By Chad Neal
The game has been called a few things by folks I know- such as Frolf, Frisbee golf and the internationally accepted name of Disc Golf. Yours truly has written a couple articles about the sport in the past 12 years, trying to gain more local interest in it. Well now there is a nine-hole Disc Golf course at HoliMont. Before I even knew the new course existed, I was asked by local realtor and adventurer Caitlin Croft to go play some disc golf and when I asked where she said “HoliMont”.
Knowing that many new expansions to the outdoor fun arena were being made at HoliMont including exciting new mountain bike trails and tracks, and a practice park with wooden jumps and bridges, I wasn’t that surprised to learn about a disc golf course. It’s fun to get to, because you get to take a lift ride to the top of Sunset where Saddle Pond sets. The first launch pad made of wood chips lies in wait for someone to “huck plastic” towards the orange chain basket 300 feet away, starting at Half Moon slope down The Ridge slope and ending at the start of Sunset Glades.
Croft and I hiked our way through the course – with the map and scorecard they handed us before our ascent up the hill. If you are in for the full effect one can hike the hill also to play for free as the lift costs $10 for a single ride and a few more dollars for the multiple ride pass. And bikes have chairs too. The course map directs the disc golfer pretty well through the narrow lanes of the course played out on HoliMont ski trails. Even though she made it and played well, Croft advises to wear sneakers or hiking boots to handle the terrain, as she wore sandals on our first match.
The holes go up and down the trails between Exhibition and Sunset, making for a thorough hike. It’s not extraneous, but exercise it is. On that humid day the sun hid for most of our game, the sweat was exhilarating as the breeze came through the open lanes to give us relief. As it is in its infancy the HoliMont Disc Golf Course has a couple things that confused us, but we found our baskets and launch pads, with the map. We actually told ‘Doc’ Dan O’Connor at the bottom we were ready to promote the dickens out of this new amenity in Eville. And when we finished, he was climbing the bottom wall of Sunset on his mountain bike and greeted us. The last hole comes out there via Slow Poke Extension. We told him of our confusion, and he said he would put up signage right away. I got his email to get a bit more info from him about it.
In our correspondence Doc told The Villager that the idea was “put into motion a few weeks ago.” When asked how the idea was brought up, he stated that “the words “disk golf” have been floating around for years from members, guests and staff. The reality is that it was a team effort. HoliMont management team agreed that it had lots of potential to improve the summer operations and that it was a great idea. Multiple departments came together to pool knowledge regarding course layout and design. The actual installment went fairly quick as we all teamed up to put baskets up and create the launch pads, while others worked on maps and scorecards. This would not have been possible without the coordination and effort of everyone at HoliMont.”
O’Connor also affirmed that depending on how this year goes, they “would love to expand to 18 holes and are open to the possibility of hosting competitions!” The course length is 3,350 feet with a par of 33. Four par 3 holes, four par 4 holes and one par 5 hole. I was ten over on my first round, so what! It was awesome and I’ll do better from here on out. Who wants some?