Photo Credit: © Can Stock Photo Inc. / leekrob
In East Haddam, Conn., a small number of community members submitted a big idea to me—the town’s recreation director (and the only full-time staff member in the department). All of the members shared one thing in common—a passion for disc golf. While some courses already existed in Connecticut, most people in town had never heard of it. The three men responsible for presenting the idea spent many hours at any town meeting, kid’s birthday party, or other occasion explaining the sport (“No, it’s not a golf course in the middle of the woods”). After our meeting, they agreed to make a presentation to the full recreation commission in September 2014.
Gaining Support
Patrick Laffan, a founding member of the newly formed East Haddam Disc Golf Club, said in his presentation, “Disc golf has been growing steadily over the last few decades, but certain parts of the country seem to have a higher concentration of courses. For instance, I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago where pretty much every town had at least one or two courses. I moved to Connecticut in 2003 and was surprised that such a beautiful part of the country had so few courses. Specifically, East Haddam is 45 minutes from any course, but is unarguably one of the most picturesque areas of the state.”
He continued, “Fast forward to 2014 when I happened to meet a fellow disc golfer, Dan Carbo, at my child’s birthday party. We started talking about the need for a disc-golf course in town, and as it turns out we had both been brainstorming ideas, locations, etc. Soon after, we met Shawn Callaghan, another disc golfer from town who was eager to help. We decided to form some sort of organization that could present a public face to our cause, and this was how the East Haddam Disc Golf Club was formed.”