Taking A Fling Frisbee Golf Tournament Takes Wing In Coeur D’Alene

The newest golf course in North Idaho is under development in a corner of this popular state park on the southern tip of Lake Pend Oreille.

But this is no ordinary golf course with close-cropped putting greens and little white carts.

Farragut’s golf course is all in the rough. Its fairways are airways.

This weekend, the park is inviting the public to try a round of Frisbee golf on its temporary course - the first Frisbee golf course north of Moscow, Idaho.

If enough people show up, the park may be able to install a permanent course.

“It’s a very addictive sport,” said disc golf enthusiast Chris Kriger as he prepared to tee off on the first fairway earlier this week. “The hole always looks the same, but it never plays the same.”

Kriger, 31, used to live across the street from a tournament-quality disc golf course in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

When he moved to Post Falls a year ago, he went through disc golf withdrawal. He played traditional golf at Avondale Golf Course, but it just wasn’t the same, he said.

Kriger and Americorps volunteer Jason Midthun shared the same dream of creating a Frisbee golf course. They discovered each other over the Internet, and agreed to work together to design Farragut’s course.

Midthun is assigned to the park, which proposed a Frisbee golf course years ago, but never had the money or manpower to build it.

“Our budget is basically zero for this project,” Midthun said.

On a standard disc golf course, the targets are special baskets made of galvanized steel and chains, designed to catch a Frisbee. The type of Frisbee used in golf is a smaller, heavier than normal plastic disc.

At Farragut, the targets are plastic buckets perched upside down on a steel fence post, secured by a tennis ball glued inside the bucket.

“We found the design on the Net,” Midthun explained. To beautify the ungainly “holes,” Midthun contacted Art on the Edge, a art program for homeless children in Coeur d’Alene. The children painted numbers and colorful designs on the buckets.

But the quality of the course doesn’t rely on the target. It’s the terrain and flow of the fairways that makes the difference.

“I was told to build it long, make it challenging so people will respect it. Then they’ll come back,” Kriger said, letting a golf disc loose with a powerful toss.

Instead of sand traps, Frisbee golfers have to worry about winds, giant ponderosa pine trees and other natural obstacles.

Kriger’s disc gracefully curved around a large tree, landing just feet from its target. Kriger believes that this course, once finished, will be championship quality.

“It’s virtually no maintenance. It’s virtually no cost,” Midthun gushed as he stomped through the brush near Locust Grove picnic area, where the course starts.

Before Saturday, however, Midthun planned to mow pathways from one fairway to another to protect players’ bare legs from the bristles.

The weekend event coincides with about 200 other disc golf events around the world, sponsored by Circular Productions, a company that produces Frisbee golf products.

The company will award the community with the most players at the event with nine official “DISCatcher” baskets.

Even if Farragut doesn’t win the equipment, Midthun and Kriger are hoping enough people show up to convince the state to find the money to purchase the equipment.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: TOURNAMENT The World’s Biggest Disc Golf Weekend will run from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Registration is at Locust Grove picnic area on the north end of Farragut State Park. For $12, participants will receive a golf disc and a T-shirt.