Due to inactivity the KDGA forums have been locked. All past threads are still available. Please join us on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/groups/kansasdiscgolf!

Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

General Disc Golf Chatter
Post Reply
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

Hello Disc Golfers,

As you may or may not know, there's a lot of Disc Golf excitement in the air around Manhattan (KS) right now.

After a lot of research, leg work and two presentations to the City of Manhattan Parks & Rec. Advisory Board (Nov. 2008 & May 2009), a good friend Mark and I gained the support of our Parks & Rec. Director plus a 6-0 vote of approval from the City of Manhattan's Parks & Rec. Board. The motion and subsequent vote was to allow Mark and I to work with the City staff to implement a 9 hole disc golf course in a specific area of Warner Park.

If you know about Warner Park, the area that we are working on is the extreme southeast area of the park known as "Little Warner". If you don't know about Warner Park, Little Warner is an approx. 9.3 acre area that is on top of the hill just west of Manhattan's Target store. A nine hole course may sound under achieving, however Little Warner is a just small part of the larger Warner Park. The understanding is that the proposed layout may be expanded to add a second 9 baskets (at a later date) to the west thus making a very challenging 18 hole course. I would try to describe some of the course, but the following "photos are worth a thousand words".

After the May meeting mentioned above, Mark and I began talking to every disc golfer that we could find locally and regionally in order to iron out a solid course layout. After myself and a few others laid out the course markers (sorry, not baskets), he and I received permission to hand out preliminary course maps to local players and encouraged them to discreetly play the course in order to provide feedback to further improve the layout. Granted, there are many things yet to be done, however "the powers that be" are on board with the concept and we're working hard to get this out of the design stage and into the construction stage.

SO, I WOULD LIKE TO INVITE YOU TO ATTEND THE EXCITING NEXT STEP. ON MONDAY, JULY 6th ANOTHER PARKS & REC. ADVISORY BOARD MEETING WILL TAKE PLACE AND I WILL BE MAKING ANOTHER PRESENTATION. THE MEETING WILL BE IN MANHATTAN'S CITY HALL COMMISSION ROOM, LOCATED AT 11th & POYNTZ AVE. THE MEETING STARTS AT 4:30 BUT I ASKED TO HAVE DISC GOLF BE THE LAST ITEM ON THE AGENDA IN ORDER TO ALLOW MORE TIME FOR DISC GOLFERS TO GET THERE AFTER WORK. YES, IT IS OPEN TO THE PUBLIC AND THE MORE DISC GOLFERS THERE THE BETTER.


Thanks, Rick

P.S. If you can’t make it to the meeting but want more details about this exciting project feel free to PM me through this site or simply post your question. I’ll be more than happy to answer your questions as precisely as possible.

I forgot to mention that it is okay for you and a few of your buddy's to go play the proposed course right now, it's open to the public. There are very visible signs showing the location of the tee boxes and baskets. However, make sure to be as well behaved as possible so as to not get on the bad side of any neighbors.
Last edited by PETRIE on Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:27 am, edited 2 times in total.
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park Disc Golf Course

Post by PETRIE »

HERE'S A COPY OF AN "INVITATION" THAT WE'RE SPREADING AROUND.

Image
Last edited by PETRIE on Wed Jul 01, 2009 11:33 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park Disc Golf Course

Post by PETRIE »

HERE ARE BETTER COPIES MAP OF THE PROPOSED COURSE LAYOUT.
(the right side of the large version got clipped off by this site)
Image
Last edited by PETRIE on Wed Nov 04, 2009 9:16 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park Disc Golf Course

Post by PETRIE »

HERE'S SOME PHOTOS OF THE FAIRWAYS
(yes, mowing/hay is an issue but we're working through those options)

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
smitty
Posts: 8009
Joined: Tue Aug 03, 2004 6:19 pm
Location: Walnut Valley

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park Disc Golf Course

Post by smitty »

Rick -

A few things: Realize that I have not been there to look at the property in person, and I do not know the limitations that have been put on you.

All the holes seem to be in the wide open, and may lack disc golf appeal. If you can get into the trees at all, I would say get into them. Even if we are only talking along the perimeter and follow the shape of the trees. The other option is to tee from the trees to the open (which you have done a couple of times) and teeing from the open into the trees.

It does look like you have some elevation to work with, so that could be fun.

Mowing will also be a problem. If the city is not willing to mow it, you may want to hunt out another area. If not you will and others will have a horrible time playing it during the spring and summer. We have a course here in Winfield that the Disc Golf Club "maintains". It was great the first time we cleaned it back up. We had 10-15 people out there working on all parts of the course. The last time it was 3 people that did all the mowing. We have now put it on the back burner until probably October.

Also, you may want to leave what may seem like to much room between baskets and next tee. This will give you room to grow and adapt as needed. Your course will change over the first few months of its development. It will be important to give it room to develop. A popular way to make a 9 hole course play like 18 is to add a second set of tees. Some courses even have 2 baskets per hole in smaller areas.

Finally the design IS THE MOST IMPORTANT part of your course. You may want to bring someone in with a little experience to help with this. Some times these people see the little things that can take a course from "another course" to "a great disc golf experience".

