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Belton community builds new disc golf course

Central Texas has a brand new disc golf course to enjoy thanks to the hard work of some Belton organizations and donations from local businesses.

BELTON, Texas —

The City of Belton bought an old 85-acre golf course right next to heritage park in 2018, but the City still has not developed it. 

Little did City officials know, local disc golf enthusiasts had a idea years in the making. 

“I've seen families come out for years after Thanksgiving and Christmas, after the meal, to come out and throw disks,” Belton Disc Golfer Course manager Woody Durbin said. “It’s a great thing.”

The Belton Disc Golfers community group wanted to have a course in the city for a long time, but they never had a property that was big enough. 

That group and Open Disc Golf Championship, a volunteer sports organization, worked with the City of Belton to put a temporary course in and hold a professional tournament over the weekend. 

Together they raised just under $14,000 and cleared parts of the land to get the course built in about four months. 

The organizers got to put their own spin on the course. 

Some baskets, or "holes," are out in the open. Others are on hills, behind tree lines, or even near rivers. 

Tournament organizer Neal Dambra said it was important to make the course unique. 

“Since you don’t really have greens that you roll on, our green is essentially the air or the wind," Dambra said. "You try to make the putting as interesting as possible."

The course had a soft opening March 17, and Durbin said they have seen about 75 people come out every day. 

Their goal was to hold a major PGDA tournament right after the opening, and they succeeded. 

Over the weekend, 97 competitors came out to compete in the “Discraft presents ‘The Open at Belton’” tournament. The tournament gave out a total of $14,000 based on entry fees. 

Durbin said it was a major success. 

“To build a course and have an A-tier tournament is very seldom ever done, if I’m not the first,” Durbin said.  

The real winner was the Belton community and the people who had waited for years to play disc golf in their own town. 

“I’ve been fighting for 20 years to get it here," Durbin said. "So, it is here."

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