By Gary Lloyd
The disc golf course in Clay is now expected to open in mid or late June, according to Clay Mayor Charles Webster.
Webster said last week that a contractor is working on the tee boxes, which he’s hoping are completed in the next week or two.
Renovations on the disc golf course hit a stumbling block in April when the Clay City Council discovered that the project will cost an additional $15,000 due to labor costs involved with pouring concrete slabs. The council voted to allocate the additional funds to the project.
The city council in February approved allocating $25,000 for the development of the two-course, 36-basket frisbee disc golf course. In February, the course was expected to open in April. In April, Webster said he believed the course would open in May.
The course will be located around the perimeter of Clay City Park. The funds paid for the locks, concrete, galvanized pipes, signs, benches and baskets.
There will be no charge to use the course, and it will be open during daylight hours, the same as the rest of Clay City Park.
Other area courses are in Trussville, Springville, Inverness and the Greensprings area. The city of Clay hopes to attract tournaments with the new disc golf course.
Disc golf is similar to the type with balls, except the players try to throw the discs into baskets instead of hitting balls into holes. If they don’t succeed the first time, the players pick up the disc where it landed and try again. The goal is to get the discs into the baskets on the fewest tries possible. The number of courses in the nation have doubled from 2000 to 2008.
When the disc golf course is complete, the city of Clay will start work on building a BMX course. Plans for the track are still preliminary. It will be located behind the baseball fields at Clay City Park.
Contact Gary Lloyd at news@trussvilletribune.com and follow him on Twitter @GaryALloyd.