"underground" course

Anyone out there play, hear about, make or been to a course that's not exactly legit? I grew up riding BMX and still ride. A big obstacle was always having a place to build jumps(trails( http://www.vimeo.com/740858 )), so we would find a "vacant" piece of land and dig away. Of course, lots of issues to deal with, the main one being all that hard work going down the drain, but the times we had to enjoy will last a lifetime. The video I linked to is a video I shot and edited and those trails have now been plowed and are long gone, a new location has been found and that's underway.

Anyways, just wondering if there is anything like this is disc golf...

edit: since I didn't really say it, I'll just put it out there and I know some of ya'll might not agree since it could actually give disc golf a bad rep, but we're being super low key about it, so I think we should be fine. Anyways, big piece of city land, couple walking trails going through, not much other traffic. Lots of elevation changes and variation in the type of vegetation. We're starting with two homeade(tire style) baskets. Not sure how we're going to disguise them yet, whether it be paint or putting branches on them when we leave or just letting them be. We'll have several tees to each of the baskets and we'll go from there. We're not going to spend lots of time or make an 18 hole course because we know the second we put the baskets in, they might be gone the next time we come back. We're basically doing it to give us something close and something kind of fun to do. About six of us will know where these baskets are in this 100 acre park and I think it should be kind of fun and low key. I will be posting pictures and video of what we have going on. Hate it or love it, just hoping to have a little fun and stay respectful of the land(not cutting trees or damaging the park outside of putting a basket in and a few weeds trampled).

thanks!

[Eirik]

Cool post. I have seen MANY areas I would love to do this. The only problem is upkeep and targets. You can't get most people to shoot at a tree or anything but a basket. I play an "urban" version of this in my neighborhood. None of my friends are cool enough to join me, but it has me learning some real important shots... the ones that don't hit other peoples houses/cars.
Once again.. cool post, I am eager to hear other responses.

[Hootie]

On the Snap dvd they play an object course in a university which looks like it is semi-legit.... looks like fun tho!

[MTLK]

It was semi-legit until the institution decided night golf on campus was becoming too popular and therefor a problem. The unfortunate thing was that it was the closest thing to a course we had in Victoria. We've since moved to a semi-lit park in another part of town. Though, it takes a while before word of an underground course gets out to the player base.

[mark ellis]

Darren Harper has been talking about a similar idea for years. Get a bunch of guys and one portable basket and drive to some cool location and set up a temporary hole. Play the hole then leave before you can get kicked out. Repeat 17 times.

Corporations, churches, schools, parks, public buildings, etc., anywhere an interesting hole presents itself. I have been driving with Darren where he will say, "Hey look at that spot. We could make a great hole right there."

A few years ago one of my friends was back in town for a visit and told me he lost most of the discs in his bag one night. Evidently he got real drunk and decided to play urban golf in a downtown main street area. I am guessing there were some insurance claims filed by local businesses the next morning.

[Bryce @ Treebangers Disc Golf]

A few locals here do the parks tour ...a 1 day event and drive around to 18 different parks with in town and shoot it up with travel baskets they also do the dike tour .... no its not an all lesbian tournament either lol ... It is played near downtown along the river with travel baskets semi-urban I guess u could say. My travel basket is always in my van cause you never know when your gonna want to throw

[Mike Inscho]

Sweet !! I used to trail ride while I was high school. Went to the military after and kinda stopped. Had a DK racing style frame that I forked up with Maxxis Holy Rollers and Primo Powerbite 3 piece ( went through 3 of them ). Probably one of the sickest trail riding vids I've seen in a while. You guys can ride man.

OH ! .. back on topic. I'd love to urban disc golf badly.. Just don't have the discs to tear up. I too think to myself " Man ! That'd be a sweet place for a hole !" Your addicted my friend. Best of luck to ya.

[don]

Great idea and even better way to get exposure.

[mr ed]

hey now,one sick vid of gett'n AIR time.Early target player with only Wham-O Frisbee's to throw.Town,neighborhoods,woods,parks,we threw everywhere,no boundry.Keep us posted on your"underground" DG park.Peace

[dustin]

I'll keep everyone updated. We've also talked about the urban disc golf thing and taking it to some crazy levels. Off parking garages, highway overpasses, across rivers(no holes like that I've played in washington on real courses). Hopefully we can work on that this winter/spring.

As far as the course goes, we've done a bunch of scouting and have a general idea of three holes setup in a triangle so you can continue to throw over and over. The first hole is across a gully, about 300-350 feet. Gully is about 75-100 feet deep at it's deepest and not too overgrown with bushes. I took a quick picture with my phone, which doesn't show the elevation change well, but you can kind of see what's going on. The tree that Y's off will be our window, a little tight but is much bigger than it appears and shouldn't be a problem to hit. Basket will be in an open spot on the horizon of that hill.

We'll be making all the baskets out of old tires and chain. One of our courses has one as a putting basket and it works out pretty nicely. I'm having a tough time sourcing some chain and I'd rather not spend $40 on it either as this could be gone tomorrow or next week, but if I need to, I'll buy it for the first basket to see how long it lasts.

Once we get some video/photo of the first hole being thrown, I'll start a new thread for it and keep it updated as we progress.

Thanks for all the support, wasn't sure how it would go over, lol, glad to see some adventurous people out there! I can't wait to throw this the first few times. I'll check back in once we're up and throwing...

[Del Pikles]

Hell yea. Me and my homeboy built an 18 hole temp course at an outdoor science camp that he works at. Two practice baskets and hiked into the woods. Obviously we can only play on weekends while there is no kids around and all camp directors are gone but its sick

[Trevor Thorp]

We have a course in the National Forest in Washington that is illeagal. The baskets are made out of 1 inch fishing net and hoola hoops. There is a girl on DGRUS that has a picture of her ace she got there recently. Type "glacier" into the search and her picture will come up. The basket pictured is one of the freestanding ones. Most of them are tied to trees.

[Mike]

Awesome video as I once raced BMX and did my fair share of building tracks on illegitimate land myself!!

As far as building a DG course or even a few holes in a city park, especially one like you describe as mostly walking/running/bikeing trails in a 100 acre park. A lot of times it's the tree huggers that get rid of it. Most parks like that here in the state of Michigan are considered nature trails. Within these style parks they do not allow any substance to be used that is not natural, such as; concrete, pavement, plastic, metal. These parks generally use woodchips as the trail surface. I understand you are not cutting trees or pouring tee pads, but... as soon as a nature nut sees you smack a tree with a disc off your drive, or putt into a old tire basket, then it will be reported to the city. They will say you are harming the protected vegitation and dumping on city property. I know this from personal experience! They know that once people stop playing that tire and the material the basket is made from will stay on that property. As long as they don't see you put it there you will not be fined for dumping, but it may be removed before it is worth your time (as it was in my case). A better idea is to use portable baskets that you can take with you, that is what I do now and it gives you the opportunity to build a hole anywhere you go, without the risk of a fine ;(.