In this episode of the Elevate Utah Disc Golf podcast, hosts Nick Jennings, Dustin Hansen, Sean Kelly, and Scott delve into the creation and development of the River Bottoms disc golf course in Draper, Utah. The team shares the journey from the initial concept in late 2022 to the challenges faced in transforming the overgrown land into a unique and challenging course. They discuss the collaboration with the Draper Parks Department, the community's involvement in clearing the land, and the strategic design choices that make River Bottoms a distinctive course in Utah. The hosts also reflect on the course's rapid growth and its upcoming role in hosting a major disc golf tournament, highlighting the impact of community efforts and city support in elevating the course's status.
The episode also explores the personal experiences of the hosts and their favorite aspects of the River Bottoms course. They share anecdotes about the course's development, the challenges of designing a course with significant out-of-bounds areas, and the satisfaction of seeing the course come to life. The hosts engage in a lively discussion about the course's unique features, the community's role in its maintenance, and the future enhancements planned to further improve the course. With humor and insight, they provide listeners with a comprehensive look at what makes River Bottoms a standout destination for disc golfers in Utah.
Welcome in to the Elevate Utah Disc Golf podcast. I'm your host Nick Jennings joined by Dustin Hansen.
[00:00:33] Sean Kelley:
Sean Kelly. And I'm Scott.
[00:00:35] Nick Jennings:
And we are excited to bring you this episode about the River Bottoms today and kind of the the journey of really cutting that course down from what it like, it was kinda running rampant, you know, that that property was. So the River Bottoms is a disc golf course in Draper, Utah, and it is very unique to Utah disc golf. There there's a lot of elements to that course that you don't see really anywhere else that I've played at least, in Utah. And so, again, we're really excited to talk about the River Bottoms, and kinda like the the makings of that course.
So, Scott, what when did the the thought of the River Bottoms come about?
[00:04:55] Sean Kelley:
It must have been, early twenty twenty three. It must have been no. Maybe it was later than that because I remember being down there walking around before the giant snowstorm, the giant snow year. So that was two winters ago. So that would have been 2022. It was 2022. Twenty '20 '2 is that. So the end of twenty twenty two is when I reached out to, to Draper and said, hey. What do you guys think? It didn't the conversation didn't start with that property. Just kinda the same with the Wonder. You know? The the conversation started with, across the street from there.
[00:05:35] Nick Jennings:
Oh, like, on the other side. Oh, like the the park with the softball fields and the dog park? No. Not not Galena.
[00:05:43] Sean Kelley:
Downriver from Galena. Just literally across the road from where it is, in the river bottoms down there. Oh. It started on the the other side because I thought that was that's the place where we wanted to be because that's where all the trees are and stuff. But, they said, oh, well, that's Salt Lake County land. So we can't do that. But how about the across the street? We own across the street, and we really don't know what to do with that. We've never been able to do anything with it. What do you think about that? So I I said, you know what? We can probably put a fun beginner level course down there.
And,
[00:06:15] Scott Belchak:
we just kinda got to work, and we didn't build a beginner friendly course down there. Oh, I feel yeah. I feel like I feel like we went into that course. And they were like, yeah. We're gonna build a very friendly beginner course. I think originally, it was nine holes. The the concept was nine holes. Yeah. We're just gonna stay in that front part. And then once we broke into that back area, we we realized, like, oh, there's a lot a lot of space out here. Yeah. But, yeah, I think we, we convinced we convinced
[00:06:49] Sean Kelley:
them that we were gonna build a a beginner friendly course. Well, we We turned into a We thought that's what we were gonna build. We thought we thought we were gonna build that because, it once again, it's another that's that property is another property that we just put disc golf in because it was e it was easy. And, we were told by Draper that they really want one up in in, Suncrest. And so we thought, well, let's just build one here, and then we'll start thinking about the next one, the the one that we all wanna build, which is up there. You know? So just, like, the similarities between the Wonder and and Draper is kind of interesting because they both kind of started the same way where, you know, what do you think about this idea? No. How about this idea? Okay. So let's do that idea.
But Draper's been really fun to work with. They've been, they've been great partners. And you you know what? I think the big difference between working with Draper and working with other municipalities is that it seems like the city funds their parks, and they've determined that parks and open space and trails are important to their citizens' well-being, and they they prioritize it, and they fund the parks department. So, I think a lot of parks departments that we talk to are just they're tired. They've got a lot of on their plate, and they're working really hard. And and Draper's no different than that, except that they've got more people to spread the burden around to. And so they're more, prone to take on projects because they're not as broken as other municipalities' parks departments are, where they're just trying to keep their heads above water.
[00:08:29] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. So, obviously, Sean, you were obvious you were also involved kinda in that inception of the course down there. Walk us through what your initial thoughts of the property were when you first laid eyes on it.
[00:08:45] Scott Belchak:
My initial thoughts going into it were, like, I was just picking away negatives. It's just a big open space. There's no trees, no obstacles. Secondly, there's a a giant, like, public biking park or biking lane that went through it. So we knew we were gonna be dealing with, you know, the public, come and go and back and forth. It was a great space. A lot of the stuff we wanted to use. We found out that, you know, just where where the line was from what was it? Riverton
[00:09:24] Sean Kelley:
in Draper? With Utah, state of Utah. Yeah. The state of Utah owns the Jordan River itself.
[00:09:31] Scott Belchak:
So once we got a an actual, an actual layout of the land we were allowed to use, we kinda we kinda realized there was a, like, a a few holes that we weren't gonna be able to actually put in because they they lied on the Riverton side. And then and then, initially, with it just it being a nine hole course, it was gonna be pretty set in stone. It was just, alright. You know, four up, five down, just this little area. It was gonna be, you know, fairly simple, trying to get the trees on the edges and stuff like that involved. And then I think it was it was at one point, Scott had, drawn up, like, a nine whole course.
And then just looking at it without going into that back area now where, like, whole nine, ten, 11, 12, 13, 14 are, We had we didn't really explore it. And then we walked back there. And We we it it was more like Vietnam. It it was Yeah. Had your machete. It was I mean, you couldn't walk through the actual brush. Like, it was just twist it was all vines and twist and turn, and it was overhead, and you would just get caught. Like, you were just trying to walk through. And it's it it was all thistle. Like, so much thistle was out there. So you'd be walking, just be getting hit with the thorns and That was awful. You know. And you you just kinda were like, oh, man. This is gonna be rough. Well, and It just it just had a it had a it had a rough canvas to start with. Well, the difference between the first time I walked it and when we started cutting it in was so different because it
[00:11:08] Sean Kelley:
the first time I walked it was was the fall before that big that big wet year, and there wasn't any weeds out there. Like, it was everything was flat. You could see everything. There was nothing out there. Yeah. And I remember thinking, okay. Well, there's there's nothing out here. So Yeah. It's a drastically different course from spring to winter. And then but but but this was this was we haven't we've only been down there now since there's been two wet winters. Mhmm. So we actually haven't seen what that place looks like after a dry winter. And so this has been a dry winter. But the first time I walked out down there, I was just like, okay. There's nothing out here. And now when we walked out there before we cut it, it was so different because some of those some of those grasses were 10 feet tall. Yep.
[00:11:56] Scott Belchak:
They were huge. Huge. Like, Sean, where are you? Yeah. We couldn't yeah. It was Marco. I mean, you you found, like, little deer dens out there that you would never even see. And plus it was also, you know, we were fearful of just the the neighboring houses back there. Nobody had been back there. Nobody was playing in their backyard ever. And these people had a pristine spot. I mean, there was a couple little forts out there. Couple guy one guy had, like, a shooting range, like, out there, like, on a tree. Yeah. You know, I'd like to talk about this a little bit because because there's not there's not a lot of people who understand this.
[00:12:33] Sean Kelley:
But when you're when you're first boots on the ground on a location that that you know is going to be a disc golf course and no one else really knows about it yet, and you're out there walking around, you almost feel like you're You're trespassing. Like, you're in trespassing or, like, you're in secret and you don't really want people to know what you're doing. You know? Like, you just you don't like, do I tell this person? Like, what are you doing over there? Well, I'm just walking around in the weeds. What do you you know? And at some points, you could feel the eyes from people just glaring out their kitchen windows and being like,
[00:13:05] Scott Belchak:
why are these two guys walking out here? You know, just in the middle, like because you there's nothing out there. There's no paths. There's no nothing. And we were just, like, tromping through Mhmm. Like, you know, heavy brush. And we're just scoping and pointing and looking and, you know, I could see, like, they're just their worry meant coming up and, like, what's going on? Yeah. What's going on? What's going on? Are they building apartments? Yeah. Like, exactly. Like but it was. I mean and there was a little bit of pushback, I think, initially. Yeah. Not too much. Not too much. But what what I mean, once we kinda got out there, like, the potential of all that land I mean, there's there's some there was so much space out there. It was just kinda like we we would we would because there are, like, a few clumps of trees out in that back corner. And so that was kinda like the the key to unlock, like, a a good course was like, we need to get back here and we need to get, you know, obstacles. We need to get just just things to to throw around, throw through.
