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By Feiyu Su
A new disc golf course opened on the extended Mizzou campus April 24.
The new course is the result of two years of collaboration between the Mizzou Disc Golf Club and MU’s A.L. Gustin Golf Course.
Mizzou students and members of the public can reserve tee times on the new course. Green fees are $15 for students and the public.
Columbia already has three disc golf courses, but these are not as convenient for MU students, said Mizzou Disc Golf president Jared Brabant, an MU grad student.
“We have a lot of freshmen who need rides to visit [Columbia’s other courses],” Brabant said. “But it’s nice to have something a little more centralized.”
The new course will also serve the broader community.
“There’s actually a big demand for more space to play because the courses that we have are getting kind of crowded,” said Joe Douglass, president of Columbia Disc Golf. “The more courses in town, the better.”
Mizzou Disc Golf began raising funds for the course in 2019, at the Mid America Open disc golf tournament, in partnership with Educational Disc Golf Experience (EDGE), a non-profit corporation formed to provide disc golf educational services for youth.
“We ran a small disc golf putting activity and collected donations,” Brabant said. “We raised $1,500 from that and then were able to get a matching grant from EDGE of about $1,500 towards the course project.”
Throughout the past fall and winter, Mizzou Disc Golf held weekly league events: local disc golfers could play at any time during the week on the course of their choice; scores were compared at the end of the week. The club raised $500 this way. “It was a COVID-friendly way to have some competition without gathering lots of people together,” said Quentin Borengasser, vice president of Mizzou Disc Golf.
Members of the local disc golf community also made donations. “A couple of Columbia locals who were already big supporters of the project and our club reached out and donated $1,600 towards the course, which finally allowed us to finish it off,” Brabant said.
“The project’s success is due in big part to the local disc golf community,” Brabant said. “The Columbia club and its members really have a passion for the sport, and their Mizzou colors run deep, so bringing those two together was something that everyone was more than willing to get behind.”
