I got to play the Lawrence Park DGC in Kalispell when my wife and I were up there this past weekend. I didn't even know there was a course there. I only found out about it after stopping by the Sportsman and Ski Haus sporting goods store and saw they had a decent selection of Innova and Disc Mania discs. I got to talking to a local who was buying a disc and a guy who works there and they told me about the course. The course has 9 of the worst most pathetic (probably home made) baskets I have ever seen - they looked like they were made out of metal hangers and functioned like it too - and 9 of the smallest cement teepads I have ever seen - maybe 2 feet x 4 feet and that's being generous. My wife and I found the park to be very nice and thought it had huge potential for at least a great 9 hole course in the grassy area itself and I am not sure about the woods, I heard locals play an object course in the trees. We made our way through the poorly marked 9 holes as best we could and it was decent but I thought this would be a great area to get real baskets and tee pads and would be cool to see that course get laid out better for disc golf in a park. A very mediocre to poor course with a ton of potential that could be worked on if there was enough of a following in the area to make something happen.
The course is sad if you ask me. Really cool due to a 12 old Eagle Scout built it and the baskets. I worked with the park and remapped it to actually go the other way around the park, take advantage of sidewalks and roads as OB's and use what few trees there are. The parks bought one basket, and never returned my calls after that and just said budget cuts. Personally with all the land in MT it is sad that this is all K-Town can do. There are lot of other park users, walkers, and even 2 soccer fields that conflict with the course. It is unfortunately the type of course where someone will get hit with a disc and end the course. But if anyone is ever in town let me know, I can show the secret back nine. I'd recommend Buffalo Bob's way over this course at the KOA Campground between Whitefish and Kalispell.
Is there public acces to Buffalo Bobs? The hotel we stayed at was right between Lawrence Park and Buffalo Bobs. We drove by the 3 times we went up to Whitefish to eat and it made me wonder. I could definitely see the user conflicts that exist at Lawrence Park but it still seems like it could have a lot of potential even outside of the main park area.
Just pull down off 93 to the KOA campground and ask for Neil or Walt, the course is now private but they have passes, not sure of the cost. Agreed Lawrence Park has potential, and I haven't been in touch for a while but Val at parks and rec probably still has my map of the course playing the other direction in the park and using real baskets. I hope Kalispell gets a dedicated course one day, every tree in every park is getting painted.
Yeah Scott, know what you are saying, played that course several years ago. I would call those t pads "stepping stones" they are soooo small! It was a very nice area but I didn't stick around to play all the holes since the mosquitoes from the river nearby were out in force.