CENTERBURG — Frisbee golf is coming to Centerburg, due in large part to a grant from The Community Foundation of Mount Vernon and Knox County. The Centerburg Board of Education on Monday learned about the promised $2,500 grant from the foundation which will be seed money for the project.
“The [Community Foundation] board felt it was well worth the investment,” executive director Sam Barone said. “When we talked to them about it, it became clear that the Frisbee course really was tied in with overall community fitness and health. They envisioned something that was well beyond just the school population, something that was going to reach out to the community.”
The Frisbee golf course will go around the perimeter of the high school/middle school campus.
“I can use it for gym class,” said Dan Stevens, Centerburg High School health/physical education instructor. “The community can use it. And, it’s close to the bike trail, so people could ride their bikes from Mount Vernon and play Frisbee golf here. Once we get it built, I’d like to see it used as much as possible.”
Although some courses charge greens fees, there will be no cost at the Centerburg course, making it an inexpensive proposition for the players, unless a tournament is held for fund-raising purposes.
A Frisbee, or flying disc, golf course is similar to conventional golf courses, as are the names of the equipment.
“You have a tee box. Like in golf, you have a tee-off place, except you will be throwing a Frisbee,” said Stevens. “Frisbee golf discs are smaller and heavier than regular Frisbees, and there are usually a set of four differently weighted Frisbees. You have drivers, long range and medium range, and putters are short range. Wherever your Frisbee goes, you go to that spot and pick it up and you throw it again. What you are aiming at — the hole — is a basket that has chains on it that catches your Frisbee.”
Trees along the course will be from Randy Eckert Farms.
“You need trees,” explained Stevens, “because once they grow, it makes the course more challenging.”
The course is deliberatly designed to be a multi-use course. In addition to golfing being availble to students and the community, there will be a path that goes all the way around, following the holes. That will be used by the track and cross country teams as well, Stevens said.
Stevens hopes to raise enough additional funds to make it an 18-hole course instead of a 9-hole course.
“Each hole costs about $400 for the equipment, with sponsorships starting at $200,” he said. “The installation will be all done by students in Ed Lambert’s career-based intervention class and Garrett Swendal’s vocational agriculture classes.”
The Centerburg High School Class of 1957 has already agreed to sponsor a hole, Stevens announced, and the Class of 1960 also voted to sponsor a hole. That sponsorship is in honor of a principal who was at the high school in the ’50s. His name? Ron Frisbee.
