general, but who's actually in charge? Who do I need to talk to and who's willing to give me a hand... maybe split some costs with me?

I'd think that a nice place to start might be on dressing up the tee area around #1. A sign about the course with a place to put flyers and info, maybe a bench and a cement pad (as there is currently nothing resembling a natural pad or otherwise at 1).

Just my thoughts and desire to do something useful where I end up playing the most. I know I'm a total noob to the club and the sport, but I would like to make my home course as nice as it's obviously capable of being.

[DISC N TWEEK]

I'm not sure who the course captain is but u can start ny contacting Chris kensella club president he posts regularly

[Stubborn Puppet]

I will. I've talked to him recently... just not specifically about this.
I don't think there is a course captain for this park right now.

[Stubborn Puppet]

I have talked to Chris and it looks like we plan on meeting with a guy from Sunset Hills to discuss improvements. Chris, "Thank you very much for taking this seriously and acting quickly."

I'm definitely going to work on this course (if the city is OK with that), but I'm really looking for some other people to help give this cool little course a little love. In my opinion, there are too many simple little things that can be done here (new tee signs, arrows to the next hole, fix up the tee-pads, mulch the fairway trails and basket area, repair and paint some baskets, etc.) to make this one of the areas best nine holes. If that goes well, I hope we can keep the momentum and work on bigger stuff like concrete tee's and alternate pins (yes, there's room).

One thing that I can immediately recommend be done, can be done by any player - for free. If you see anyone hanging around, looking suspicious or up to no good, call the police; their HQ is next door to the park. Somebody has been spray painting graffiti with stencils literally everywhere around the course, tearing out the sign posts and tearing up the baskets. Getting them caught is going to be critical to any potential improvements so they don't immediately destroy any hard work and to send a message to their friends and others like them: "you trash this park and you're going to pay."

I already reported a couple of 18-19 year old boys who I spotted painting a picnic table a few months ago. I'd seen them hanging around the park every afternoon for a week and after I saw them and reported it, I haven't seen them myself again.

I see a big opportunity for the club here too. Almost every time I play Watson Trails, I see someone who is new to the game or someone who is bringing their kids or girlfriend to give Disc Golf a try. I think, "Wow, how much better would it be for the local DG scene and the RCF if peoples first impression of the local courses wasn't this?"

Who's with me?

[Stubborn Puppet]

With the permission of the city (which is a BIG step for Sunset Hills and the club), Tom Greer came with me today and repaired the significant damage to basket 8.

It was basically that (somewhere about a year ago) some idiot had got up on it and jumped up and down and basically kicked the crap out of it so that the bucket was only hanging on by 1 out of 6 welds and was bent to crap.

Now, it's mostly straight, nice and sturdy and has a fresh coat of primer and galvanized, all weather proof paint on it.

Thanks a bunch Tom, I couldn't have done anything with out you.

ALSO, there are brand new course maps/score cards in the box at tee 1. If you find the box empty or have any questions or problems at Watson Trail DGC, please email me at watsontraildgc@hotmail.com

Oooh, EDIT here. If you happen to notice anyone throwing at the jungle gym slide between 6 and 7, ask them to stop - especially if they are calling it "The Money Shot". They're trying to get their disc to land in the slide facing the pond. Not only is it just generally unappealing behavior that makes DGers look bad, but these guys have repeatedly written "The Money Shot" in huge letters with a fat permanent marker along with their initials and the date on the top of the slide.

This really pissed off the people at the parks dept for Sunset Hills. I have washed it off with my graffiti remover the last two times and I'd like to not have to do it again. I caught the culprits red handed on Friday afternoon, just before sundown. A group of teens from Lindberg High School were standing there bitching that somebody erased their tag from when they last hit "The Money Shot" and they needed to do it again so they could replace it. I stood in front of the slide and asked them to just play on... mentioned that the park was considering closing the DG course because of crap like that. They must be the most patient teenagers on earth, because they actually stood there and tried to wait me out so they could go ahead and throw anyhow. After 15-20 minutes, they actually just realized how late it had become and left the park. Something tells me they'll be back.

[emptv]

Disc up,
Great job!

[Stubborn Puppet]

OK, progress continues!

New tee boxes have been installed at holes 2 and 7 today. This was a project that had been preapproved by the City of Sunset Hills for an Eagle Scout troop. They asked me to come up and help out by telling them what the minimum size the box could be and still be regulation (which is 5' x 8') and what other things they needed to keep in mind during the build - so we have two new boxes that are 6'' wide by 8' long because that worked out better for the materials they were using.

The tees are made of a brick and mortar border (taken from reclaimed material from the old shelter the new years day tornado took out) and are filled with ground limestone (which should turn as hard as concrete after a few months). They're nice and level, the front of the box is even with the earth in front of them and they are looking pretty good.

They may be a little shorter than most of us would like, but the fact is; this is a BIG step towards what we want to accomplish in this park. Every step like this just improves the appearance and "image" of what disc golf is supposed to be like in the eyes of the officials at the city (who have serious reservations about whether this course should be there at all).

So, a big thanks to the Eagle scouts of troop 528 and go throw Watson Trail!

[Stubborn Puppet]

Following the new tees, I did some other work today.

All of the baskets have been seriously cleaned up. I removed all the stickers, all the nasty build up and all the graffiti (I kept track of the peoples names who felt it necessary to immortalize their ace's by defacing the baskets and will report you if it shows up again... sorry).

I have also put new number stickers on all of the baskets along with the par for each hole along the yellow rim of the Disc Catchers.

The box at hole 1 is also being filled daily with scorecard/map cards.

Finally, from talking to the parks admin, it looks like the NEW hole 7 might be right around the corner... It'll mean a very short walk from basket 6 to the tee for 7, the current hole 7 becomes 8, the current 8 becomes 9 and the stupid hole 9 goes "bye-bye" (it requires players to walk right down the middle of the fairway for 9, towards the tee when coming from 8 - which is dangerous. It also is too close to one of the asphalt walking paths and discs too frequently end up OB and/or hitting non-players).

Momentum, sweet momentum.

[Stubborn Puppet]

More changes as of today.

There is now a nice new and relatively large sign for flyers, postings, maps, scorecards and the like parked right at the entrance for the course at tee 1.

There are also a whole bunch of new trees going in at a few key spots.

The mortar on the new tee-pad at hole 7 did not hold up after the vandals kicked the crap out of it on Halloween and it's kinda falling apart. It's a shame, but the parks admin is kinda looking at doing something else with the tees anyhow, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed for concrete or asphalt... here's hoping.

Anyone who wants to put up some flyers, just hit me up with a PM or email with an attached file and I'll get em in the box.

Thanks