Disc golf course opens in Lindsay
Landscape architect Darrell Bankes partners with Optimist Club and City of Kawartha Lakes on nine-hole course in Memorial Park
LINDSAY — Darrell Bankes is a firm believer in the catch line, “if you build it, they will come.”
He’s already set the record at the recently completed Lindsay Disc Golf Course and he’s hoping it won’t be long before he’s unseated.
The nine-hole course, designed and constructed by Bankes — an avid player and landscape architect who has developed close to a dozen courses in Ontario — is located in Memorial Park off Lindsay Street.
Last year, Bankes was approached by fellow members of the Peterborough Disc Golf Club — who come from the City of Kawartha Lakes — about possibly creating a course in Lindsay. It wasn’t long before Bankes and members of the newly formed Kawartha Lakes Disc
Golf Club approached council seeking assistance and support.
“It was pretty good timing, actually,” said Bankes, noting the city was already creating a redevelopment plan for the park. “We were able to get into discussions early on.”
The group applied to the municipality’s community project capital funding pProgram and received $7,485.
The Optimist Club of Lindsay was also approached, in an effort to meet the required matching funding. The club contributed $6,300 and the Professional Disc Golf Association — which has more than 44,000 active members worldwide — donated $1,000.
Bankes donated his time and the Peterborough club has contributed in-kind support.
“The best thing about disc golf is that pretty much anyone can play,” said Bankes, noting the Lindsay course is a “fun but challenging amateur level course.”
The sport is easy to play. Discs are thrown from a “tee” at a target, throwing again from the landing position of the disc until the target is reached. As in regular golf, each hole has a par, but instead of shots, throws are tallied.
“Much in the way that golfers have different clubs, there are different discs,” said Bankes, quipping, it just costs a lot less. “You can get a really good set of discs for $120. And there’s no cost to play the (Lindsay) course .... You can also play year round.”
A variety of discs are currently sold at Wild Rock Outfitters in Peterborough, however, Bankes said he hopes Lindsay businesses will carry a line or two as well.
It’s also a great option for schools looking for another sport or elective as it doesn’t require any serious athleticism, Bankes said.
“It also has plenty of crosscurricular applications,” said Bankes, suggesting students could use the course when studying flight or aerodynamics.
With close to 7,000 courses already, and more constructed every year, the rapidly growing sport is played in about 40 countries.
The new course is one of more than 300 in Ontario alone, joining other recently constructed area courses in Ennismore and Nestleton.