By the IV Leader Staff, Sept. 2, 2010
About 50 people attended the grand opening of the new nine-hole disc golf course just north of the baseball field.
The event featured contests and prizes and a best-shot event for advanced players.
“We welcome players to come out and learn about this fast growing sport,” said course coordinator Wes Black, an IVCC math instructor.
Students will have the opportunity to participate through a disc golf league or through intramurals.
The league meets at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday evenings through Oct. 6. The league will follow a blind-draw doubles format with the best disc of the pair played. The entry fee is $3.
For intramurals, students should contact Eric Pinter, IVCC baseball coach and intramural coordinator.
The intramural program will be at noon Monday, Wednesday and Friday from Oct. 15 through Nov. 1. Oct. 8 is the sign-up deadline for intramural play.
Discs that can be used on the course are available for sale at the IVCC Bookstore.
The idea for the disc golf course started in fall 1988, with brainstorming by faculty members Black and Ryen Nagle, a former IVCC English instructor. During 2009, a site was chosen on the IVCC campus and disc baskets were ordered.
According to a blog on the course, in spring 2010, the IVCC grounds crew arranged for much of the brush, saplings and undergrowth to be taken down by farm machinery and with that accomplished, the design phase for the course began.
Ryen Nagle’s father, Dan Nagle, an IVCC alumnus (1973-75), helped design the course with assistance from Ottawa resident Dana Vicich and Black.
Dan Nagle and Black also pruned bushes and trees, removed stumps and cleared rocks and stones to prepare the site for course installation. IVCC workers, using a power auger, drilled holes for the baskets as a crew of volunteers including Vicich, Sean Cook of Ottawa, Nick Rapp of Princeton, Black and Nagle, followed behind pouring concrete and assembling/installing the baskets.
In early June 2010, the first rounds were played at the course and the grand opening was scheduled for the beginning of the fall semester.
For information, call Black at (815) 326-9726 or email wes_black@ivcc.edu.
To learn more about the course, distance to holes and course records, visit the blog on the disc golf course at http://ivccdiscgolfcourse.blogspot.com/.