Photo courtesy Natalie Carpenter
Volunteers with the Four Corners Flyers disc golf club work on a concrete form for tee box three at the Cloman Park course. Twelve volunteers built forms for the first nine tee boxes, with a concrete pour scheduled for this week. Work on the remaining nine tee boxes that includes new signage is scheduled to be completed in early July.
By Natalie Carpenter | Special to The SUN
The tee boxes at the Cloman Park disc golf course are getting an upgrade this week.
Volunteers with the Four Corners Flyers, a nonprofit group that maintains the Cloman Park and Reservoir Hill courses, worked Saturday to build and set forms for new concrete tee boxes.
In disc golf, players start at a tee box with a heavy driver disc that is thrown toward the target, which is a metal basket with chains to catch the lightweight putter disc that is thrown at the end of each hole. The tee boxes at the disc golf courses on Reservoir Hill and Cloman Park are currently areas of flat dirt marked by branches or narrow tree trunks laid out on three sides.
The new 6- by 12-foot concrete pads will help with player stability during throws, as well as make the tee boxes easier to spot as players move from one hole to another.
“Concrete tee boxes also make the course appealing for top-tier players,” noted Jude Oubre, a board member of the Four Corners Flyers nonprofit.
One of the goals of the nonprofit is to host higher-level tournaments that will attract elite players from around the country.
Oubre was one of the dozen volunteers who helped with the initial work to improve nine tee boxes on a hot, sunny Sunday afternoon wielding pickaxes, shovels, crowbars and rakes. The rocky ground at the existing tee boxes was dug down to a level to hold a 6- by 12-foot wooden form in preparation for a concrete pour this week.
According to Corey Hauck, another Four Corners Flyers member and volunteer, form work for the tee boxes for the first batch of nine holes at Cloman Park will be completed by June 28 and then concrete will be poured into the forms at each tee location.
“Once the concrete is set, the forms will be taken apart and the supplies used for building another batch of nine tee boxes,” Hauck explains. “Doing the forms in two batches saves us money on lumber, stakes, and other items needed for the concrete pour.”
In addition to tee boxes, new signage is being created for each hole. The Cloman Park course is heavily treed and it’s often difficult to figure out which way to throw the first disc when the basket is not visible from the tee box. The new signs feature original watercolor depictions of the basket location and trees as viewed from each tee. The watercolors were created and donated to the club by Carson Vicenti, who also volunteers his time and labor to help maintain the course. The watercolors Vicenti created for each of the 18 holes at Cloman Park were scanned and then graphic design work was done by Oubre to prepare the signs for printing.
Funding for the Cloman Park concrete tee and signage project comes from local government entities, selling tee box sponsorships, and donations received at Four Corners Flyers fundraisers such as the disc golf tournament held earlier in the year and the Reggae in the Park festival that took place on June 24 and generated over $3,000.
“The cost for concrete, lumber, and supplies for 18 tee boxes is about $6,000,” Oubre shared, which doesn’t include the labor being performed by the many club volunteers who continue to work on the project.
According to its mission statement, the goal of the Four Corners Flyers nonprofit is to “not only make much needed improvements at the disc golf parks, but also make improvements and expand our local parks in general.”
Members work together to make the disc golf courses and parks clean, safe and fun environments that players and their families can enjoy. More volunteers are always appreciated, especially for the work to complete the Cloman Park tee boxes.
For more information about Four Corners Flyers disc golf, email the club at FourCornersFlyers@gmail.com or find it on Facebook.
