By Tracey Theret
Carrboro Commons Writer

By the end of next year, Carrboro residents who prefer to putt with a disc won’t have to venture out of town to get their golf fix.

The Carrboro Parks Project, a nonprofit that works to improve parks and open spaces in town, plans to raise money to install a disc golf course in Anderson Park off N.C. Hwy. 54.

“It’s a chill sport, but it has a competitive edge, too,” said Krista Moll, a Raleigh resident who travels to UNC-Chapel Hill’s Outdoor Education Center, the disc golf course closest to Carrboro.

Raleigh resident and disc golf fan Krista Moll lands a toss in the target at the course closest to Carrboro, UNC-Chapel Hill’s Outdoor Education Center.
Staff photo by Tracey Theret

She and three friends spent a sunny Saturday traversing the course with a golden retriever named Jackson tagging along. Moll said the Chapel Hill course is their favorite out of the five they have played and that they will try out the Anderson Park course when it’s complete.

Much like the traditional game of golf, the objective of disc golf is to complete the course with the fewest throws of the disc, according to the Professional Disc Golf Association Web site.

Players toss the disc from the starting area of each hole, or the “teepad,” with the goal of landing it in the target. Targets often consist of a pole with a metal basket attached at the top, with chains running from the top of the pole to the bottom of the basket.

The proposed course will be free and open to the public, as are most courses .

“It’s a spontaneous kind of sport,” Moll explained. “No one judges you and you can come and go as you want.”

The game has found an increasingly large following often associated with college-aged students, but advocates of a Carrboro course say it’s low-contact enough to be enjoyed by players of all ages and skill levels.

“What I really like about it as a public facility is that it can be played by a wide variety of people,” said Brendan Moore, facilities administrator for Carrboro’s Recreations and Parks Department. “Very young children, seniors — it offers a really diverse facility for us.”

At a Board of Aldermen meeting March 4, Carrboro Parks Project member Susan Stone proposed a successful resolution to raise funds for the course.

Aldermen spoke favorably about the project.

“I don’t know if you all have played disc golf, but it’s great fun, great exercise.
It’s a fantastic idea,” Alderman Dan Coleman said.

Anderson Park consists of various other recreational facilities, including four baseball fields, a fishing pond and a god park, which Alderman Jacquie Gist said could cause concern.

“Keep the discs as far away from the dog park as possible, here could be possible conflict,” she joked.

Stone said the course would be a good use of underutilized areas of the park. Most courses are located in wooded areas where golfers encounter naturally occurring obstacles like tree branches.

“It doesn’t seem like it would cause much damage to the park in that they don’t have to take down any big trees,” she said.

Moore said the average disc golf course measures about an acre per hole, or about 18 acres, but estimated that the Anderson Park course would cover about 10 or 11 acres.

The Carrboro Parks Project hopes to raise $11,000 for the course in two phases. The first sum would be $3,600 for design fees and the second would be $7,400 for equipment and installation costs. Stone compared the amount to installing a playground facility, which could cost between $20,000 and $30,000.

In the past, the organization has used fundraising methods such as direct mailings, applying for grants or setting up tables at the Farmers’ Market to ask for donations. So far, the group has successfully raised money for a dog park fence in Anderson Park, two tennis backboards and shade sails at the town commons.

If you would like to donate to the project, do so electronically through its Web site or through mail — Carrboro Parks Project, P.O Box 1083, Carrboro, North Carolina.