Yeah. Yeah. We don't have a little bit of challenge so that it wasn't everything just wasn't just this big open,
[00:14:11] Sean Kelley:
fairway. Yeah. Because we don't have the budget for for, like, 18 giant triple mandos.
[00:14:17] Scott Belchak:
Or a And 40 gigs Exactly. 50 trees. Yeah. But and then and then so at that point, once we started, like, laying out different, you know, just different course layouts and stuff like that, we started getting a little bit more intriguing in playing, playing with how the fairway shaped up because anyone who's played it has noticed that there's a lot of out of bounds. And and that's your nemesis out there is the out of bounds. And the wind. String line. And the wind. Yeah. But Marked out of bounds. Marked out of bounds. Yeah. Staked staked out of bounds. Staked out of bounds. And I think in general, like, even from its initial concept with a lot of people that were playing it, they didn't like it because of the fact that, yeah, this should be an easy hole. Like, I just gotta throw it straight down this fairway. It's like a it's a it could be a dogleg left, dogleg right, whatever. But, yeah, I should be able to and then you're just throwing out of bounds, and you're just whatever. But, yeah, I should be able to and then you're just throwing out of bounds, and you just you're you're pulling these five and sixes on par threes, and you're like Into waist high grasses.
And so it was kind of almost like a little bit of a, you know, scramble of your brain and being like, why am I playing so badly? Like, there's nothing that I have to throw around through or avoid. Like, I literally just need to throw and it it's that's where it became this, like you know, I'm like, oh, there's there's something here. This is a really challenging course. Mhmm. You know? And then you just designing the fairways became, initially, like, how how how are we gonna make this challenging? And, I think that was kinda, like, one of the fun things we got to do. Yeah. Not that cutting through all that brush wasn't fun because that was a lot of fun.
It was very Following following Jeff. Shout out to Jeff who drove that tractor. And just I put on a yellow vest, and I was just like, just follow because the so the parks department itself didn't really get our concept as to how we wanted to do it. And you couldn't stake anything out there. You couldn't run spray paint lines and being like, hey. This is this is the edge. Follow the edge. So I put on a high vis vest, and I walked in front of a a giant brush mower. And I was like, just follow me through this brush, and I just would just trample through, trip fall down, get up, and, you know, and this this this guy, Jeff, just followed me on a tractor, and we just outlined and made the outline of the all these fairways. Ways. And then I was just like, alright. Now mow everything down. But we kept initial, you know, initial bushes and stuff like that. And we we tried to make it, you know, just just to have some sort of obstacles in the way. But like I said, I think your nemesis out there is the out of bounds, and I think players who play it, you know, find that out real quick, which I think has has made it a very unique course, like, in the valley. Yeah. Because there's not a lot of, like, courses where literally you just you're, you know, you're
[00:17:10] Sean Kelley:
you're just battling out of bounds. On 17 out of 18 holes. Yeah. Well significant out of bounds. So so Landon Adams, I was playing with him this this last week, and and he said, you know, I love this course because it's you versus yourself out here. Yep. There's no luck involved with playing your round out here. It's you versus your skill level, and there's no tree ricochets to hit. Like, there's not a ton of that. It's like, if you can execute, you can score well. And if you can't, you're you're not gonna score well. So I I we don't have a lot of courses like that. You know, Creekside has a lot of luck involved, plus it's a little short. You know, roots is is kinda like that, but this one is is is at a different level because you need to have a certain amount of skill to be able to to execute at that level. You know? You can't be a a noob and score well out of the river bottoms.
[00:18:04] Scott Belchak:
But it came, like I mean, I think, like, the unique part of, like, the designing those those holes in general, like because if you go out of bounds and you don't come in, you're out of bounds early. Mhmm. Like, you're not you know? But it also it also is it's a testament to, like, your your your shot placement off a drive. And I I think a lot of courses, you know, going back to hitting ricochets or getting have it being lucky and stuff like that, like or even when you shank it out out wide, like, you know, you may have to scramble, but you you're not, you're not penalized.
But these these for me, at least at least with, my drives, like, it it it was a lot of, just just learning, you know, how to place your shot and where you want it to go Yeah. Which has been very helpful in my game. And I dare say
[00:18:55] Nick Jennings:
it's a pretty substantial test of mental fortitude out there as well. Yeah. Because
[00:19:00] Scott Belchak:
you can you can let it snowball quick. Oh, yeah. You can well well, you can play really well. Yeah. And then, like, I mean, I've been there. I know, Nick, you've been there. Oh, yeah. You know, where, like, you just pull a you can pull a eight
[00:19:13] Sean Kelley:
Oh, yeah. I mean, starting 10. Ruin your whole game. Yeah. I mean, starting on starting on Hole 6, really, is, like, the course kinda kinda kinda lulls you to sleep at at first. Mhmm. And then Hole 6 shows up, and you're like, wait a minute. That's the river right there, and there's a cliff, and there's a fence, and it's you know, I'm gonna lose a disc. And then hole seven is is a tough birdie, and which you can take a six on if you go out of bounds early really easily. Miss the And then hole Eight's kind of a sleepy little hole, but then you're you're at hole nine. And hole Nine's a a six waiting to happen if you're not careful. And then then you're into that back section where anything can happen. Mhmm. And right now, we're finishing really hard. We've got we've got 16 in a long par three position, which is almost unburdiable by mere mortals.
17 is in is in its long spot, and eighteen's in its long par four spot. So the course right now is playing I don't know. It's pretty tough right now. It is very tough. I I really like the layout right now, though. And I freaking blasted an eight down out there. Yeah.
[00:20:13] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. It was pretty impressive to watch. Fun. Now you get I mean, like I said, you you feel good playing well when you leave that course and you played well. Like, it's a good feeling, but it it can it can you can eat your lunch out there Yeah. Very easily. And it I think it shocks a lot of people because I've seen a lot of good players go out there, and you almost expect them to play well. And then for some odd reason, they almost don't understand why. Like, they're like, why am I playing so bad? Mhmm. But and I I don't know. I think it's a good it's a good testament to your mental game as you're playing. Yeah. You know?
[00:20:46] Sean Kelley:
So let's talk about, what it what it took to to get this thing funded and installed
[00:20:53] Scott Belchak:
and how that all looked. Yeah. Should I do that? I I think you're the the man for the job there. Yeah. I mean, I was gonna go I I go all the way back to our our first meeting with, Rhett. I'm blanking on the second guy. Brad. Brad. Rhett and Brad. Yeah. We we met with them at their parks department, and I remember Brad was all about it. He was this is gung ho. He's like, this is so cool. Let's do it. Like, Like, this is gonna be, like, the coolest thing. And then I know, like, Red had a few like, he was just kinda looking at, like, what is this? And, you know, what what are we doing? It it it's hard to get a read on Red. Yeah. It was hard to get a read on him because he's just like, what is this? Like, disc golf? I don't what do you guys wanna do? It it it was just kinda like this, like, battle, but, we explained it, and then we we basically the the next meeting we had was out, with nothing out there.
And, like, Brad showed up with a starter pack. And I wasn't there? Yeah. I I went out there with them, and, and, initially, we were just we were throwing off holes. We kinda, like, like, this is where we kinda, you know, initial, initially thought, like, hole one was gonna be. This was gonna be two. This was gonna be three. And so we just kinda went out and threw discs kind of in the general direction because their concerns were the walking path out there. It's a it's it's a pretty populated path, on weekend mornings. You know? Summertime, it gets a lot of use. So five k's go through there. Yeah. There's there's a it gets a lot of use. So, I mean, it was definitely one of our concerns with trying to stay away from that path and not throwing towards it.
[00:22:28] Sean Kelley:
We We did an okay job with that. Hole 6 Hole 6 couldn't be avoided because that was literally, like, the the shot that needed to happen. Yeah. So we just have to we have to Hole 5
[00:22:38] Scott Belchak:
was also one of those holes. But, get I mean, right off the bat, you could see, like, Brad was on board. Like, he went out, like, bought a starter pack, and he showed up. He's like, I got these three discs. And he's like, can can we throw them here? And I'm like, those are absolutely perfect, Brad. Like, you know, and then we had great mulch. Yeah. Rick, Rick was there. Probably Jeff. That And then Yeah. DX Plastic. Exactly. Yeah. But there was four of us the four of us, walked around.
