Dec 13: Today I met with the Grounds Manager at UVIC to discuss the current situation with the UVIC Disc Golf Course at Mystic Vale.  After a lengthly discussion and walk around the current course many things came to light and a valid solution has presented itself.  BUT WE NEED YOUR INPUT!  I know that some of these topics are hot-button issues in our community and may generate a bit of argument, but regardless something must be done.  So please, sit back, read this article, try to take your ego out of the big picture and see what needs to happen.

To those who are not aware of the current state of affairs regarding the UVIC Disc Golf Course, I will attempt to paint a picture for you:

The course is situated in a peice of land formerly known as the CVJI lands, now known as the University Cedar Hill Corner, which consisted of an apple orchard, a farm and a radio station at one time.  The buildings that are left on the grounds used to be the home of the old groundskeeper, who passed away a few years back. The house he lived in, and the barn were demolished because of safety and fire concerns.

UVIC has traditionally used this land as a storage area for live dirt and landscaping supplies, to fuel their ever growing list of maintenance and new building construction.  The land used to be completely flat and has been built up with this dirt for several years.  As you may have noticed, this usage by UVIC is growing, and so are the piles of dirt.

Since its vacancy, the land has been used primarily by dog walkers.  This is going to change.  The Grounds Manager I talked with today mentioned several issues arising from the exponential number of dog walkers that go there.  Bio-hazard relating to Doggie-Poo is the big concern, as well as the safety of students and others (including disc golfers) who continue to have a rising number of dog-attacks. 

In 2005, a 9 hole disc golf course was added to the terrain and has since been modified to fit into the areas that are not being used to create dirt for UVIC housing and landscaping projects.  The original Tee-Pads and Target Positions have been compromised, and unfortunately several will need relocation by spring 2008 to accomodate the soil-mixing equipment that will be in there for the following several months, through Summer 2008.

Therefore, I have proposed a map of the NEW COURSE LAYOUT which must be implemented by spring 2008.  I encourage all input and ideas about these changes, but please keep in mind that the new layout will fit within the long term land usage strategy of this property, therefore making it even more likely that UVIC will continue to support the much needed disc golf course that exists today as the only Disc Golf Course in all of southern Vancouver Island (south of the Malahat).

Team DiscHeads will continue to work closely with UVIC and we have their attention.  The people I am talking with are interested in improving the playable area for us, as long as we can stay out of their way.  I feel that the proposed changes, as shown below, will accomodate the best of these worlds. 

Hopefully, the dog walkers will start to clean up after their pets and take responsibility, or they may find this property to be a Leash-Only area. I have also been informed that there will be increased security patrols for these lands.  It is important for everyone to remember that this is not a public park, it is private property.

Finally, there is the issue of course maintenance.  Last year Team DiscHeads funded and provided the manpower to maintain the course and keep the fairways clean.  This year, it is likely that we can get UVIC to do this work for us, but we are still unsure about the source of the monies to make this possible.  The grounds manager we talked with today was open to the idea of holding tournament(s) to raise funds to finance maintenance.  He also is open to suggestions and donations for this cause.  I therefore ask any disc golfers who would like to organize a fund to maintain the course by donating 5$ / year to UVIC to make this possible, with a note about what the monies are being donated for (disc golf course maintenance).  This gets their attention better than much else.

I hope we can discuss this at the upcoming IDGS meeting on January 15th, 2008 and find a suitable solution which I will present to UVIC, but I stress that IDGS does not need to agree to these changes as they are going to happen even without our input (just that we disc golfers want to have it work for us too) so let's try and find a really good solution.  I have an ongoing relationship with the Grounds / Maintenance Managers as well as the Sustainable Forestry / Gardening program which maintains the trees within the orchards and am happy to continue pushing to get this course nice, maintained, and disc-golfer friendly.

I have spent a lot of time thinking about these changes.  Please consider your responses carefully before typing them down as a comment.

Mark Hoskins
Team DiscHeads #7

UPDATED DEC 22:  The basket for hole #6 has been raised and about 3 feet of gravel sloping has been placed below it to allow for a wide playing radius for the putting green, but there is still some standing water.  It appears that they are not done yet, and so expect some changes over the next week as they continue to clean up hole #6.  THANK YOU UVIC FOR LISTENING!