News

Happy New Year to everyone in the 717FDC. I hope you’ve had a good holiday season and have been getting some rounds in with the mild winter we’ve had so far.

MEMERSHIP INFO:

Membership is now open for 2023. If you’re a new member wishing to join or an old timer looking to renew your membership with the club, please head over to the clubs website and fill out the membership form. http://www.717fdc.com/membership As in past years, being a member is required to participate in the weekly points league. You will also be invited to participate in a year end finale event. Since we are a PDGA affiliate club, club membership can also get you $5 off your PDGA membership (contact me for the discount code). All the other benefits are laid out on the membership page linked above. Tags have been ordered and are on their way. Rest assured, we will get one to you as soon as we can.

LEAGUE INFO:

For the 2023 season, we will be sticking with UDisc Leagues and the “Flex Start” format. We feel this was the main reason we saw the high participation numbers in past years and want to continue this trend. Rounds may be played anytime from Friday thru Monday as long as your card contains 3 club members. The exception to this will be the scheduled rounds at Cove Valley. Rounds at CV will be a fixed 1:00PM start time on the Sunday they are schedule.

We will continue with the same divisions as last year. This worked well to tighten up the points races going in to the end of the season. When you check in for your league round, you’ll be asked to select a division. To keep things simple we are using the same divisions as we used for the 2022 season. Recreational/Novice (REC), Intermediate (INT), and Advanced/Open (ADV). Please choose the division you feel best suits your playing stye and competitive needs. If you’re not sure what division you should play in, just ask. We’ll try and guide your decision. And please, no sand bagging! This is supposed to be fun for everyone.

This years we’ve done away with our monthly mini’s. While turnout was good, we clearly have higher numbers with the flex start format.

One other change we’ve made is that players will be required to participate in at least 5 weekly league events to be qualified for the year end finale. We feel is in the best interest of fairness that members who regularly participate be eligible for finale prizes.

The full league schedule is currently published under the events page on this website. It is also available to see in UDisc.

TOURNAMENT INFO:

This year the club will be hosting 3 sanctioned C-Tier Tournaments and 1 non-sanctioned tournaments. Mark your calendar’s now with the following dates.

2/18/23 – Annual Whispering Falls Freeze (Ice Bowl). BYOP doubles tournament benefitting a local food bank and children’s backpack programs.

4/29/23 – 16th Annual Whispering Falls Harvest. 2 round tournament at Whispering Falls.

5/20/23 – 3rd Annual Rhodes Grove Rambler. The camp really appreciated the success of last years event and has invited us back for more.

7/29/23 – Ditto Duo. 2 round tournament at Ditto Farms.

Tournament pages are preliminarily published now on this site as well as on Disc Golf Scene.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read. We look forward to an exciting year with the club. See you all out there soon. All club events can be viewed on their respective DGScene pages as well. https://www.discgolfscene.com/clubs/717FDC/events

717FDC members and Whispering Falls Patrons,

It is with a great deal of excitement that we officially announce plans for a redesign of the Whispering Falls Disc Golf Course.  

The SHORT STORY:  WE NEED YOU!!  This will be a tremendous undertaking that we are calling on the 717 crew to rally and help us get holes ready for the redesign.  This includes everything from cutting and whacking to simply clearing or piling things.  0 experience necessary….we will find something for everyone.  A kickoff meeting and walkthrough will be held APRIL 3^rd STARTING @ 9:00AM.  We will be showing the layout and going over general concepts for fairway clearing.  Future meetings/walkthroughs will be held.  We would like everyone involved to be on the same page.  NO CUTTING ON YOUR OWN WITHOUT APPROVAL PLEASE.  We want to enable you to work when you can but within the agreements we have with the park committee.  All questions on this please direct to Russell Johnston.

The LONG STORY:  15 years of exponential growth and success at the Falls has not gone unnoticed by the park community.  It has also brought a lot of lessons learned that we have worked with the park committee to address while designing a disc golf facility representative of the disc golf community that has been built around it.  We use the term disc golf “facility” purposefully.  Within the redesign of the current Whispering Falls course will be two shorter, more technical 18 hole courses that combine to a longer, tournament caliber 18 hole course.  

But that is not all…….for those that are unaware, Antrim Township recently purchased a very large parcel of land adjacent to the park that we have been approved to install a championship length and caliber course.  2 distinct courses, 7 different layouts, 72 baskets, 126 disc golf holes….boom!!  

We have an approved 3 phase approach that will begin with the redesign of the existing course (phase 1) starting right away.  Phase 2 will include a 9 hole loop to be installed using the new space that will connect to the current holes 19-27 for a 2nd course that will be used until we can get to phase 3.  Phase 3 will be removal holes 19-27 and baskets reused to complete the 18 holes in the new space.  Also included in Phase 3 are concrete tee pads for all holes and a 2nd set of baskets for the new course.  Phase 3 has park approval but is dependent on a number of other park conditions/renovations that have yet to solidify, as well as, getting funding approval in next year’s cycle.  It is a lot and more details will be forthcoming.  