[00:23:08] Sean Kelley:
And And Nick Lopez too. Right? Was Nick Lopez there, or was it just you?
[00:23:13] Scott Belchak:
This initial one was just just me. And then, yeah, we just we we threw we we threw holes we threw discs all around that front field. We didn't really cross into that back section. And and, like, initially, it got, like, a good response. And then, like I said, after that, we we would like I said, once we once we kind of expanded into the into the back of it, it went great. But, I mean, we came in. We're like we're like, yeah. We want benches here. We want trees. Yeah. We want this. Like, you know, we kinda had a a pretty big wish list. And sooner or later, I think the parks department kinda, like, helped us out and broke it down where we turned it into a few different phases. So this was so this was where it it it it it all came.
[00:24:00] Sean Kelley:
This was the first project that I can think of in Utah that, was a disc golf course that was funded by the state and then went up for, a public, request for for pricing, or proposal, a cup RFP. We covered that in the first Yeah. Or in episode two, we covered that. Yeah. So this one went up for an RFP, and it went up with a budget of, a hundred thousand dollars between landscaping and the tee pads. I think the landscaping portion of it was, I I think they're about equal. Like, I think they're right both right around, like, 35 to $40.
[00:24:39] Scott Belchak:
Mhmm.
[00:24:40] Sean Kelley:
And then baskets and stuff like that were were gonna cost. So they did go after a Utah outdoor recreation grant to to receive $50,000 of funding. And talking to Brad just yesterday about this, it sounds like, they always get asked by city council, well, what grants did you guys go after this this year? And so they're all they're always looking at trying to get fine grants so that they can be good employees of the city to maximize money. So I think that that that's a good angle to take too is that is that a lot of these parks department guys are are basically judged on how effective they are at receiving grants and using them appropriately. So so they went out and got a a $50,000 grant from the state of Utah to install this thing.
And they put up two different bids for, proposals. One of them was the excavation and installation of tee pads for 22 by four meter tee pads and then installing 54 ground sleeves. Initially, it was gonna be 27. Mhmm. But I made the really strong case to them that if you just install all these sleeves right away, then, it's gonna just pay off in spades in the future because it'll be expandable and changeable, and we'll be able to put this thing in a short layout or a long layout. You know, it'll be much more, just expandable and fun. Well, that's how
[00:26:04] Scott Belchak:
we that was our angle of getting around it being a beginner course. Right. Because now we could throw in an amateur amateur basket as well as a pro basket.
[00:26:12] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. And and the other the other portion of that was for trees, and that was to in install trees, but not irrigation because they had, budgeted and planned out, a plan to, just bring water to the trees for three years where they were just gonna bring a truck out there and and and water these trees. So after the after that was after the grant was awarded, they realized that it was gonna cost them more money over the that three years to water those trees than it would be to irrigate. So they put that irrigation into the initial, build.
So the project went over budget by, like, $35. So they spent a hundred and $35,000 on the course, but that's because they decided to irrigate the property, with drip irrigation. So there's seven different zones that these that the property has been irrigated to, that we can now expand, which is great. And so that's that's that's how that happened is is is they the project manager at the city just, broke the project down and figured out what all the material pieces are that need to be created and then built two different RFPs to send out to the public to say, alright. This is the project. This is what we need to do.
And they had a lot of people, bid on those things. Really? I think they had about 30 between the two projects. They had one company that came in and said that that they'll do the tee pads for $22,000. They had one company come in to say that they do the tee pad for $220,000. Yep. Wow. 20 T pads. $200,000. That's a lot of money. Yeah. Well, they they think that it was probably just someone who has to, like, as their job, like, submit submit these bids. The and they just didn't want the job. But but their boss was like, you gotta bid on this job because we we bid on everything. Right. Well, I don't wanna, but, I mean, it's like 20 little tee pads all across this weird space. Like, that's dumb. I don't wanna do that. In in fact, when when the Dun Right Construction, company they're the they're the company who won the bid for the tee pads. When they initially won it, they were just like, you know what? Do we really want this job? Because it's gonna be a pain in the ass because we're gonna have to take concrete to all these different spots, like, all across this 30 acres in these random spots. That's gonna kinda suck. I mean, they got a few trucks stuck out there. And Yeah. We've had a fair
[00:28:46] Scott Belchak:
share of hiccups Yeah. While we were out there. That's true. So but, I mean, I think by the end of it, like, again, like, the Dunright crew, they were they were all on board. Yeah. I mean, I I think there was a you get you definitely gave, like, a few used discs to a couple of the play a couple of the workers. And I still I still I still talk to Parker once a week. Yeah. I still I mean, I remember I I gave away I gave a I think I gave a rock to one of the workers, and he was just kinda like, I've never played this. Like, what is what is this game? And so I gave him a rock, and I just told him to keep it because I was like, if you keep throwing it, like, I'll let you have it. So he I mean, hopefully, he's still playing, or at least he's gotten into it.
But, initially, yeah, the the project itself, I could see bidding on it is like, what are we doing? And you're like, we just need you to pour these these concrete rectangles out in the middle of these fields. Perfectly level. Perfectly level. And and with with a rough brush finish side to side. Which in in for the most part too, like, a lot of the places where we've put some, some of the tee pads or wanted to put some of these tee pads, like, you know, you could see the okay. That's gonna be a pain in the ass for them, but screw it. Once that tee pad's up in that little, like, nook, like, it's gonna be awesome from there. Like on Hole 12? Yeah. Like, Hole 12. Yeah. Because we initially there is, like, a little was it, where you tee off from for Hole 14 over by the was it, like, the bat bat houses? Yeah. That that that double mando.
We initially had a hole. 13 was gonna be a longer hole shooting out. But after after that big wet, or the big snowy winter we had, there was a little bit of a little bit of, like, wetland out there. And the the last thing we wanted was, okay, if we get a big snowfall,
[00:30:38] Sean Kelley:
what we don't want in the spring is, this hole is just gonna be destroyed, and no one's gonna wanna play because it's all it's just mud. Yeah. Well, you know the walk from from twelve to thirteen where there's that little dip right there? Yeah. That that little dip moves around in, like, a a half moon. When I first started walking that, I couldn't cross that because there was so much standing water there. It was a it it was a river right there. Yeah. It was, like, three feet of water. Wow. That's And they and they initially where all those weeds came from because all that ground got saturated, like,
[00:31:11] Scott Belchak:
as far like, to the core of the Earth. Yeah. And they initially had warned us about it, and they were like, well, we kinda want you to stay away from that. Like, it's just gonna be wet, and it's gonna be a problem, which
[00:31:23] Sean Kelley:
I think we got one truck stuck over there. But I do wish that we would've we would've put another hole in on that hillside next to 12 Yeah. And then have another hole come back towards towards 13. And I think there's still an opportunity for that, especially with this, potential new grant funding that they're receiving coming up here soon. And, we talk about that in the happy hour, which is, for Patreon only members. So you can hop on the Patreon and get all the details of that.
[00:31:52] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. Absolutely. So you start installing tee pads or this done right construction starts installing these tee pads. And then at some point, you started involving the disc golf community to come help clear some of the fairways as well. Right? Yeah. I ran a death to thistle campaign, which was actually kind of probably the kind of the start of
[00:32:12] Sean Kelley:
this whole thought of theming, disc golf events. Mhmm. Because because we did I did a trilogy. It it was a it was a trilogy of Death to Thistle, and I would have unique artwork for each for each event. And I did it in, like, a series of, like, an action movie where the first one was Death to Thistle. The the next one was Death to Death Thistle two, Total Armageddon. And then it was Death to Thistle three, The reckoning or something. Wasn't there like a like a murder fest or something like that out there? Yeah. So we would Thistle murder fest. Yes. We would just get together and go out there and murder. And I think that that's one of the reasons why this course is so was was so successful, in the eyes of the city is because they've never seen anything like that before. They've never seen 30 people on a rainy Sunday or Saturday show up as organized as we were to tackle a job that literally nobody wants to do. Yep. And we did it with happy hearts, and we worked for four or five hours at a time. And we we the disc golf community made that property. If it wasn't for the disc golf community getting out there with shovels and smiles in hand, it would not be anywhere close to what it is. And and, the city wouldn't be thinking about planting more trees and, putting more fences up for us and and getting more grant funding to build the islands that we wanna build out there and stuff like that. It it was the community that really stepped up and and showed them who we are.
