Medina opens new ‘pretty challenging’ disc golf course at Gulf Street Park

Photos by Tom Rivers

MEDINA – The Village of Medina teamed with the Orleans County YMCA on a new 9-hole disc golf course. Most of the new course is in a wooded area at Gulf Street Park.

Hole 1 goes across the wide open grassy area of the park with the basket near the entrance to the woods. Then the next eight holes are in the wooded area. The village Department of Public Works cleared a path in the woods for the different disc golf holes.

The new course opened on Saturday. The tee boxes still need to be added, but the starting points are marked with pink flags for beginners or blue for more skilled players.

Manny Velez, 34, of Medina tried the course for the first time this afternoon. Velez is shown here before his first shot on the Hole 8. Velez has been playing disc golf for about two years.

“This is pretty challenging,” he said about Medina’s new course.

He likes the weaving paths in the woods, and how the course starts and ends in a loop. He said he is grateful to have a course so close by.

“Having it in town we don’t have to travel,” he said. “It’s awesome.”

The basket for Hole 8 is only a few feet from the water of Glenwood Lake.

Here is another view of the basket for Hole 8 with the lake in the background.

Manny Velez retrieves one of his frisbees that he threw a little too hard with it landing in the water. Velez said the lake is shallow near the course so it wasn’t hard to get the frisbee back.

Once the tee boxes are added, with the distance to the baskets noted, Velez said he can better calculate which frisbee to throw and how far.

He urged people to give disc golf a try, and to go easy on themselves in the beginning. It takes practice to learn how to angle the throws and get the right distance.

The basket for Hole 7 is tucked in close to many trees.

Medina’s DPW used a skid steer with a forestry head to carve a path in the woods, mulching brush and small trees.

Medina worked with the Orleans County YMCA to develop the course in a project funded by a grant from the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation. Albion did a similar project at Bullard Park.

The Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation gave the YMCA $20,000 to $24,000 to develop the projects with tee boxes, signs and baskets that are mounted in small concrete foundations – 8 inches wide by 20 inches deep.