Many of you have been aware that plans were in the works and have already begun asking questions.  Please direct your questions to Russell Johnston in a PM and he will be happy to answer them.  We do not want to engage in an online discussion which can lead to confusion and problems.

The first workday/meetup will be APRIL 3 starting at 9:00am.  Depending on the response, we will do a full walkthrough and go over the “ground rules” and “concepts of fairway clearing” so that folks can potentially work in a coordinated manner but piecemeal. 

Please comment here if you are able to make at least a walkthrough on the 3rd.  If there is enough interest, we could do a 2nd walkthrough later in the day.  If you are unable to make the 3rd but are interested in helping with the project, please let us know.  We would like to compile a list of folks to include in specific communications.  Many hands make light work.  An hour or two here and there makes a huge difference so please consider helping.

As a reminder, please send questions and concerns in a PM to Russell Johnston and not an open forum debate.  Thanks in advance for your support.

Happy New Year to everyone in the 717FDC. I hope you’ve had a good holiday season and have been getting some rounds in with the mild winter we’ve had so far.

Hard to believe but 2022 marks the 15th anniversary for the club. The growth we’ve seen over the past couple of years is astounding and we’re excited to see where this year takes us.

MEMERSHIP INFO:

Membership is now open for 2022. If you’re a new member wishing to join or an old timer looking to renew your membership with the club, please head over to the clubs website and fill out the membership form. http://www.717fdc.com/membership As in past years, being a member is required to participate in the weekly points league. You will also be invited to participate in a year end finale event. Since we are a PDGA affiliate club, club membership can also get you $5 off your PDGA membership (contact me for the discount code). All the other benefits are laid out on the membership page linked above. Tags have been ordered and are on their way. Rest assured, we will get one to you as soon as we can.

LEAGUE INFO:

2021 was a hugely successful year for the club. We saw more than double the participation from the previous year. We try our best to accommodate everyone and make leagues as enjoyable and competitive as we can. Our format is ever evolving and 2022 is no different.

For the 2022 season, we will be sticking with UDisc Leagues and the “Flex Start” format. We feel this was the main reason we saw the high participation numbers last year and want to continue this trend. Rounds may be played anytime from Friday thru Monday as long as your card contains 3 club members. In an effort to tighten up the points race and make things more competitive, this year we will be competing in divisions. When you check in for your league round, you’ll be asked to select a division. To keep things simple we are using the same divisions as we used for the 2021 finale. Recreational/Novice (REC), Intermediate (INT), and Advanced/Open (ADV). Please choose the division you feel best suits your playing stye and competitive needs. If you’re not sure what division you should play in, just ask. We’ll try and guide your decision. And please, no sand bagging! This is supposed to be fun for everyone.

We’ve heard your voices! “We miss getting together as a larger group!!!”. Well, we miss that too. So for 2022 we are introducing our “Monthly Mini”. One weekend a month we will abandon the flex start format and hold a mini tournament at 1:00 on the Sunday of that weekend. The cost will be $5 ($1 to club, $4 to payout) with an optional $1 CTP. Payout will be by division and the number of payout spots will be determined by the number of participants in that division.

The full league schedule including the monthly Mini’s will be published on the club’s website on Mon. Jan. 17th.

TOURNAMENT INFO:

This year the club will be hosting 4 sanctioned C-Tier Tournaments and 2 non-sanctioned tournaments. Mark your calendar’s now with the following dates.

2/5/22 – Annual Whispering Falls Freeze (Ice Bowl). BYOP doubles tournament benefitting a local food bank and children’s backpack programs.

4/2-3/22 – 15th Annual Whispering Falls Harvest. 2 round tournament at Whispering Falls. Sat. will be Pro/Adv/Int division. Sun. will be Rec divisions.

5/21/22 – 2nd Annual Rhodes Grove Rambler. The camp really appreciated the success of last years event and has invited us back for more.

6/18/22 – MDX8. The crosstown is back again this year in the 1 day format we tried last year. 1 AM round and either Ditto or the Falls. Travel to the other course for the afternoon round. Starting course will be determined by division anounced later.

8/27-28/22 – Ditto Duo. 2 round tournament at Ditto Farms. Sat. will be Pro/Adv/Int divisions, Sun. will be Rec divisions.

11/24/22 – Gobbler at the Grove. 1 round fundraiser tournament at Rhodes Grove. Proceeds will be split between the camp and another local charity.

Tournament pages are preliminarily published now on this site as well as on Disc Golf Scene.

If you’ve made it this far, thanks for taking the time to read. We look forward to an exciting year with the club. See you all out there soon. All club events can be viewed on their respective DGScene pages as well. https://www.discgolfscene.com/clubs/717FDC/events