And we are gonna be planning on doing that again this spring, once the thistle starts growing again. I guess thistle is is not a perennial. It's an annual. It grows from seed. So you just have to knock it down before it goes to seed, and that one plant won't produce other plants. And it also sounds like it like, it's a bumper crop kind of weed where you'll have bumper years where, it just shows up for two or three years in force. And it's probably because of that wet those wet years that we had where literally every seed that was on the ground could germinate. So And did. And did. And did. Right. And and so it exploded. So we're hoping that this year, it it'll be less because we we'll have more people out there.
And then also Draper's been seeding it. Rick has been out there. He's he's got this vision of of tall grass sagebrush in the in the off Fairway and then, low lying native grasses in Fairway. So he's got two different seed mixes that he's been putting down over the last year to help grow seed down there. So
[00:34:58] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. I mean, the only other pesky pest that runs around there is the little gopher. Dude, those gophers. Yeah. They're so industrious. Seriously. It's it's amazing because I you do see a bunch of, like I don't know if they're feral cats that are out there. Oh, they love it. But they love it. And I'm like Yeah. Whole 12. Just gonna start getting some more cats out here just start running around and killing these gophers. There's one fancy cat out there that that is, like, a 1,200
[00:35:20] Sean Kelley:
cat. It's like whole it's on a whole 10. It's always always out there. It will cross the fairway almost 90% of the time. I see it on 16 and on the bench of 17 sometimes too. Like, this one time I rolled up to 17 and this and this beautiful cat's just, like, lounging on that bench. Yeah. Is that the one with the Apple AirTag, like harness on a Okay. Yeah. The little striped cat? Yeah. Yeah.
[00:35:42] Nick Jennings:
I was playing out there on Hole 10, actually, and that cat was in the middle of the fairway, like, as we're getting ready to tee off, playing with a mouse. Yes. Like a live mouse playing with it, and then all of a sudden, like, a hawk comes out of nowhere and, like, flies, like, 20 feet above the ground, right above it. And we're looking at the hawk, and we look back down, and the cat disappeared. Like, it it ran from that, but the the this hawk just flew right above our head. It was really kind of a cool Nice. A cool thing. That is cool. But I'm I'm really kinda sad that I missed those death to thistle events.
[00:36:18] Scott Belchak:
That was actually Are you though?
[00:36:19] Nick Jennings:
I I actually I actually really am. Yeah. Because, I I started playing, you know, less than a year before before the those death to thistle events, and that I was kinda trying to step into the disc golf scene and get to know the community and and all of those types of things. It just so happened that every single like all three of those fell on weekends
[00:36:42] Scott Belchak:
otherwise, I would have been down there. I don't I would have mentioned, like, six months earlier. Yeah. Yeah. That would have been great. I mean, it's totally fine too because I think I missed a few of them as well for being out of town for work. I didn't miss any of them. No. But But I mean missed them all. I'm not on the idea what's going on. You we had some some great incentives to help people get out there, like, when it came time for, you know, spreading all the wood chips and everything else. That did not work out. I won't do that again. You threw
[00:37:08] Sean Kelley:
like, you ended up hiding discs in the piles of wood chips, and you were like, hey. There's a free disc in this pile. There's a free disc in this pile. And the free like, we just you come down, spread wood chips, find a disc. It's yours. Well, what I thought was gonna happen is that people would go down there and spread spread spread wood chips in the exact spots where I wanted them and then find this disc. No. They just spread the whole pile. They just went and just, like, woodchucked themselves through these piles and just spread them. Like, chips are only good if you can put them exactly where you want them. And if you get, like, freaking, like, idiots down there just looking for a lab second MVP disc that's worth $10, like, why, like, why even care about that? Like, why do people care about that? Hey, man. Why are people motivated by discs?
So dumb. It's Just don't spend the time. You can never have enough of them. You know? Us all four players here, we can admit we never have enough discs. I thought it was a great idea at the time. I just I just thought that like like, whole fives chips, those things are, like, so willy nilly, and they went in the wrong way. And it it's so frustrating because if we would've put those in the right spot, that would've been so much better. Yeah. But no. Someone went down there and was like, where's my disc?
[00:38:16] Scott Belchak:
But but are you mentioned that you're gonna add the islands to the course
[00:38:22] Sean Kelley:
going forward? Yeah. So we've got, when we were getting the mandatory sign done, you know, the giant Mando sign Mhmm. The first sign that we got, it's it's three pieces where it says river bottoms disc golf course with the with the stuff. Hole 9. Hole 9. Yep. The the the first the first sign that we got, so it's 26 feet wide and four feet tall, was it was a little bit too small. And so it didn't none of the holes matched up, and so it had to be refabricated. So we have a 26 foot by four foot river bottoms disc golf course sign that's free. We have it. It's just down there at the bottoms. So we wanna make, an island that's four feet tall, essentially, so that we can put the sign on the front of the island so that it says Riverbottoms Disc golf course with the Draper logo and that cool basket.
[00:39:16] Scott Belchak:
Because initially in the concept, when we were going when when we were talking about the course where, like I said, there was there was nothing to make this intriguing to come play, a lot of our ideas were gonna be well, we can do island holes. You know? We can A boulder. We can build up these, like, pyramid baskets and, like, make them, just have do it. Like just have these features to, like, you know USTGC. Just to drop people into to make it make it more interesting than just this open, you know, this open field A big field. Discus Yeah. Throwing discs in. So this island would be,
[00:39:51] Sean Kelley:
probably an octagon is what I'm thinking.
[00:39:56] Scott Belchak:
It already has a name.
[00:39:57] Sean Kelley:
The octagon. And it'll be it'll be Hole 15. So it's it's the hole where you come back from the long ones, and you're staring directly west, and you've got all the ochres in line, and the sun is setting. And you'll have this nice big island that says says River Bottoms Disc Golf Course. You know? So it's it's gonna set up really nice, but it needs to be a certain size. And the height of the island is important because it has to be the size of the sign, which is four feet. So that's a pretty tall island. Mhmm. And so we'd probably have to build it out of cinder block with some wood fascia and then the sign or something like that because we need to backfill that with filter. And so you can't really use wood for for retaining walls. You're you're gonna have to use some sort of boulders or so I'm thinking cinder blocks for the front and then a boulders for the back the backside, and then have different spots for access with stairs. Maybe maybe three different spots for stairs, in in the backside because the front won't have stairs because it's just gonna be a flat wall. Right.
And then it'll probably be about we want we want the island to be about the size of Like circle one. Circle one plus 10 feet. So maybe maybe 40 feet, 42 feet. So it's a pretty big island. You know, it's a girthy island. But I think it'll look really good. And I think it'll play great because
[00:41:19] Scott Belchak:
you want that birdie coming down the stretch. Yeah. And Coming into sixteen, seventeen, and 18. The big holes. The tough stuff. Depending on position. Well, and that hole holes. I think every time I've played it, it's been a headwind.
[00:41:31] Sean Kelley:
It's only what? Two seventy five? Two fifty. Two 50? Yeah. And it's got that little OB
[00:41:37] Scott Belchak:
spot right now that that catches a lot of people. Well, it had the for for a while there, it had the F U Island, which is probably about a six foot diameter island or I'm still a little bit sad that you that you moved that. Well, they I've played plenty around with people who walk up and they're like, this is God. They're like, goddamn, like, it's only, like, six feet six feet by four feet diameter. And then they're just like, yeah. But and then they'll throw it in there. Yeah. Yeah. Well, they'll throw it in there. But no. It's, I think I think the island would be a cool it'll just be a cool one, like, we've gotten a lot of good feedback from initially, we thought everyone who uses that walking path and the bikes and stuff were like, this is gonna be our main problem.
Someone's gonna throw it into someone's gonna hit someone walking or it's just gonna interfere. People are gonna leave bags on the on the on the path. Path. Yeah. You know? And it really hasn't been a problem because, like, it's just, like, whole six, you you have to, you know, you have to pay attention when people walk, and you may have to wait a minute or so to them to get by you. Mhmm.
[00:42:41] Sean Kelley:
But, I mean, those are the the trials and tribulations of, you know, just sharing the park. Well and you look at Taylorsville. Like, I've been playing Taylorsville a lot since we started these leagues there, and I haven't really played them I haven't really played much because one of the reasons I don't like to go play Taylorsville is the is the interactions that the disc golfers have with the public and how and how, invasive we are to that park. You know? Like, you go down there and and play. Just pay attention and watch and see what the public does when people are are on those pathways teeing off. They they will walk around you, in the grass.
