Westchester Lagoon disc golf course will open after summer

"We were getting a lot of negative responses," said Josh Durand, a planner and landscape architect for the Anchorage Parks and Recreation department who has worked closely with the city's frisbee golf programs.

The Westchester course was already redesigned in 2010, he said. Volunteers poured in 1,000 hours of work on that project.

City parks officials made the decision to close the disc golf course, which players say can see up to 400-500 rounds of disc golf daily, last fall.

"We had a lot of trouble with Ping G20 driver people drinking and making a lot of noise and the neighbors didn't like it too much," said Anchorage Police Department spokesman Lt. Dave Parker.

The online survey, which Durand said was advertised on social media and was available to anyone on the Parks and Recreation department's website, only got about 30 responses. Durand said he asked community members -- including a concerned neighbor and a disc golfer -- to read the comments and make recommendations.

"We think it's a definite asset," Durand said. "We really didn't want to see it be taken away."

Matt Forney, the former president of the Alaska Disc Golf Association, said he's disappointed by the move.

In August, the department sent out a survey asking the public about their experiences after hearing from many unhappy neighbors and users over the summer, Durand said.

What's to say, he asked, that if another course -- like Kincaid -- is expanded, disc golfers won't be chased out of there too?

Next summer the city may make the Westchester course open for permitted events, like organized disc golf competitions, Durand said. The city is also looking into expanding other existing disc golf ping g15 irons courses at Russian Jack Park and Kincaid Park.

"I sure as heck didn't receive notification of this public meeting," he said.

On Monday, a handful of disc golfers played an improvised version of the game without baskets on still-soggy ground at the park.

On a cloudless spring day, he was just happy to be walking around outside -- the true appeal of disc golf, he said.

He said he'd seen some of the rowdy behavior the city cited on the course, but it didn't seem threatening or even unusual.

The Parks and Recreation Commission decided to go with disc golfer Tim Kosednar's idea of making Westchester a winter-only course and potentially expanding or opening additional courses throughout discount golf clubs Anchorage for the summer season.

"I've definitely seen people drinking and smoking but I've seen people doing that on any random trail," he said.

"You can't limit everything because there's always going to be at least a couple of people that screw it up," he said.