Trying to preserve a historic and still challenging layout
August 14, 2018 by Bennett Wineka in Livewire, News with 0 comments
An online petition begun by the Southern California disc golf community to halt the construction of a maintenance building and access road at La Mirada Regional Park in California is gaining popularity.
The proposed construction plan would remove a large portion of the Back-18 course. La Mirada has two 18 hole courses, Lakeside-18 and Back-18, and a championship level course that combines holes from both courses. The championship level course — which the planned construction would jeopardize — has hosted a number of significant, national-scale events in the past.
Ryan Spohr of West Coast Disc Golf started the petition last week and within barely 24 hours it had already well surpassed the initial signature goal of 1,000. As of this publication, the total is over twice that amount, but even more support from the wider disc golf community would send an even greater message. Jeff Spohr, Ryan’s brother and co-owner of WCDG, is a popular tournament director in the area and was instrumental in organizing the Disc Golf World Tour’s first event in 2016, the La Mirada Open.
Disc golf has been at the park since 1976, and the venue has also played host to the PDGA National Tour in the past. The Golden State Classic was the very first NT in 2003 and ran through 2008. Tim Selinske, who passed away in 2009, was the TD of the GSC. The West Coast Disc Golf Championship has been held at the course and attracted top professionals, like Paul McBeth and Nate Sexton in the past. The So Cal Series Championship is another annual tournament known to draw touring pros and talented locals from the area. Typically, the final round of the event is played on the championship level course, known as the Golden State Layout. You can see the course and layout the petition is trying to save in coverage of the 2016 So Cal Series Championship via Central Coast Disc Golf below, featuring Paul McBeth and Bobby Musick, with Nate Sexton on commentary:
