DISC GOLF COURSE AT RYAN RANCH REOPENS
MONTEREY >> Since the Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course closed in 2018, home has been an elusive ideal for the Monterey Stinging Jellies Disc Golf Club. A community without its grassy, open space bedrock, members compensated with makeshift courses around town, frequent connections over social media and meetups at alternative Monterey Bay disc golf spots.
But to the Jellies, nothing beats the pride of playing at home — a feeling the swarm of golfers can, officially, relish once again.
Last week, the Monterey Stinging Jellies let discs fly at a renewed, and city of Monterey-sanctioned Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course. It's a long-awaited victory for the group, after nearly three and half years of not knowing the future of their course.
“I don't know how to describe it, but it's like an overwhelming sense of this family reunion over the entire disc golf community coming back out here,” said Nick Kite, Monterey Stinging Jellies Disc Golf Club board member. “There's some people we haven't seen in a long time. Even though there are disc golf courses around the area that we all play, being here (and) playing here — it's different.”
Club members have made frequent use of Ryan Ranch Park for disc golf day trips since 2008, when a handshake deal with the city of Monterey's Parks and Recreation department established the course. Since opening, the Monterey Stinging Jellies maintained and operated the course at no additional cost to the city, often hosting tournaments that attracted players from across the county, including the 2011 World Championship of Disc Golf. In December 2018, however, the city cracked down on the club's continued, albeit informal disc golf operation at Ryan Ranch.
To city officials, the problem, apart from lacking a formal use agreement, was that the course and its associated parking area were not Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. So Monterey, which owns the 75-acre Ryan Ranch Park, suspended activity, and the Monterey Stinging Jellies removed the disc golf baskets that had provided play at the course for a decade.
Years of cooperation with the city, required approvals from local commissions and steadfast commitment to reopening followed, including a petition to keep the course alive that garnered more than 4,100 signatures. But it wasn't until last fall that hurdles cleared enough to strike a deal. In September, the Monterey City Council authorized the city manager to enter into an agreement with the Monterey Stinging Jellies to reestab
lish the Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course. That agreement was officially signed earlier this year, Kite said, a moment he celebrated with relief — and gratitude.
“It's good to have a clear vision on either side of who's responsible for what (and) that we have permission to be out here,” said Kite, who's been a part of the Monterey Stinging Jellies for the past five years. “It's nice to have that partnership. It didn't start off as nice when the course was first shut down, so it took a lot to get us to where we are. I'm proud of both the city and us for how far we've come.”
Beyond rearranging a couple of the spot's 30 holes, Kite said the biggest changes to the reopened course are site improvements that now render the space Americans with Disabilities Act compliant. That includes a new accessible parking stall and sidewalk to the first tee, and an Americans With Disabilities Act-approved portable toilet with a hand-washing station. The Monterey Stinging Jellies will, like before, oversee periodic site maintenance with periodic weed whacking and regular mowing of fairways. Though a hefty undertaking for the group, particularly after years of overgrowth, members wouldn't have it any other way.
“So many of us that have missed this course for so long we're just so happy to come out here again and mow the fairways and weed whack,” said Kite. “I think I've only played two or three times since it reopened, but I've been out here every day. … We want to take care of the course ourselves. We want to take ownership.”
Kite said that while the break from disc golf at Ryan Ranch did see some former members move away or lose interest in the club, the Monterey Stinging Jellies are currently sitting at a total membership of around 120, nearing numbers recorded prior to 2018 which reached upward of 150. The sustained participation is a testament to the tight-knit community of local disc golfers. But Kite pointed toward another factor that ensured popularity at the outset of Ryan Ranch Park's return: the explosion of disc golf during the pandemic.
Played outdoors and socially distanced in normal times, interest in disc golf has soared over the past few years. The number of active members in the Professional Disc Golf Association, for example, went from 53,366 in 2019 to 109,862 in 2021. Likewise, more disc golf courses are being built every day. According to a 2022 Disc Golf Growth Report from UDisc, a cellphone app that allows players to find courses and keep score, an average of 5.28 courses were built per day in 2021. That's up from 3.5 a day in 2020. The same report found that more than 17.2 million rounds of disc golf were played and recorded on that app last year, a nearly 50% increase over 2020 scoring numbers.
Remarking on the boost, Kite said “it's just crazy how much disc golf has grown,” noting his excitement over bringing a new community of disc golfers to Ryan Ranch. It's an opportunity he's waited to take advantage of for the past two years, as he watched courses open with bated breath in anticipation of bringing back his own.
“The biggest slap in the face was seeing how many courses opened since this one closed, and how easily they opened and how quickly. … You want to attract people to where you live, but your residents are leaving to go play this sport somewhere else because the tournaments and the events aren't here,” Kite explained.
But they will be soon enough if the Monterey Stinging Jellies' ambitions for the course are any indication. Already active with weekly golf events, the group has larger plans for the course later in the year with the return of its annual Jelly-Jam on Oct. 8-9, as well as a Junior Jam for young disc golfers the weekend before. For local Central Coast enthusiasts of the sport, the promise of another chance to play and compete is a welcomed bonus to the Monterey Bay disc golf scene.
“It's just nice to have something fresh,” said Dustin Johnson, Monterey Stinging Jellies member and recent graduate of CSU Monterey Bay, where he played for the school's disc golf club (CSUMB houses two disc golf courses on its campus). “There's a lot of variance of hole shots (at Ryan Ranch). It's cool to have another course instead of just playing at school. … (And) it takes the pressure off other courses in the area because there's more variety, more going on.”
Echoing his fellow Monterey Stinging Jellies, Scott Brown, while looking around the course and perusing newly made club merchandise this week, only needed a few words to sum up his thoughts since coming back.
“It's good to be home.” For more information about the Ryan Ranch Disc Golf Course and the Monterey Stinging Jellies Disc Golf Club, go to https://www.facebook.com/ groups/MSJDGC/.