Campus News

New Disc Golf Course on Campus

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MISHAWAKA, IND – You’re probably wondering what those metal baskets littered throughout campus are—those are the holes for our new disc golf course. “What disc golf course?” you may ask. Last year, our upper class council decided the senior gift should be something more fun and interactive than just a bench, so they decided on a disc golf course.  

One of the many people tasked with creating this course was Johan Goldwalt, a professor at Bethel and an avid disc golfer.   “I started playing disk golf 5 years ago when my son got me a set of disks. I shoot on courses through Mishawaka to Battle Creek. Last year when the disk golf course was selected as the gift I along with a number of students laid out the course. In the planning, 4 of us shot the proposed course and set the pars and revised the course. So it was more than me designing the course.”  Johan has no previous experience in designing courses, but he explained how this all came to be.  “I have no past course designs. I just designed from a player perspective and got advice from other shooters and a course designer in Battle Creek. I come from a design back ground having been trained as a designer in the theatre.”  However, there have been a few hiccups in the execution. The baskets took a little longer than expected to get installed, but that is now resolved. Now we have about 12 baskets out.   There has been a little bit of a problem with placement; several people have voiced their concern with the placement of baskets near roads and parking lots.  Some people have reported their cars being hit by stray discs near the Admissions building and the Bridges parking lot. This is rumored to be handled soon with a slight remodeling.   There is also a slight issue with the course maps, as Bethical News brought to our attention The course maps point to various empty patches of grass around campus, leaving the player to look around frantically in order to find the next hole. This should also be taken care of in the remodeling.
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