Hope you wanted feedback like this.
mrsenortyler
Posts: 2075
Joined: Tue Apr 05, 2005 2:11 pm
Location: Winfield
Contact:

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park Disc Golf Course

Post by mrsenortyler »

My buddy's house is in the bottom of those pictures. As much time as I've spent up there, I never knew there was all that space on top of the hill!
Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

Mr Senor Tyler,
Heck, there are tons of people that live in Manhattan that have no idea this area exists, so don't feel too bad.

Now, on to your buddy.... does this buddy of yours like disc golf? We would love to have a disc golf advocate from that neighborhood. That would be HUGE. We haven't had any opposition from neighboring property owners, but considering it's currently a quite little hay field the Parks & Rec. director wants to make sure those property owners are very aware of what's going on out there.

If your buddy is interested in hearing more about this project just let me know. We put the markers out there two months ago and I know they were still there as of yesterday so he could go walk it any time he wants. Please send me an e-mail at thepurplerick@yahoo.com if you and or your buddy wants to meet some of us up there to talk about the project.

Rick
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

Smitty,
Thanks a bunch for your feedback. I'm glad you jumped in right away. That is the sort of thing we were looking for from the KDGA.com crowd.

As with many disc golf course photos I’ve seen and taken, still photos do not do a very good job of representing the "vibe" of this hillside. The other thing to point out is that this area is just the starting point that if handled well by us local players will allow us to grow into an even more appealing area to the west (the circle drive middle area of Warner Park). But that may be years down the road.

Regarding the area we’re working on right now, everything is on a cross slope or uphill/downhill situation, elevation change is a constant factor. Plus most of the areas that look wide open on the map are by no means as simple as they appear.

We agree about going in and out of the trees. We have talked to the City Forestry supervisor a handful of times; one was even during a two hour walk-thru with the City Parks & Rec. decision makers. He was okay with us getting in the tree filled areas in some cases that are not shown on the map. One thing we have to, and want to, do is avoid an existing hiking trail that’s just inside the south tree line in places. We have not shown these alternative locations on the map because we’re still working with him on the details. So we will mention them in the meeting but plan on working them out during the construction process.

Yes, mowing is an issue and I wished I had more answers right now. What I do know is the City of Manhattan "hays" out most of Warner Park. In other words the City currently cuts and bales that field once per year and “gives” the bales to the City Zoo. Apparently a local farmer/company does the haying as contract work and keeps half of the bales to serve as payment for services rendered. So the current set-up costs the City zero dollars. It’s pretty poor quality hay so the City isn’t against changing (at least in part) how they deal with getting this area “cut” but there’s some departmental politics they have to work out, plus (and most importantly) any mowing would be a new expense to the City. Yes, we have suggested us disc golfers mowing it but they we not interested in that option, at least not yet. I can't blame them either.

So it is very playable starting right after they cut the hay (sometime between July-Sept.) clear until mid May when the grass starts to get tall again. So all we are asking the City to do is get a little mowing done for the couple months when the hay grass gets too tall. At the very least, we’ll probably end up with fairways that look kind of like the courses at Clinton Lake (Lawrence) or Rice Park (Topeka) during the months when the hay is growing, then everything will get cut down by August at the latest. We know the Parks staff is still working on details, numbers, etc. and I'm sure they’ll be ready to work a lot of that out in the July 6th meeting. So, we'll all know a lot more about the mowing after the July 6th meeting is over.

Regarding pin & basket placements, we do not plan to pour any concrete tee pads for a while just to make sure we like where the tee boxes are located. Plus we have not shown any alt. pin locations because we don't want to clutter up the map for the non-disc golfers that will be seeing it too.

As far as getting people involved that have laid out courses in the past, we're doing that as much as we can. It has been interesting to see who's willing to take us up on an offer of making a special trip to Manhattan to check it out. We'd be thrilled to get you up here to take a look. I wished we could have gotten that done the weekend of the Little Apple Open.

Feel free to PM me if you want to set up a guided tour.

Later,
Rick
Last edited by PETRIE on Fri Jul 03, 2009 11:11 am, edited 1 time in total.
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
rlangton
Posts: 64
Joined: Sun May 17, 2009 9:37 am

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by rlangton »

Hope to see you there! Maybe we can get in a round Sunday.

This course does look like it has potential. I agree that elevation changes do not show up well in pictures.
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

FOR THOSE OF YOU THAT STILL MIGHT NOT KNOW WHERE THIS IS, HOPEFULLY THIS WILL HELP.

Image
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

MORE COURSE PHOTOS, HOPEFULLY THESE ARE A LITTLE MORE EXCITING

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image

Image
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
User avatar
PETRIE
Posts: 355
Joined: Mon May 19, 2008 12:45 pm
Location: Manhattan, Kansas

Re: Manhattan's Warner Park - PROGRESS REPORT & INVITATION

Post by PETRIE »

Sorry if you've been hanging on the edge of your seat to hear how things went in the Parks & Rec. Advisory Board meeting on Monday Night. I quickly shifted my disc golf time to getting practiced up for the Sunflower State Games... I don't want to be too rusty when I arrive in T-Town!

The meeting went really well. All Advisory Board members and Parks & Rec. staff members are still supportive of the project and are looking forward to working with us on this getting it installed.

I'll log on soon to give a more detailed report of the meeting soon.

Later,
Rick
Come to Manhattan. Play our courses.

Image
Post Reply