As many people may have noticed, the baskets on campus pertinent to Frisbee golf have vanished. Before Art in the Park this summer, a sign at the first hole claimed that the course would be unavailable for a short period of time.
After returning to the park, once, twice, or seven times, there were still no baskets.
Not to be the bearer of bad news, but they are gone. Not the gone as in vanished, stolen, missing, or vacant due to tardiness, but gone gone. Due to the astronomical monetary toll caused by disks and those who throw them, the NIC administration and maintenance department decided to remove the course.
Eric Murray, vice president of Student Affairs, said that some of the recent accumulative damages included two broken windows, damage to the rose garden and thousands of dollars of damages caused by disk golf enthusiasts climbing the new fence surrounding the daycare building.
“Because of the damage being caused by the disks we could not find a way to sustain the course and also keep paying for those damages,” Murray said.
Long-time Coeur d’Alene throwers noticed that the layout of the course changed last year. Murray said it was an attempt to thwart damages caused in the past and that those attempts failed.
If the course causes so much damage, then it simply isn’t prudent for a frequented area of a college campus. After all, the specially crafted disks do travel at very high velocities.
But, when attempts were made to change the course, why not remove the daycare completely away from any hole? What was accomplished in the new layout was averting most arrant throws away from the rose garden. Given, a wickedly uncontrolled player has definitely thrown into the rose garden and snipped a few flowers. But what about those rebellious students who pick a flower for an admirer? What about the rambunctious stray dogs that prove the garden is their turf? Flowers hate that.
Hopefully the next time a fence costing thousands of dollars is built on campus it will be sturdy enough to withstand a climb once in the while.
There were talks about creating another course, Murray said. Instead the recreation department will spend the money on a fitness circuit featuring various stations staged around campus.
The Frisbee golf course did break a few windows and dent a few cars, but it was a wonderful course that was easily accessible for students. It provided a relaxing half hour in between classes.
Now it is gone.
