Murrysville recreation officials looked at the large hill between Scouting Knob on Bollinger Road and the municipal dog park on Wiestertown Road and saw a piece of land too steep to use for much of anything.
Professional Disc Golf Association pro Dan Flannigan looked at it and saw an opportunity, which he helped turn into the Murrysville Community Park disc golf course that recently opened to the public.
“My style of course is very much to take a property for what it is,” Flannigan said. “Some designers will come in and go ‘scorched earth’ on a property and rebuild it from the ground up. I like to spend a lot of time finding cool features on a property and using the land as it is.”
Flannigan worked with recreation officials to design the 18-hole course, using the unique terrain to shape the difficulty of players’ throws.
“Ultimately, what you’re trying to do is force a variety of different shot shapes a player has to achieve to get through the course,” he said. “The association says the ideal course should reward well-rounded play: If you’re a great long thrower, there should be a couple holes that suit you. If you’re a very technical player, there should be a couple specially suited to you as well.”
In early talks with the recreation department, the initial idea was to build a course near Murrysville Community Park’s existing ball fields. Flannigan was skeptical.
“You want the course to fit the property not just in how it plays, but in a way that’s safe for everyone,” he said. “Pros can throw a 180-gram disc upward of 70 mph, and that can really hurt someone who’s not expecting it. So safety is always in the forefront.”
Parks officials initially felt the hill below the dog park would be too steep and choked with underbrush to use.
“That’s exactly what I was looking for, though,” Flannigan said. “We were able to take a section of the park that wasn’t being used at all and give it some function.”
Added benefits for hikers
That function also extends to hikers and bird-watchers, who will be able to traverse the course when it is not in active use, essentially creating another trail within the park.
“It’s an entirely wooded course, which is great,” Flannigan said. “It’s kind of the opposite of its ‘sister’ course, Oak Hollow Park in North Huntingdon, which is a very wide-open area.”
Though the course is not completely finished, players have already logged more than 100 rounds according to data from the UDisc mobile app, which many disc golfers use to track their games.
“There are pink survey flags out right now marking the tee areas, because we won’t get the concrete pads put in until late summer or early fall,” Recreation Director Carly Greene said. “But the course is open for play, and we have course sponsorships available as well.”
In addition to the new course and Oak Hollow Park, regional disc golf options include courses at Monroeville Community Park and Deer Lakes Park in West Deer.
For more information or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities, visit murrysvilleparecreation.com or call 724-327-2100, ext. 115.