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Andy Benore, a regular disc golfer at Cider Hill Farm, follows through on a throw at the course’s second hole. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
By Dominik Lobkowicz
The disc golf course at Cider Hill Farm in Waldoboro started off last year with just nine holes, but as of this past spring, the field and woodland course includes a full 18 holes and spans just under 4,900 feet.
Solar lights have also been added to the baskets (where golfers aim to land their discs) of nine holes in the field so golfers can play “nine at night,” said Jeff Hurd.
Hurd co-owns the 25-acre farm on Main Street with Josh Howell and Vero Poblete-Howell.
“This spring was kind of the push to pull it all together,” Josh Howell said. “We did a bunch of work in the woods in order to get our 18 holes,” build a kiosk with a map, score cards, and a collection box, and install permanent signs at all the tees, he said.
Though it is over nine-tenths of a mile long, Hurd and Howell said the Cider Hill Farm disc golf course is only mid-sized.
Howell said participation at the course is growing, but slowly because they haven’t done any promotion to speak of.
A core group of about five to seven people have helped build the course and play there all the time, but “little by little people have been trickling in,” he said.
Andy Benore, a member of the core group, said changes Howell and Hurd have made to the course have lengthened some of the holes and given the course a greater degree of difficulty overall.
“A third of the course is fully wooded; to me it’s a great equalizer because right after you play a 600-foot hole you’re going into the woods where length doesn’t matter,” Benore said. “You’ve got to throw an accurate toss, going either right to left, left to right, or dead straight in some cases.”
“The woods is where length doesn’t matter. Anyone can overtake someone else,” he said.
The course’s $3 green fees, collected on an honor system, go toward mowing and maintenance, Hurd said.
Sometimes, however, the length of the grass doesn’t matter: “We certainly put on snowshoes and do it all winter. We played 22 rounds in January,” Hurd said.
“We played in the first huge snowstorm,” he said. “It was like blowing 35, that was pretty fun. Hard, but it was fun.”
Hurd and Howell are starting up a weekly Thursday night league, and are planning to include a cash prize for the winning team.
The format and details of the tournament will be worked out at the first night, planned for Thursday, July 23 at 5:30 p.m. at the farm.
Anyone interested in participating should attend that initial meeting, Howell said.
Cider Hill Farm is located at 777 Main St. in Waldoboro.