They'll stop and go a a different way. Like, that's dumb. And that's probably one of the reasons why Taylorsville is on the chopping block is is because it was implemented poorly. Yeah. And it was very poorly designed. It really was. You know, you you Every every one of those holes goes through the pathway. And you should never have ever ever on a course like that. Like, the Baby Bottoms is is different, but a course like that, you should never have a tee pad on a walking path. Yeah. Just give the disc golfers their space to hang out, and that's why that's why it's working down at the river bottoms. No. You see a lot of benches, and we have we have applicable spaces for for the disc golfers to go
[00:43:57] Scott Belchak:
that are not on the walking path or really even that close to it. Well, while teeing up, you mean, you see it down there with the public, people who are walking by or whatever. They'll almost stop, and they they're watching you tee. They're curious. Watching you play, and they're curious. I mean, there's that that old guy who who rides the horse path out there. Not
[00:44:16] Sean Kelley:
Not the beautiful woman. I haven't seen her in, you know, a little bit. She's, yeah. She's the unicorn of the,
[00:44:24] Scott Belchak:
the court. She only appears at sunset. She does appear at sunset. It's usually it's usually from afar, and you can only kinda see her silhouette, and you're like, there she is. But she's in the ray of the sun. I can't really see it. And then she gets closer, and it's just the old guy. But, like, ah, it's just the old guy. But the old guy, every now and then, he'll be walking his horse. And I've caught him, like, at whole, like, six, seven, and eight. And he will just stop, and he, you know, he has comments, and he's like, that was great. You you threw that thing. Like, you know, he it's it's it's humbling to see, like, people, you know, just, be amazed at what you're doing.
You know?
[00:45:00] Sean Kelley:
Well and he was there from the very beginning. Like like, I remember running into him when we were walking the course feeling like we were trespassers. Yeah. You know? And and I and I told him what we were doing nervously because equestrians have kind of been the bane of my existence when it comes to disc golf. But, every time I see him, you know, hey. How's it going? Oh, it looks like a lot of people are using the disc golf course. You know? That's awesome. So, yeah, it really feels like the neighbors have there have have, kind of come around to us being there.
[00:45:31] Scott Belchak:
I mean, for the most part. The one over course. The one guy who put up the solid fence rather than his buck and rail. He had the buck and rail, but then once we came in, he's like, yep. We put up a solid fence. So Yeah. And But and his wife threatened to call the cops on us while we were installing that t pad, which is weird. It's like we're, like, building a park.
[00:45:51] Sean Kelley:
We're
[00:45:52] Scott Belchak:
This isn't your private property. It's like Well, it's it's like with anybody. I mean, you know, most people don't accept change. Well, because like I said, they've they haven't been disturbed for God knows how long. Yeah. They haven't had people in their back door. And now and now they got they got disc golfers, like, you know, 50 feet from their back door.
[00:46:10] Sean Kelley:
Well, doing god knows what. Well, that one specifically, I do kinda feel bad for because because that tee pad's right in their backyard, and it's the one tee pad on the entire property that probably gets the most fucks uttered. That's terrible. You miss that mando, though, and there's a lot there's lots of loud ex expletives that come from that specific spot. Yeah. Yeah. So I do feel a little bit bad about that. Yeah.
[00:46:36] Nick Jennings:
I'd I I really think it's amazing how far the course has come in such a short time. Absolutely. Right? Because it's only been installed for, what, eight months? Yeah. Like like everything installed. Uh-huh. Yeah. So when I first went down there to play the course, I went out there with, like, six buddies. Uh-huh. And it was before the first real mow. A hairy bottom. It was a hairy bottom. Oh, man was at hairy bottom. We made it through two holes, like, an hour and a half later
[00:47:05] Sean Kelley:
because we were searching for vet lost pets. Itchy in the June of last. Yeah.
[00:47:10] Nick Jennings:
And then I came back, a couple weekends later after the first mow, with my dad and, my brother-in-law and my little brother, for Father's Day, actually. And it was very playable, but I mean I I was not very good. Uh-huh. I've I've grown a lot in the last year, you know. And I ended up losing two discs that just gone. Yeah. One on eight,
[00:47:36] Scott Belchak:
I put a little bit too much hyzer on a on a Crave, and it went Just off left? Yeah. Off left. Lots of loss happened in that. That was thick. Yeah. It was very thick. The first few months playing down there, like, that was one of the other major complaints was just the idea of people losing discs. Yeah. But I don't know. I I I thought it was unique because it was. Going back to when we were talking about the beginning of its initial concept, that summer like, I would say, like, two months before we started, like, looking at the space and doing the whole thing, I was I was out in Nashville for work.
And one night, a couple of us snuck away. We went and played a course, and the whole course was like it was played almost like in Hayfield. Like, there was really no obstacles, nothing. But all these fairways were cut. So there was the edge of the fairway was just this, like, three to four foot grass. So and it it looked it looked it looked great because it just you had these very designated, like, fairways of what you were throwing. But, yeah, the losing of the disc was a huge thing. Yeah. And but but Riverbottoms held that potential to be because once that stuff grows in and and you start to get those well defined, you know, fairways, like,
[00:48:53] Sean Kelley:
I I it just it it looks great. It plays great. And And I don't think it's gonna be as crazy this year as it was last year. We haven't had a very wet winter, first of all. And then second of all, we've had people on the property tramping it down daily. Yeah. And that's gonna be a huge difference, with that course. And and I'm very excited to see it turn green again. Mhmm. That like, I was looking at some videos today of of it being green. And it's just beautiful down there when it's all green, and the Russian olives have have bloomed. And and it's just gorgeous. And I'm excited to see those trees to see see if leaves come back on them. You know? I I'm excited to watch this thing grow because we haven't really been able to watch a course grow.
You know? And this is a brand new a brand new course that we get to watch grow. You know? I was actually talking to Craig Myrick about this because and some other people about Taylorsville. Because when when they put that disc golf course in at Taylorsville, all those trees down there were very, very small. They weren't even the caliper trees that they put in at river bottoms. They were, like, one year old trees. And those trees now are big. And to hear them talk about, Taylorsville, you know, when I came back here and I played back in, you know, the those days, like, these trees were were I thought this is dumb. They just Eyes are open. Dumb little trees here. Like, this is dumb.
But it's like the trees grow. You know? And and we're not doing this just for ourselves. We're doing this for the kids, and we're doing this for the next generation. We're doing this for for us twenty years from now. You know? When when when we don't wanna play the river bottoms anymore because we're old and and we can't throw that far.
[00:50:36] Scott Belchak:
Oh. We'll have different places by that. That's when we play that's when we start to convert down and, you know, we suck it up and stop playing the red baskets. Well, yeah. I mean, I was thinking with the upcoming tournament season upon us, is there an Excel version that we can anticipate in the future? There's I think there's a there's an opportunity for us to
[00:50:54] Sean Kelley:
have, a few holes that we can add. One one thing I've already thought of that I'd love to do, I don't think Draper's really keen on it, but, I'd like to start the tournament at the Roy Hardy Park, which is across the river in Riverton. Mhmm. And have hole one be, an island hole across the river over by that over by that bridge. Mhmm. So you play hole one, and then and you play that hole a. And then and then you go play hole one, which is, to hole two's basket as a par five.
[00:51:25] Scott Belchak:
Well, I like that. That would be cool. Yeah. Well, that that was part of the initial
[00:51:30] Sean Kelley:
hole. That first hole is, what, 300 feet? 300 feet. It's kinda boring. That's straight. But, you know, it's interesting. You know, talk about Landon Adams again. He's a he's a really good open player. Mhmm. And he's been playing leagues out there now six or seven times, and he's only birdied hole one once. And there's a lot of there's a there's a lot of of bogeys that happen on that because it's hole one, and you're not warmed up, and you yank it out of bounds.
[00:51:57] Scott Belchak:
I know. Yeah. Because Hole 2 is initially a divided fairway I remember that. In the concept. We were we had we had it where it was literally Island to island or something? Yeah. It was like island to island. So if you couldn't because I think to make the island what was it? Like, close to 400 feet.
[00:52:18] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. Hole 2? Yeah. Hole 2. Yeah. To the the the first shot was gonna be a 250 foot shot, and then the second shot would have been, a 380
[00:52:28] Scott Belchak:
foot shot. Yeah. And if not, you were even if you threw a great shot dead center and you weren't on either one of those islands,
[00:52:36] Sean Kelley:
you were OB. Yeah. We had to change that pretty quick because because people were they were doing what I was thinking they were gonna do, which is which is which is lay it up on the first island. And then they'd they'd throw a full power distance driver on their second shot, which Close-up to the which the path. Which you've got people throwing distance drivers at that path. Yeah. So that that was dumb. So we're just like, no. We're just gonna we're just gonna delete this one. Yeah.
