Friday won't just be the last day of the year. It's will also be one of the last days ever for disc golf at Pease Park.
At least that's the way the City of Austin sees it. Come Monday, the city plans on removing the chained baskets which serve as holes in disc golf. But even without the baskets, some disc golfers said Thursday they plan to play through.
It wasn't just the pleasant weather that drew dozens of disc golfers to Pease Park Thursday afternoon; it's the knowledge that disc golf, complete with baskets and chains, will cease at Pease on New Year's Day weekend..
"Everybody is here to pay homage to a park where we have played for 20-plus years," said Tray Dean, who has played disc golf in Austin since 1990.
City officials say it's just become too difficult to sustain an 18-hole disc course that runs alongside Shoal Creek.
"The creek and how it floods, it is just any amount of funding that we put for infrastructure will be wiped away with floods," said Ricardo Soliz, who is with the Austin Parks & Recreation Department Planning and Design.
But some disc golfers said they feel they're being blamed as much Mother Nature.
"It is just a shame," said Ryan Nacole, who moved to Austin from New York in March. "The reasons that they give for it I do not think are valid," he said. "If they are going to kick (disc) golfers out of there for littering and ruining the ground, why do not they just have a ban on weather?" Nacole asked.
"We are not destroying this park," said John Hovey, who has played disc golf in Austin since 1986. "This park did not become a moonscape because of disc golf."
Disc golfers are not happy because they say a new course at Roy Guerrero Park that was supposed to be the trade off, isn't close to being built yet.
"The other one is not even up yet," said Dean. "Tthey promised they would not pull this one until they had the other one in the ground. That is kind of said that they reneged on that a little bit," he said.
As for playing at one of the city's four other disc courses, said Nacole, "Why should I have to, I live two blocks away?"
Players we talked to say the city can take the baskets and chains from Pease Park, but disc golf will remain, no matter how you spin it.
"I am marking trees because when these baskets go away, this could be Austin's next premier object course," said Hovey.
"Oh I will still play," said Nacole. "I will just put a marker up or something and hit a tree; they are not stopping us," he said.
City officials say the plan is to have the disc golf course at Guerrero Park open by late summer. In the meantime, they're hoping disc golfers will use the four other disc courses around the city.
