Nine holes, unused land
UMASS DARTMOUTH · 2016–2018
Nobody had a plan for the land. Getting nine baskets onto it took five student organizations, a budget hearing and a constitution.
9
holes, on ground the campus had no other plan for
5
campus organizations that all had to agree first
01Land nobody had a use for
I spent most of undergrad at the student newspaper, which turns out to be a good way to learn what a campus actually has in it. One of the things it had was a stretch of ground that appeared in no plan and served no department, and it had been that way for as long as anyone I asked could remember.
Disc golf needs very little: baskets, tee positions, and land nobody minds you walking across.
02The half that decides it
Drawing a course is the enjoyable part, and it doesn't settle anything. Nine holes on university ground meant five campus organizations had to agree, money had to come out of a student budget committee, and somebody had to write the document that asked for it.
I wrote the budget-hearing application, then the final budget packet, then the constitution for the club that would take the course over once it existed. None of them are interesting to read, and they're also the reason it got built. A committee doesn't fund a sketch, and a course with no governing body stops being maintained the year its founders graduate.
The paperwork was the course.
03Still in play
It was built by 2018 - nine holes on ground the university had no other plan for, funded out of a student budget and handed to a club with its own founding document.
People are still playing it.