[00:52:58] Nick Jennings:
So I wanna I wanna take a step back for just one second and talk about some of the, like, the design aspects of the course. One thing that I that I really like about the course is that certain holes throughout the course and I and I'm assuming that as the course grows and matures, each one of the holes will will get one of these, like, little name tag of, like, what the hole is. Speaking of hole one, hole one is the matrix is the name of the hole. Talk to to us a little bit about that. So hole one is is proof that we're living in a simulation. That's why it's called the matrix.
[00:53:30] Sean Kelley:
Because, I was actually the first player to throw a disc off of that tee pad, off of hole one's tee pad. I was I was able to be the very first person to throw a disc off of hole one's tee pad, and I threw it in the basket. Yeah. I just aced it. Yeah. It's just I just threw it in the basket. I was like, okay. It's on fire. Here we go. It is. It'll be linked in the in the description of the show. So that one's called the Matrix.
[00:54:01] Scott Belchak:
Yeah.
[00:54:02] Sean Kelley:
I'm sure as time grows, I feel an amazing it was amazing thing. It was a it was an incredible moment.
[00:54:09] Scott Belchak:
I think each hole has earned the the plaque that it has, if you will. Yeah. So rather than just run around and just name them to get them all done, like, I feel like there's a little bit of, like, the whole has to earn its name Yes. For sure. To get that plaque. Yes. And And there's and there's some where there's there's no rush to do it, but it's just a matter of, like, you know, it has to be it just it just has to you know, the moment has to be seized Yeah. When it is because It'll manifest
[00:54:39] Sean Kelley:
itself when it's ready. Exactly. It's what I'm trying to say. And and there's some there's some of those that will be named and no one has to know about the story. Yeah. Yes. And that's okay. We know Hole 1 story though. You do know all the story of Hole 1. It's a good one. Yeah. That's a cool one. I which is why I wanted to bring it up because it I mean, that's just kind of an amazing,
[00:54:57] Scott Belchak:
you know, stone. I mean, I'm pretty sure a lot of people have a lot of people have, a lot of questions about Hot Dog Hands. Yeah.
[00:55:04] Sean Kelley:
You know what? And and Hot Dog Hands is is a story that I will gladly tell anyone while we're in the hangout zone of Hot Dog Hands. Yes. Maybe we'll make it a Patreon. But I don't know. The only time I'm ever gonna tell that story is while I'm sitting on that bench. So alright. So you gotta get me there. That's a good one. And then you gotta you gotta say, alright. You're finally here with me. Now tell me the Hot Dog Hands story. Yeah. And I'll Yellowstone is the same. I'll say, well, do you have a beer? Because it's gonna take twenty minutes. Yellowstone has its you you can basically put the pieces together Yeah. As to why it's called Yellowstone. Yeah. Yeah. That's that's another story that I won't I won't put on this podcast, but that that's probably one for, for the happy hour. Yeah. Absolutely.
[00:55:48] Nick Jennings:
So in less than a year, you know, call it eight months of of being installed and being playable and active on u disk and things of that nature. We've run now three leagues out there, and I believe that was where the inception of the the league software started. Right? That that was the first course that that you were kinda testing that on. The course is now gonna be a part of a pretty major tournament. Yeah. It's called a major. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I I use that word very specifically of, you know, women's, USDGC, 2026.
And I so it'll be two years almost to the day, you know, two two years and a month from the installation of that course that it'll be hosting a major tournament for the PDGA. What what kind of what kind of thoughts and feelings and, like, emotions go through your head when you when you think about that kind of, like, trajectory of that course? Well, it's part of the plan, really, because,
[00:56:55] Sean Kelley:
I don't want to run majors. I don't you know, I'm not interested in that. But I know that if x happens, y will happen. And if a major comes to town, our tournament venues increase. The quality of our venues increase because you get more pressure to be able to apply to the city, and the city wants to put their best foot forward knowing that it's a national event. And and so you get continued investment. And so for me, it's it's more of a contract and a more of a business kind of thing. Right? It's like, yes. I'm excited that a major is coming. I'm not as excited as Noelle, because she's she's, like, excited on this on, like, a personal fulfillment level. Yeah. I'm much more excited about this as a as a this is pushing my mission forward kind of thing, which is which is why I started putting these PDGA bids in to begin with is because I just I've I've gone to these events, and I've and I've seen what happens to these courses when these major events happen. And we'll see this in Rudoso when we go down there to play, Tim Solinski's.
You'll you'll see how much investment goes into these places just to to get them ready for for a a major event. So for me, it's a it's a business transaction. Right? It's a it's knowing that that when a major championship comes to town, our venues get better, and they are gonna get better. It's it's it's just a fact. And in fact, it's why we're pausing the $1 contribution from the leagues going into your your course in into the course contribution fund. That's why we're pausing that to fund this tournament because this tournament's gonna come to town, and it's gonna increase the quality of four of our courses beyond the capability of us doing that ourselves.
And just getting one in means that we can get two in. And think about Dragonfly. If we were to put a a major at Dragonfly and have a plan to get that thing mowed in September and have it bug bombed in September with pathways made through the swamp and to make this thing up with benches and to make it a premier place where a major championship could happen, that place would look phenomenal all mowed and ready for a major. And it might not be in this one, but that's not to say that if we get amateur worlds in 2028, that we could put we we we could do that or, you know, Tim Selensky's in 2028 or something.
You know? Mhmm. Or Masters Pro Worlds or one of these major championships. We we have enough venues now that we can start including additional ones. Because when we run am we if if we were to run amateur worlds or yeah. I think it's amateur worlds. No. Amateur worlds just has two divisions. Because it's just MA one and and FA one. But there's there's, like like, masters, pro worlds, you need five, six different courses because there's all sorts of different skill levels. You know? So that's kind of what I'm thinking about when when this major comes to town is that, it's it's more about excitement that the mission is being accomplished rather than excitement that a major is coming to town, if that makes any kind of sense.
[01:00:28] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. It's, the next step in the progression of disc golf in Utah. Exactly. It's a it's a necessary thing that needs to happen.
[01:00:37] Sean Kelley:
And, thankfully, we've got a great team assembled to to take care of that. It's the gratification
[01:00:40] Scott Belchak:
of just being able to, you know, remember what it was trampling through all that brush out back to now being able to see, like, you know, a major championship, like, run through this whole thing. Like, from point a to point b, like I don't know. It's just a it's a it's a huge self gratification to be like, alright. Cool. Look what we accomplished. You know? And then look to see where it can go. Because even with the workers, like, once, like, the once the you could you could see, like, the motivation behind Rick and his team.
Like, just start getting more and more into it. Like, they were like, oh, let's let's do this. This would be let's make this better. Let's let's do instead of doing doing buck and rail hair, let's do a a post and whatever fence. Like, you could see them getting into their project, and they almost became a part of it. They they are a part of it. Yeah. They I mean, they are a part of it. Like, all those mandos, they're all they're all their design. Right? Yeah. But they but they, like I mean, we almost went to them, and and they kinda came up with some of the solutions for a lot of those things, which was great. And that's what you love to see is, like, everyone just get on board, and you're like, alright. Cool. We're we're all we're we're all, like, you know, facing the same direction. We're all running. Rather than, you know, me and Scott walking up to two people, and just being like, this is what we want. And they're like, great. This guy's just gonna make me put up a bunch of fence in this field. Speak speaking speaking of which, can you meet Rick down there at 9AM tomorrow to tell him where to put the fence on all nine? Yeah. I can do that. Can you? Yeah. Good. Because I can't.
But and that was that was really you know, that was a really good thing to see. Like, just seeing, like, the motivation behind, like, the people working on it, and then just get behind it and get involved and then just see little things being like, oh, we're gonna do this or, oh, we did this for you because this we we thought this was cooler. You know? This was a cool way to do it. And Yeah. Kinda non disc golfers catching the vision. Yeah. Catching the vision without playing, but they knew they were like, this just this will just make it look a little bit cooler. You know? Or this will just make, the fairway have the little. Mhmm. Like, to make it you know?
But that that's always fun to you know? Because you can like, I've worked with so many different union laborers every and every time you show up or just laborers in general, the more work you're trying to give them, there's just, oh, god. I don't wanna do that. How can we get around it? And then, like, we're just gonna do this simple thing and get out of here. But I don't know. I think, the the team very you know, definitely helped out and made it is what it is today.
