Disc golfer input pushes city to finally install baskets at Woodland Park

Feedback from an enthusiastic disc golfer has prompted City of Newton staff to temporarily establish six new holes to the disc golf course at Woodland Park and in the process finally find a home for the baskets council had purchased almost one year ago. The only thing the holes will be missing is official tee box areas.

Jim Knudson, a Newton disc golfer, lobbied for the city to partially install new holes to make the course at Woodland Park eligible for tournament play. He knows the city is waiting to see the results of a parks study before making any permanent changes, but he argued the disc golf community would utilize it.

According to council documents, tee signs will be placed to indicate the tee box areas, but the large concrete pads will be delayed until a future date to ensure the new hole placement on the course is suitable for disc golfers. It also allows staff to complete the parks master plan and find a solution for the baseball fields.

Currently, the disc golf course at Woodland Park is a 12-hole course, which Knudson and city staff acknowledge is not ideal for most tournaments. In Knudson’s proposal, he noted that nothing needs to change on holes 1-12. The new holes would play as a loop, around the nearby baseball fields.

Knudson spoke to council members during the June 3 and June 17 meetings about the impact disc golf tournaments can have on the community. The Iowa Masters Championship, a Professional Disc Golf Association-sanctioned event, was hosted at Maytag Park for the 13th consecutive year on June 1.

Professional-class players and amateurs compete in the championships in different age divisions. The highest payout at this most recent tournament was $200 for the Pro Masters 40+ division. The youngest age division was made up of 40-year-olds while the oldest age division included 80-year-olds.

“Most of them have a little change in their pocket,” Knudson said to city council at the June 3 meeting while handing them information about the tournament and his proposal. “If you’ll see here out of the 90 people that we had, we had three people from Newton play. We had 10 people from out of state.”

Knudson said the tournament sold out within 17 hours.

The disc golf courses at Maytag Park and Woodland Park have received high ratings on UDisc, an app founded by two Iowa State University graduates that allows disc golfers to find nearby courses. Out of 823 reviews, Maytag Park has an average score of 4.4, and Woodland Park averages 4.1 from its 223 reviews.

Maytag Park is certainly the home of the most popular disc golf course in Newton, but Knudson said there are about six different holes where players interact with the public more than any course he has played. Knudson estimates he has played more than 200 disc golf courses in his life.

Tournament directors Andy and Diane Hamer — who live outside Jasper County — have asked Knudson where the city was at with the course at Woodland Park.

In November 2023, the Newton City Council voted 5-1 in favor of upgrading the disc golf course at Woodland Park by purchasing six new baskets for roughly $7,400 out of the general fund. At that time, there was no final plan prepared for the additional holes. But staff wanted to work with local disc golf groups.

Knudson told council he wanted to see the Iowa Masters Championships stay in Newton, suggesting Woodland Park could be more conducive for tournament play with the 16 holes. But by then the city had only purchased the baskets and was waiting on its parks study to finish before committing to the install.

Woodland Park would also have less public interference. Maytag Park is the city’s most popular park and is home to a variety of different activities and recreational opportunities. For casual play, it’s no problem. But it could impact the competitive integrity of tournaments.

“We can help these people grow or we can watch them go,” Knudson said.

When Knudson returned to the June 17 meeting, he again emphasized the need to get the baskets at Woodland Park installed. In the past year, he said Maytag Park hosted three major tournaments that attracted roughly 270 people. He conservatively estimated players each spent $20 or so when they were here.

Those players needed to pay for gas and for food when they were in town. Some may have even booked a hotel for the Iowa Masters Championships. It may not seem like a huge economic impact, but Knudson suggested tournaments can consistently bring people to town.

Council member Randy Ervin applauded Knudson for bringing his concerns to council and then also providing a solution in his proposal, which was used as a backbone for the council action the next month. Ervin also enjoyed that his proposal aligns with the city’s goals to make Newton more of a destination.

“You guys are doing that for us,” he said. “I can tell you that I think a lot of us up here would like to look at this and see if the solution is doable earlier than later.”