Yes, I know. Yet another article about Chester State Park. Well, it can’t be helped. This remarkable State Park, only an hour’s drive from Columbia, SC, just opened the South Carolina State Park System’s first disc golf course. Click the photo above for a larger view of the picture of the course taken from the new brochure.
Click here if your browser doesn’t play nicely with the video embedded above.
Last year Park Manager John Wells told me he planned to build this course. I was polite, but skeptical. The area he’d selected for the course was beautiful. Right next to the lake. But it was dense forest. Difficult to hike through, let alone play disc golf. Further, golf courses, disc or otherwise, require a lot of funding and person-hours to build. Both funds and personnel are quite limited at Chester State Park. They’ve got enough to do already, and little enough to do it with.
Well, it’s happened. Trees, brush, brambles, and vines have been cleared. Fairways have been smoothed; concrete pads installed at each tee. And most important, disc golf targets erected. True to the design of Innova’s champion course designer, Russell Schwarz.
If you don’t see the video, click here for the YouTube iteration.
Have a look at the video above if you’re new to disc golf. Park Manager Wells introduces the game.
Chester State Park now actually has two courses. One a professional-level eighteen-hole course; the other a nine-hole beginner’s course. So aspiring players of any skill level or age can play comfortably.
If you don’t see the video, click here for the YouTube iteration.
Little in the way of equipment or clothing is required. Just pay the $2.00 Park entrance fee (cheaper for seniors!), rent three discs at the office for $5.00, and you’re in business. You can play all day! No tee times to worry about. No fancy equipment or clothing.
In this final video Park Manager Wells describes the new course and its relationship to Chester State Park in more detail. This is some accomplishment. Congratulations John and Brandon.
You’ll find more information about disc golf at the website of the Professional Disc Golf Association here. And at the Innova Disc Golf corporate website here.
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That's a nice addition to a nice park. I found myself here a couple of months ago on a hiking trip. They have a short but pleasant and easy nature trail beside the lake; it goes from the boat dock down to the spillway, about 1.25 miles one-way. Keep investing in parks!!
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