[01:03:21] Sean Kelley:
Should we do, favorite hole and
[01:03:24] Scott Belchak:
wrap this up? Yeah. Well, at the same point too because we haven't we mentioned it once, but, but we do have to give a shout out to Nick Lopez. Oh, yes. Nick Lopez. Nick Lopez gave a lot of help, in just putting his perfection on trimming and cutting trees and laying things out. He's a worker. He had a lot of input on some of the layouts, some of the designs, and then, frankly, just, you know, going nuts on some of the the cutting down branches,
[01:03:56] Sean Kelley:
bushes, and rushing all. Yeah. We need to get it back out there on Hole 10. Yeah. We gotta get it back out there and gussy those things up. He's a perfectionist with a pair of loppers. Yeah. You know? He goes nuts.
[01:04:07] Scott Belchak:
So big shout out to Nick. You know, he did a he he was a huge help in in in getting that course up and running. And he's only played that course once. Has he really? Yeah. I know we've thrown because after war after we were playing and, like, working on different holes and stuff like that, we'd end up playing it to kinda see, like, do we need to shave out a little bit more on the right No. But, like, like, a whole like a whole run through? Yeah. I I've I've only been able to get him out there once. Come on. What are you doing? He's running.
[01:04:38] Sean Kelley:
He's still running. Oh, he can do that. Stop.
[01:04:41] Scott Belchak:
But,
[01:04:42] Sean Kelley:
So favorite favorite hole, Dustin? Let's go with you. I I like one. Favorite hole one? Yeah. It's so boring. I hit the basket. Oh, okay.
[01:04:53] Scott Belchak:
I hit the basket. I feel good about that. Five or six are pretty easy to take. Right? Those are the the two holes that I was like, oh. But, yeah. Six always gets in my head. And I've never thrown in the water yet. I wanna say because I haven't thrown in the water on six. You better knock on some wood. Yeah. I throw a forehand, so it's Oh, I see. It's an easier play. Yeah. You're good. Favorite hole? I like, I like Hole 10 when it's over in the left corner, and I I really like Hole 12.
[01:05:27] Sean Kelley:
Well, Hole 10 is in the left corner right now. Nice. Not far left corner, though.
[01:05:31] Scott Belchak:
Like, middle left from the corner. Yeah. I like it. Front left corner. I don't mind it when it's, like, just straight down the alley, but I like it when it's over up in those trees Okay. That go over to the left. I think only because it's, like, one of the only few areas where it does those trees. Yeah. So I like that. And then Hole 12 has a lot of trees, but Hole 12 has so many different avenues to get down. Like, I've seen so many people throw so many different lines on that hole where I do like I do like Hole 12. There's a lot of options to, you know, to get down there. What about you, Nicholas?
[01:06:05] Nick Jennings:
You know, I'm gonna probably my favorite hole right now is one that I probably shot over par on currently, like, now with the last couple of league rounds that I played there. But it's new Hole 14. Mhmm. Yeah. The the the par four, and I like it because it is ridiculously challenging. And if you're if you're off by an inch, you're, you know, taking a six or or higher Yes. On that hole. I've taken a 10 on that hole in a league round, and I was a little bit ashamed of it. Well I
[01:06:44] Scott Belchak:
think same round, I got a seven or an eight. Yeah. I mean, it it We were together, and, like, our entire card shot, like, 12 o. Yeah. It's a great hole. That's what I said. It's really tough. But when but when you get it and you and you get the birdie on that hole, it is so fulfilling. Yeah. And You feel so good about yourself. And it's possible to to make it very easy on yourself with a great tee shot. Yeah. I mean, I've I've had I've birdied that hole, and I think I've thrown a nine on that hole. And then I've had a field ace on that hole Yeah. With that group. From from out of bounds. From out of bounds. It was like a it was like a four. I took a four. It was a field days pop. It was I'm I'm calling it. Don't worry. Because we weren't playing it. You're like, no. Let's just not play the OB. Let's just play everybody's hazard.
Okay. Well, that's still three. We were we were we were out with Rick and That was amazing. Blank I'm blanking on his other name, the other worker that came out with him. And we threw discs in their hands. And me and Scott, we we split up, and we each grabbed one of them. And we played a doubles round. And we realized that, you know, like, we'll just go easy. We'll go easy. We'll we'll keep some of the out of bounds out of, like, you know, out of play, but we ended up playing that hole. We tried to get them to play the reds, but they were like, no. We wanna play Yeah. Like, we gotta play the we wanna play, like, we wanna play the golds. And so I was like, alright. But, yeah, I did I did it was I threw out of bounds. But as we were playing, we was like, we're just gonna play this one as Hazard. And then from the middle of that fence line, I hit I hit it I hit the basket. Oh, I basically hit the chains.
It was going out. That was a good feeling. Because, like I said, that hole, it either it can you can walk away feeling great, or you just walk away feeling absolutely defeated. Yeah. So that was yours, Yeah. 14 is mine right now. Anything more to say about it? And I love it even better with the new pin position Yeah. With that whole clear out in the back. I think it's awesome. It's great. Yeah. It it it brings two more trees. The new the new fence coming in this week. Yeah. Like, once that gets defined because we do apologize. I know a lot of people who go to play that, you know, plan that course blind.
They do throw to whole nines basket because it looks straight down. Because you've already been there. You know? I did already defined by the big man, though. I did not. Yeah. I did not. You threw at it. I mean, you're coming at it from a whole different angle, though. Yeah. It's true. And And that basket is hard to see in the trees if you don't know where it's at. And people don't pay attention to the things or read or whatever. They just go about their lives being like.
[01:09:16] Sean Kelley:
It's just It's true. It's true. People are just, like, on this weird little autopilot through life, and they don't don't ever stop to look around. But That's just me just judging.
[01:09:27] Scott Belchak:
Sorry, everybody. Sorry, everybody who played that role. Make, like, direct eye contact with me while you're sitting there?
[01:09:34] Sean Kelley:
Dark race. Because you're beautiful. Oh, oh, I'll take that. So, Scott, what's your favorite hole on the course? You know, I really like 15. I think 15 is my favorite. It's not Hole 1, the hole you ace? No. No. That's just The one that Dustin didn't ace? No. No. Dude, I've got so many epic aces and stories that, like Oh, I got so many aces.
[01:09:55] Nick Jennings:
Look at this guy over here.
[01:09:58] Sean Kelley:
No. It Hole 15 is my favorite because just because of the aesthetics of it. I I don't think that we really ever get a very awesome view of of the ochres. You know? And that's an awesome view of of that mountain range. And you can also see all the way to Ogden from there too. And you can see you see Timpan you can see Timpanogos from there. You can you can see out to the point of the mountain. You can see the entire valley from Hole 15. Yeah. And when we play that during leagues, on shotguns in in the evenings in the summertime, and the sun is setting right there, and you've got this whole river bottom open in front of you with the sun setting by the ochres. And you look behind you, and you've got the Wasatch Range going, and you've just got this beautiful hole. It's slightly downhill. It's just I love it. I love that hole, and it's gonna look awesome with an island. Yep. And I'm very excited to see that come to fruition, even though it sounds like it'll be most of our budget. But Well, you know. Parker's working on a on a budget for me right now that I can give to Draper and say I mean, those Money, please. That's also the, you know,
[01:11:06] Scott Belchak:
throw it in throw it in Rick's hand, see what he has, for ideas. Yeah. He may come up with a a a cost effective way to, to get us what we want. But no. I'm excited again. I think I I said it on the, the happy hour, but I'm excited to see how that that course looks on film. I mean, from all angles Yeah. I think it's gonna look great. And we'll have f fadeaways, just the, you know, just from the tee shots, like filming behind, just seeing the mountains in the background. I think it's gonna look beautiful. Yeah. And we'll have FP 40 play there. So so we'll watch Owen Scoggins play that and,
[01:11:44] Sean Kelley:
Jennifer Allen. You know? They'll be down there playing that course. And then FA one will be playing that course as well. Yeah.
[01:11:52] Nick Jennings:
So final thing before we wrap up this episode. We did this with the Teton's episode, and I just got course ambassador access for River Bottom. So I, like, wanna try out the tools and stuff. So, so in in eight months, let's let's, you know, take some guesses on play count and unique players, and steps taken. K? So we'll start with you, Dustin, on play count. And again, this is this is time? Yeah. This is lifetime. And this does not count league rounds because that doesn't run through UDisc. Right. Right? So, play count, what do you think, Dustin? Oh, no. I have no idea.
