Disc golf course opens
WANTAGE. The first tournament is held as the township celebrates the course’s official opening.
Wantage /
| 30 Jul 2024 | 04:51
Residents practice before the disc golf tournament begins June 29 at Papakating Park in Wantage. (Photos by Kathy Shwiff)
Joshua Simmons, right, speaks at the official opening of Wantage’s disc golf course. From left are Deputy Mayor Ron Bassani and Dan Doyle. Simmons and Doyle designed the course.
Dan Doyle, right, explains the rules for the tournament.
Deputy Mayor Ron Bassani, second from left, speaks at the official opening of Wantage’s disc golf course. From left are Wantage Administrator Michael Restel, Dan Doyle and Joshua Simmons.
Residents practice before the disc golf tournament begins.
Participants in the disc golf tournament listen to instructions.
Participants in the disc golf tournament listen to instructions.
From left are Wantage Administrator Michael Restel, Deputy Mayor Ron Bassani, Dan Doyle and Joshua Simmons.
Wantage celebrated the official opening of its disc golf course with a tournament Saturday, June 29.
Seventy-two players took part in the event at Papakating Park.
Deputy Mayor Ron Bassani said he was impressed with the number of tournament participants.
“It’s exactly what we dream about when we invest monies and effort and energies into a program. Then we sit back and cross our fingers it takes off.”
The 18-hole disc golf course was finished about a year ago. Now tee pads are being added to each hole: one for experienced players and one for beginners.
Like golf, disc golf has 18 holes, or baskets. The goal is to get a disc into each basket in the fewest throws.
The first throw is from a tee area, and subsequent throws are from where the disc landed in the previous throw.
The course is free and open to the public because the park was purchased partly with state Green Acres funds.
Proposed idea
Joshua Simmons and Dan Doyle proposed the idea for a disc golf course to the Township Committee about four years ago. They designed the course starting about two years ago after they won approval from officials.
“Seeing my community, where I grew up, come together like this and actually make something this incredible happen really - it touches my heart,” Simmons said during an opening ceremony before the tournament began.
Bassani said, ”It took a lot of work from a lot of individuals and a lot of volunteers all coming together.”
Wantage purchased the baskets for about $18,000 from its open-space tax, said Township Administrator Michael Restel.
The tax generates $50,000 a year, which is spent on passive and active recreation, such as baseball fields and pickleball courts, Bassani said.
“Our athletic programs for our children are currently growing at such a rapid rate. We’re playing catch up,” he said. “We probably need three more ballfields. We need another football field.”
Material for the tee pads was donated, and they will be installed by the township’s Department of Public Works, Restel said.
State Department of Environmental Protection workers, along with High Point Regional High School students, have planted about 200 tree seedlings in Papakating Park along with some larger trees throughout the disc golf course.
”They’re all native. Our long-term goal is to have all of those labeled” so students may follow the path to study them, Bassani said.
Also planned are shade trees and benches - maybe even exercise stations - along the walking trail, he added.