First public disc golf course in Allegany County; first club round is Sunday, May 14
New Summer Youth League to start in June
* Allegany County Disc Golf Club on Facebook
* Hoffman Park DGC on Facebook
* Check the City of Frostburg website for special events at Hoffman Park
* 2023: A Look Ahead
* 2022: A Year in Review
FROSTBURG — Interest in the opening of the Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course has surged over the past couple of days. The Allegany County Disc Golf Club is pleased to announce that 366 days after its founding, the first public disc golf course in Allegany County will be open for business.
Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course, located at 11300 Hoffman Hollow Road in Frostburg, is the result of a partnership between the City of Frostburg, the Allegany County Disc Golf Club and numerous stakeholders involved in virtually every step of the process. The last of nine baskets were installed on Thursday afternoon.
The nine-hole course is billed as an Innova “Ace Place,” or pitch-and-putt. Those types of courses are known to be beginner-friendly. This one, though, allows experienced players to hone their skills by focusing on shot shape and disc selection rather than maximum distance.
While there remains much work to do at the site, the course is open to the public. Course pages on uDisc, arguably the most popular scoring app in the sport, will go live sometime over the weekend.
The course comprises nine baskets covering 1,454 feet, an average of 161.5 feet per basket. The long is 223 feet (No. 5), followed by 220 feet (No. 4), while the shortest baskets come in at 125 feet (Nos. 2 and 8).
Seven of the nine holes already are sponsored by local families and businesses. The Allegany County Disc Golf Club still seeks sponsors for the final two holes at $300 apiece. Consideration will be on a first-come, first serve basis. For more information on hole sponsorship, please call/text 301-338-4533 or send an email to alleganyplayground@gmail.com.
Four of the nine baskets — Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 8 — offer players the opportunity to practice arguably the most difficult throw in the game: a straight shot. The other baskets lean left to right, right to left, or holes 6, 7 and 9, either left or right.
The course, known as an Innova Ace Place whose tagline is “an invitation to play disc golf,” will soon include a kiosk that will feature a large, full-color course map, a place to hang flyers for upcoming events, and a lost and found box that will be monitored by the club. So far in 2023, the club has had 51 different players, ranging in age from 8 to 72, complete at least one round of disc golf in club competition.
The Allegany County Disc Golf Club was founded on May 14, 2022. One of the club’s first calls was to Brian Vought, director of Parks and Recreation for the City of Frostburg. Vought weighed in on a number of possible sites for a public disc golf course and said a previous effort to make a course happen from an outside organization failed to materialize. Vought and the club quickly focused on Hoffman Park.
Local disc golfers Jim Buser, of Short Gap, W.Va., and Keith Raynor, of Vale Summit, conducted a site visit on June 7. The pair decided then that Hoffman Park was an ideal site for “at least six, possibly nine” baskets.
The Allegany County Disc Golf Club then spent months gathering information, learning the game and putting together a 13-page proposal to the Frostburg Parks and Recreation Commission. The proposal was submitted in October. The commission considered the matter during its November public meeting and gave the project a green light, recommending to the Mayor and City Council that the project be approved.
Mayor Bob Flanigan and the City Council approved the resolution that included the funding of the disc golf course during a public meeting a few days before Christmas. Throughout the process, Vought was instrumental in asking all the right questions — sometimes not so easy to answer — to ensure the sustainability of the project.
The Allegany County Disc Golf Club spent 2022 working on a number of affordable community outreach programs, including a Summer Flex League (free), an 18-week season of doubles (optional $5 weekly registration), Player of the Month awards, and more. The club hosted its first tournament, a two-round doubles contest in Cumberland, two months ago. It will host its second tournament on Dec. 30, with other programming in the works.
Nearly one-third of the club’s 72 members are ages 21 and under. One key goal of the club is to field a competitive team of youngsters for grades 5-9 within 24 months, and already the club has started to lay the foundation for such an effort as four of the club’s first Player of the Month award winners have been between the ages of 9 and 17. The club looks to identify and, in roughly 18 months, possibly hire a coach to work with the team.
The Allegany County Disc Golf Club is pursuing nonprofit status in 2023. Its first three members of the board of directors include Amy Davis, Matthew Marsh and Noah Spradlin.
The club also offers to facilitate private disc golf events for birthday parties, corporate events and more. The initiative serves as a fundraiser for the club, and the budget can go from “ho hum” to very fancy as the decision-makers wish. The club facilitated a “Par 2 Invitational” for a young boy’s birthday party in June 2022. It went over pretty well.
For more information, please visit AlleganyPlayground.com, call/text 301-338-4533 or send an email to alleganyplayground@gmail.com.
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