Disc golf at Community Campus? Portsmouth assistant mayor thinks it's good idea

PORTSMOUTH — Assistant Mayor Joanna Kelley believes part of the city’s recently purchased land at Community Campus could be used to create a disc golf course.

“There’s a good chunk of Community Campus that’s really unbuildable, and I think we could integrate the walking trail system that’s already there for a disc golf course,” Kelley said Monday.

“I know as a council we’re constantly saying we need ideas that are low cost and high impact,” she said. “This is something that would be focused on outdoor recreation.”

Kelley was scheduled to ask for a report back at Monday’s City Council meeting from the Department of Public Works and the Recreation Department on the idea.

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She has played disc golf before in Dover and Hampton. However, Kelley said, she submitted the idea due to “to requests from a couple of residents."

“My hope is from walking through Community Campus and getting a bird’s-eye view is that it’s really doable there,” Kelley said. “It’s a lot of fun.”

What is disc golf?

The Professional Disc Golf Association states “disc golf is played much like golf. Instead of a ball and clubs, though, players use a flying disc or Frisbee.”

“The sport was formalized in the 1970s and shares with golf the object of completing each hole in the fewest strokes (or, in the case of disc golf, fewest throws),” according to the association. Like golf, the players start on a tee, where they throw the disc or Frisbee toward the hole, which in disc golf is most commonly “an elevated metal basket,” the association said.

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“Disc golf is designed to be enjoyed by people of all ages, gender identity, and economic status, making it a great lifetime fitness activity,” the association said. “Because disc golf is so easy to learn, no one is excluded; players merely match their pace to their capabilities and proceed from there.”

Existing locations to play disc golf around the Seacoast include the Bellamy Park Disc Golf course in Dover and the course at the Smuttynose Brewery in Hampton.

Low cost, low impact to nature makes disc golf course appealing

A proposal that Kelley included in the City Council packet explains that “few recreational activities offer the high benefit-to-cost ratio of disc golf.

“A disc golf course has relatively low up-front costs compared to other recreational facilities; an entire 18-hole disc golf course that serves up to 75 players at one time can be constructed for less than a single tennis court, which only accommodates up to 4 players,” Kelley’s proposal states. “Disc golf also has little to no environmental impact. Disc golf courses are designed to work with the existing space, making use of trees and shrubs as part of the course. ... Unlike a traditional golf course, disc golf requires only occasional maintenance and requires little to no clearing of land."

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City resident Andrew Paquette, who Kelley worked with on the initiative, put together a detailed budget, which estimates the course could be created for $24,255.

That includes, according to his budget, $7,125 for 19 baskets, $7,500 for a course designer, $1,600 for rules signs, $3,400 to secure the baskets and build the tees and $1,500 for tools and equipment rental.

Mayor Deaglan McEachern called Kelley’s proposal a “realistic ask” and a “fantastic idea that I really support. It’s something that does not disturb nature, it actually allows us to preserve nature, while encouraging recreation and outdoor activity."

The cost of creating a disc golf course “seems really modest,” McEachern noted, and even if the city were to decide to use the land for something else in the future, “this is not something that would prevent us from doing that.”

“I applaud the assistant mayor for thinking about this, and I’m looking forward to playing some disc golf,” McEachern said. “I am very much in favor of things that create community at a reasonable cost and gets us outdoors.”

He also hopes if a course is built at Community Campus, it will be free for all to use.

This article originally appeared on Portsmouth Herald: Portsmouth NH disc golf course at Community Campus pitched for $25K