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Second disc golf course to be built at Wycliffe Regional Park

New course to be built to same caliber as highly rated existing track as club seeks to draw in A-Tier tournaments.
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Funding has been secured to build a second championship-level disc golf course at Wycliffe Regional Park. The existing course, built in 2017, was ranked third best in Canada in 2023. Paul Rodgers/Kimberley Bulletin.

A vision that's been in the works for some time is now becoming a reality, as the Cranbrook Disc Golf Club (CDGC) has secured funding to build a second disc golf course at Wycliffe Regional Park. 

The original course was built in 2017 and in 2023 was ranked third best in Canada by UDisc. Now, thanks to a grant from Columbia Basin Trust and the financial prudence of CDGC, a second course will be installed, with work on the layout already underway. 

"We really felt that we were lacking in regards to a A-Tier level platform to host in," said CDGC president Steve Reedyk. "Yes, we have an amazing course, Wycliffe, but in order to really drag a full tournament of people out here, we needed one more Wycliffe.

"And where better to put it, than beside the existing Wycliffe? It’s a dream for hosting a tournament to be able to have two championship-level courses side by side." 

After the Regional District of East Kootenay (RDEK) installed a campground at Wycliffe Regional Park, Reedyk was speaking with them about potentially installing a new -nine-hole course. 

"The RDEK loves Wycliffe Park, they love how the disc golf drug people to the park, because in recent years there’s been fewer people using the parks and so they want more numbers, they love it," he said. "They offered us land for another 18 holes." 

The club quickly got to work on planning, with the main focus being on securing funding. Reedyk said the club had been doing some fundraising and building up their funds, while also working to finish up other projects like clean-up at the College course and finishing signage at Cranbrook's newest course in Moir Park, built in summer of 2023. 

"This enabled us to get our plate cleared off, because this is going to be an epic project," Reedyk said. "The ultimate goal would be to have two courses starting and finishing in a manner that we can have a 300-person event there, where we can crowd control, we can still have flow and most importantly, we’re hoping to make the new course harder."

The existing Wycliffe course was designed to test the skills of intermediate to advanced disc golfers. Reedyk explained that as disc golf courses are played more and more they get broken in; branches get knocked down, foliage clears up a bit and the course plays a little easier. This is why the club will focus on making the new course challenging right from the get go. 

Having two high-caliber courses at Wycliffe, along with the more beginner-friendly courses in Cranbrook — those being Idlewild and the College course — would make the CDGC eligible from a course standpoint to host the Canadian National Championships. They could have the Junior divisions play at the Cranbrook courses with the Advanced and Pro divisions out at Wycliffe, likely being able to draw touring pros. 

"That’s definitely, I would say, more of a dream than a goal — but that is how we know we’ve made it, is if we get to host Nationals here," Reedyk said. "If we have two courses and we’ve got enough manpower — because volunteers are the big thing that drive the events — then I don’t see why it couldn’t happen."

The bigger tournaments in Cranbrook have been run through Serge Gosselin and the East Kootenay Disc Golf Club, going back to 2017, with tournaments held every year since then, with the exception of 2020. 

Reedyk said there has been steady growth in disc golf in the Kootenays, exemplified recently by the annual Kootenay Up and Down tournament filling all 144 open spots 48 hours after registration opened. 

Interest in disc golf spiked during the pandemic years, which happened to coincide with the building of the beginner-friendly Idlewild course, initially built as a nine-hole course in 2019 and expanded to a full 18 in 2020. 

"Little did we know that the world would be looking for a sport where they had to social distance, it worked out really well," Reedyk said. "That created a huge influx of players, which not all have them have stayed with the sport, they might have went back to their typical team sports or whatever, but with it we developed a huge volunteer group for cleaning courses and fixing up courses." 

This volunteer base are always ready to come help out, whether it be to build a new course, clean up a new one, help make a tournament run smoothly, or  assist in a recent bench-building project at Wycliffe, utilizing wood from a downed tree on the course. 

Having these courses and strong community has also generated a serious crop of local talent, including pros like national champion Casey Hanemayer, and a myriad of other skilled players young and old, male and female. The Cranbrook League is thriving, with record numbers of players competing each week at the College course. 

"In short, Cranbrook disc golf health is at an all-time high," Reedyk said. "If you go to a tournament and people ask you ‘where are you from?’ and you say Cranbrook, B.C., they know you know how to disc golf." 

If you've played disc golf at Wycliffe and found it extremely difficult, news that the new one will be even harder may be daunting. This is why the new course will have short tee pads installed right off the bat, while the existing course's had them added in the years after its initial completion. 

"That was one of the bigger hurdles, because that doubled our tee pad budget, but at the same time it made such a difference," Reedyk said. "People were okay with walking the whole property, they weren’t okay with throwing the whole property. So if you want to get your hike in, get your exercise in and still have a good game of disc golf, we’ll provide it to you with a shorter set of tee pads." 

Reedyk said that the new course, coupled with the installation of the campground at Wycliffe, will make the park a true stay-and-play disc golf destination. 

He said the club is already in the layout phase and he figures they will have a number of fairways cleaned up this year, with the hope being opening the second course in fall, 2026. 

The club will be doing some fundraising at the upcoming Birdie Derby on July 12. They also have a couple smaller events coming up including the Short and Long at Wycliffe, which allows competitors to play both sets of pads at Wycliffe in two rounds, and Kristy Shields' ladies-only tournament The Crush on August 23 and 24.

The new course also needs a name. For the meantime it will be referred to as Wycliffe East, but you can weigh in in the comments on the Cranbrook Disc Golf Facebook page.

"This is going to be an epic project," Reedyk said. "I know there’s going to be a lot of work; blood, sweat and tears and all those things, but at the same time I couldn’t be more excited to make it happen." 



About the Author: Paul Rodgers

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