Pandemic Disc Golf

Living in a village where the park is relatively quiet first thing in the morning, apart from the occasional dog walker, we were able to continue walking there through April and throw discs as part of our once a day exercise on our made up course, coming into contact with hardly anyone. We had our new Innova travel basket but didn't want to exceed what we thought was permissive in public, so used this in our garden for putting practice. A combination of the two turned out to be a positive low risk solution which protected ourselves as well as keeping our fitness levels up.

We began to adapt to the change of conditions to throw in and started thinking that maybe would could continue with disc golf in the UK. We loved it too much. So started looking and browsing on websites for discs.

Moving on a few weeks and our government decided we could take unlimited exercise. It was at that point, around about mid May, that we took our basket to the park. The local dog walkers and those taking their exercise on the park had got used to seeing us throw discs, however the introduction of the basket brought positive curiosity and questions. 

Those questions naturally started with, "I've seen you throwing things on the park but what exactly are you doing?" After explaining that it was a game/sport called Disc Golf and all about it and that it's played internationally on courses, the next question was "Is there a course near here?" As I have mentioned in a previous Blog instalment, there had been a course 20mins drive away that had been reported on-line as unplayable, so my answer to the question on a course was Manchester, a little over an hour away. As soon as the answer was given you could see the interest slide away. This happened numerous times.

As lockdown restrictions on travelling eased in late May, we decided to take a drive to Myerscough Course and check it out for ourselves. Nothing like first hand research. Set in the grounds of the College Campus and once we found someone to chat to and ask of the courses whereabouts, we were left to wander around to see what we could find. The course was a sad state, totally neglected, overgrown and the tee boxes, which had been carefully installed with astro turf, where a complete mess. The positive, the baskets were in good order as were the Tee information posts.

I decided I had to write to someone at the college to find out if there was any feasibility in restoring this course. I also wanted to find out about its history and why it had been allowed to fall off the radar when the north west of England was in such need of courses to play on. That would be my little disc golf project until such time we could get out and play a course, which naturally would be Manchester Disc Golf Course.