Parks board will be asked to approve D.M.'s fifth disc golf course, which will be donated by the Disc Golf Club.
Progress on Des Moines' fifth disc golf course could get a major boost in the coming months as city parks officials are poised to approve the project.
Its 18 holes would be carved out of MacRae Park on the city's south side at 1021 Davis Ave. The course layout has been planned and is expected to be paid for solely by the Des Moines Disc Golf Club and other private contributions.
City staff will recommend that the parks board approve the plan later this month or in March.
"The organization plans to donate it with no cost to the city," parks director Don Tripp told the board last week. "Most importantly, we think it will increase the use of the park."
Members of the club's board of directors presented the idea last spring to the Gray's Lake Neighborhood Association, whose members embraced the plan.
Disc golf is played much like traditional golf, but uses discs tossed into wire baskets instead of balls and clubs. It's popular among high school and college students as a low-cost form of outdoor entertainment. Courses are usually free to play.
Disc golfers carry an assortment of discs that are designed for short-, medium- and long-distance throws. Some are made to curve either left or right. A good disc golfer can throw a disc more than 300 feet. The goal - just like traditional golf - is to complete a hole in the fewest shots. The holes are above-ground baskets about two-feet in diameter that have hanging chains to catch discs.
Club members said they hope to draw more people to the park - which lies on a bluff just south of the Raccoon River on Southwest Ninth Street - and to incorporate the park's natural features into the course's design.
Some of the holes would run through the woods on the west side of the park, and potential tree removal has raised concern among some residents.
"You're going to be obviously taking trees out for this," said parks board member Vince Scavo, who lives on the south side.
It has been a touchy subject citywide; north-side residents in the past few months criticized city leaders about Birdland Levee reconstruction plans that will eliminate about 100 large trees for a recreational trail near McHenry Park.
Doug Romig, parks manager, said tree loss is possible, but that the club asked a local biologist to identify rare species and others that should be circumvented by the course layout.
The course would join disc golf sites at Ewing, Grandview, Crivaro and Water Works parks. Club members refer to Ewing Park's course as the "crown jewel" of Des Moines.
A cost to construct the course hasn't been released. Club members paid for 100 percent of the course in Grandview Park and split the cost 50-50 with the city for the Ewing Park course.
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