It would seem haters of disc golf aren’t discouraged by winter weather when it comes to vandalizing local courses.
For the third time in five months a Whitehorse disc golf course has been rendered unusable with the destruction of the Solstice DiscGolfCourse last Thursday night.
“Obviously, I am quite angry, however not surprised,” said Ryan Norquay, president of the Whitehorse Disc Golf Association. “I knew once the city posted something in the paper about the location we would be exposed … This is the third time and hopefully the last. We still have no answers and no suspects.”
On Friday morning WDGA treasurer Alan Hill discovered 12 out of 19 targets (a.k.a. “tonals” or “tone cans,”) had been destroyed at the course located at the McIntyre Creek pump house off College Drive.
It appears the tonals were bludgeoned with the blunt side an axe head. Some of the wooden structures that held the tonals were chopped to pieces.
“They stuck to the woods; all the tone cans in the woods were smashed,” said Hill. “All the ones in the open … were all left.”
“It’s disappointing for sure,” he added. “We don’t know the motive of the person or people doing this. It’s cowardly how they are doing it … If there’s an issue with the course or what we’re doing out there, then they should step up and deal with it like adults and talk to us so we can figure it out.”
It is the same course the association used to host the inaugural WDGA Rendezvous Ice Bowl charity tournament last month that raised $1,220 for the Whitehorse Food Bank.
The first instance of course destruction took place in October when unknown culprits stole all 18 targets in the Takhini North Disc Golf Course. Two targets from the Solstice course were also taken at the time.
A little over a month later all 18 tonals were stolen from the Solstice course. The tonal posts – and what appeared to be ATV tire tracks – were left at the scene of the theft.
“The plan is to reinstall equipment,” said Norquay. “We have had a couple people come forward to donate money to replace equipment and install surveillance … From previous donations we have plenty of equipment to replace the targets.”
The layout of the current Solstice course is only temporary. The WDGA hopes to replace it with a world-class course this year. The association has received a license of occupation from Yukon government’s land management branch and is now waiting for approval by the City of Whitehorse, which will be discussing the matter in council over the coming weeks. The WDGA has secured funds from the Community Development Fund and a discount from an equipment manufacturer to help pay for the roughly $70,000 course.
Anyone with information on any of the three instances of course destruction, or who would like to donate to the club, are asked to contact the association at whitehorsedga@gmail.com.
“We want to find out who it is, not to charge them for smashing our cans, but to come up with a solution,” said Hill. “Disc golfers and disc golf courses get along with every other outdoor activity out there and to feel we are a burden or problem to the area we are in is very narrow-minded. They need to do some research and find out what disc golf is and know that we’re stewards of the land.”
Contact Tom Patrick at
tomp@yukon-news.com