[01:12:33] Scott Belchak:
Thousand.
[01:12:35] Nick Jennings:
K. Thousand is the first one on the table. Sean, what do you think? Players count going through there? Oh, the the total Round play count. Yeah. Yeah. Total rounds. Oh, rounds. Okay. 5,000. Five k. 5,000 on the board. 5,000 on the board.
[01:12:52] Scott Belchak:
I will say 2,697.
[01:12:57] Nick Jennings:
Okay. Very specific. Very specific. Scott, what do you think? I think we're probably in the
[01:13:02] Sean Kelley:
7 to 8,000 range. So I'm gonna say I'm gonna go on the low end of that because, it's Price is Right rules. So I'll do 7,000. 5 thousand or what? I'll I'll do 7,000 because because I think it's probably right around 8,500.
[01:13:18] Nick Jennings:
Okay. Keeping in mind that league rounds don't count because you're not playing, on your disc. Sean actually wins this round. Total play count is 3,312. Interesting. In less than a year. Okay. K. Now unique players that have got that have scored rounds at the River Bottoms. Sean, we'll start with you.
[01:13:40] Scott Belchak:
How how how you define the question, Dwight? Am I Unique names. How many unique players
[01:13:45] Nick Jennings:
have played the River Bottoms through uDisc? Like, at least once? At least once. Yeah. Have scored a round on u disc at the river bottoms?
[01:13:57] Scott Belchak:
I'll say, like, 800.
[01:14:03] Nick Jennings:
K. Scott?
[01:14:06] Sean Kelley:
I think it's probably more like five seventy.
[01:14:10] Scott Belchak:
Okay. Dustin? I was thinking less, probably three fifty.
[01:14:15] Nick Jennings:
Okay. Sean's on a roll. He wins this round too. Yeah. Yeah. The the number of unique players that have played Riverbottoms is 1,325.
[01:14:23] Sean Kelley:
Interesting. That that means there's a lot of people not coming back because they're like, there's too many weeds here. Well, like I said, it's one of those it's an acquired taste. It is. This course is definitely an acquired taste. And it and it it's of certain skill level that likes it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, that's not true. Well, there's a lot of there's a lot of people who come out that you know? Like like, our buddy Brian who came once and shot a 38 over, he came back another time. Yeah. It's like and he if he Well, he finds the challenge in it and he wants to, you know Right.
[01:14:55] Scott Belchak:
I always call it taming the dragon. Not Brian Bowling.
[01:14:59] Sean Kelley:
Brian. I did another Brian.
[01:15:02] Nick Jennings:
Alright. Last category, is number of steps taken at the river bottoms during scored rounds? We'll go to Scott. Scott hasn't gone first yet. 25,000,000.
[01:15:16] Scott Belchak:
K. So steps per round or steps total? Total steps. Oh, 25,000,001. Hey. That's mean.
[01:15:27] Sean Kelley:
25,000,000
[01:15:28] Scott Belchak:
and then two. Two. No. I think it'll be, let's go less. Let's go, like One. Let's go 20,000,000.
[01:15:37] Nick Jennings:
20 million? Okay. Well, you all went over. It's 17,000,991, and 67 steps Cool. Taken at the river bottoms. Wow. And then one final interesting stat is that we have had 20 players travel over a hundred miles to play the river bottles. Cool. Which I thought was kinda cool. Nice. So,
[01:16:00] Sean Kelley:
in less than a year. One of which gave a one star review on UDisc saying saying, I would never travel 20 miles to come to this course because it's just an open dirt field with a bunch of weeds. It's so windy. Just saying.
[01:16:13] Scott Belchak:
And the unofficial sponsor of River Bottoms, the Garage Grill. Garage Grill. So after you go play around, go see Brian, sit at the bar, get a drink, get a get a rack of piston rings because it's a great place to start it. They used to have $2 beers, and now they're back up to $4. Oh, still, it's $4 beers. It's a great place to hang right down the street. Yeah. Let's, let's really get it away. Let's really quickly,
[01:16:36] Sean Kelley:
just really, I'd like to read some, some half star reviews of the course. Okay. Let's do it. Okay. So Zachary Bueller, two months ago says, really kind of a crappy course. Muddy, gross, and prepared to lose your discs. That's what he said. Someone from the OP. Jut Fraufer, three months ago, half star says, course was very disappointing mostly because of the high expectations I had from the high rating. It definitely is overrated for what it is. I get it and appreciate the time and effort people put into planning, building it, and maintaining it. Thank you, Sean. But it needs a more realistic rating.
It does have some positive things. The views and tee pads are great, but the holes in course itself are not interesting. Wide open space that could be fun if they put some interesting man made objects to throw around and build the baskets into some cool structures to make it unique. I don't know. Maybe we we should do that. Do like, do you think we should do that? Maybe. Maybe. They should have to put their score right next to this comment.
[01:17:32] Scott Belchak:
Like like this guy I shot 40 Chevy over. I thought This guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy this guy saw the rating. He
[01:17:40] Sean Kelley:
It is my public duty to give this thing a half a star rating to bring this thing down because I don't want other people wasting their time. It's like, dude, you realize that by you putting a bad review out here, it's preventing us from receiving funding to fix the things that you think are wrong with it. You know? It's like people just don't understand that. They're just eating constructive
[01:18:05] Scott Belchak:
criticism behind your comments. And you'd fall for If it's bad, I wanna know why it's bad. Don't just say, oh, effing hate this course. I wanna I wanna I wanna I'd love to see some constructive criticism.
[01:18:17] Sean Kelley:
Here's here's some not constructive criticisms. Dave is Farrah says, with a half star review, says, surprised at how bad it is. Old dry weeds and prickly bushes all over, and there's no trees or cover. So it's really hot.
[01:18:34] Scott Belchak:
Wah. Like, I these people are they they crack me up. It's like How many times does could see, I wish you could know how many times he's actually played it. Because like I said, playing it once initially, I I Especially in June when it first got put in. Like, come on, you Go play disc golf anywhere besides, like, up in the mountains in June. It's gonna be hot. Like, tell me tell me a course that isn't hot in the valley
[01:18:59] Sean Kelley:
at those times. D Dehug throws half star. The amount of walking to get to hole one from the parking lot and then between some of the holes was crazy, exclamation mark. Like, this guy this this guy doesn't even wanna walk. He's the amount of walking to get to hole one from the parking lot. Crazy. Crazy.
[01:19:23] Scott Belchak:
That was actually a design a design decision that that we very consciously made. We should put up some signs of just, like, every, like, 20 feet, like, keep going. Almost there. You're almost there. You're doing it. You're gonna make it.
[01:19:35] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. We we, we we made the choice of having hole one be so far away from the parking lot because of how skinny it gets right there. And we decided it's much better to have a longer walk out of the car than a longer walk to the car when you're done. Yeah. Like I agree with that. Plus, you get your heart rate moving a little bit. Yeah. You get a little bit warm ups. Yeah. Oh, yeah. You're walking, catching up. That's the problem with with with this guy. What what was his name again? D hug throws Doug Doug. He's probably his name's probably Doug. He probably doesn't have any friends. So he he wasn't walking to Hole 1 with with anybody to be like, hey. How's Margaret doing? Oh, she's great. You know? He was just there alone being like, where's Hole 1? This is stupid. I drove all the way from Davis County for this. Margaret
[01:20:22] Scott Belchak:
sucks. No. I like I said, I I I do love seeing it, though. But, like and and, again, like, not every course out there is for everybody. Some people, like, you know, they want the smaller courses, like and then and, you know, they they used to the the one course they play all the time.
[01:20:38] Sean Kelley:
And and and we all know that we like big bottoms and that we just cannot lie about that. Go go blast some bottoms, baby. Big, hairy bottoms.
[01:20:49] Scott Belchak:
And time is right around the corner. Yes. Yes. It is.
[01:20:52] Nick Jennings:
And on that note, I think that'll do it for us here on this episode of the Elevate Utah Disc Golf podcast. Thank you for joining us. As always, like and subscribe, and join the Patreon. Get access to the happy hour, that that is only available to our Patreon users. And thank you for all that you do in the disc golf community. We look forward to seeing you out there. Thanks.
Introduction to the Podcast and Hosts
The River Bottoms Disc Golf Course
Initial Thoughts and Challenges
Designing the Course
Funding and Installation
Community Involvement
Future Plans and Improvements
Upcoming Major Tournament
Favorite Holes and Course Features
Course Statistics and Reviews