In this episode of the Elevate Utah Disc Golf Podcast, hosts Nick Jennings, Dustin Hansen, Sean Kelly, and Scott dive into the exciting developments in the Utah disc golf scene. We kick off with a discussion about the new Cryptid Series, a unique league exploring mythical creatures like Sasquatch and Yeti, with PDGA-sanctioned events across various locations in Utah. Scott shares insights into the series' structure, including cash payouts and bag tags.
The conversation then shifts to the Wasatch Wunder, a premier disc golf course at Wasatch Mountain State Park. Scott recounts the journey from conception to completion, highlighting the community effort and challenges faced during the installation process. The hosts discuss the course's unique features, including its diverse holes and natural beauty, making it a must-visit for disc golfers.
Listeners are treated to a live reaction to the trailer for "Ascent of the Abominable," a league event featuring a thrilling narrative involving the elusive Yeti. The episode also touches on the importance of community involvement and the role of Elevate Utah in enhancing disc golf experiences across the state.
As the episode wraps up, the hosts emphasize the significance of supporting local disc golf initiatives, whether through participation, volunteering, or donations. They also tease upcoming events and improvements at the Wasatch Wunder, encouraging listeners to get involved and enjoy the vibrant disc golf community in Utah.
Welcome in to this episode of the Elevate Utah Disc Golf Podcast. I am your host Nick Jennings joined by Dustin Hansen. Sean Kelly. And I'm Scott. Awesome. Well, we have a really exciting episode for you guys today. We're gonna be talking about, the installation process of the Wasatch Wonder. Right? But before we get into that, there is a new league series coming out, the day before this podcast actually airs. The cryptid series. Yeah. Yeah. So, Scott, do you wanna tell us a little bit about the cryptid series? Sure. The cryptid series is exploring all sorts of different types of cryptids
[00:01:04] Scott Belchak:
from all over the world in time. You know? Because that's what everybody's asking for. They're just like, hey. We're just, like, wanting some more leagues. You know? And I was like, sure. Let's do Sasquatch and and Yeti and Chupacabra and the Thunderbird. So that's what we're done. So it's all the way from Spanish Fork, all the way to the fort, and then Tooele as well. And, we're gonna be running eight leagues Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. None on the weekends. All flex starts. Play more disc golf. Yeah. And they're all gonna be PDGA sanctioned? All PDGA sanctioned. They're all, $5 to enter, and that gets you access into it to to get a rating as well as as to, support your local nonprofit. We also take a dollar of that and put it into a cash payout for your division at the end of the series because we're keeping track of points across all leagues. Leagues. So if you play in three or four or five of these, you'll earn more points than if you just play in one of them. Or if you play really good in one of them, you'll earn a lot of good points. Nice. But then at the end of of the series, you'll earn a cash payout based off of your performance, which is fun. And, there's bag tags for the cryptid series itself.
So we will have two sets of bag tags now. We'll have a series set of bag tags, which travels from league to league, and you can trade up from league to league. And then we'll have a specific one for each league. So we're doing we're doing the Yeti down in in, Ogden, and we're doing Sasquatch at Creekside. We're doing chupacabra at Bingham Creek. Nice. We got the Thunderbird at River Bottoms. We're trying to find Loch Ness at Urban Forest. We're doing, we're doing golems out out of art dye, which are, I guess, I guess, medieval clay monstrosities.
Do you have the skin walkers anyway? No. I I I didn't come up with those. But, the the Thunderbird one's gonna be interesting because that's that's psychedelic art style Yeah. With, Native American legend. So that's that one's gonna be cool, and that's the river bottom. So, we we've actually got, a trailer for one of our for one of our leagues. This is for What? The, Ascent of the Abominable, which is happening up at up at the fort.
[00:03:23] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. So we're gonna we're gonna listen to it live for the first time and and get live reaction
[00:03:30] Sean Kelley:
following the following the trailer. This is a premier. Premier is a trailer. Yes. And this league starts today. Yes. It starts today. Oh, boy. Here we go.
[00:03:44] Unknown:
Elevate Utah. Disc Golf Leagues. Oh, great. Now they want me to do podcasting.
[00:04:00] Unknown:
In a world where legends come to life, the Himalayan Peaks hold a mystery waiting to be unleashed. The most daring disc golf adventurers will gather gather for an expedition unlike any other in Ascent of the Abominable. Captain Rasmussen, renowned mountaineer and cryptozoologist, assembles a team to track down the elusive Yeti. We need to find it before it's too late. But Tenzin Norge, guardian of the sacred peaks, warns of the dangers that lie ahead. Fools. You can't find what you can't see. Two factions emerge, the relentless Frostbite seekers determined to confront the truth, and the enigmatic Whiteout Guardians sworn to protect the mountain's deepest secrets. As they ascend into the unknown, the team must navigate treacherous ice caves, brave precarious
[00:05:01] Unknown:
shots over plummeting chasms, and unlock ancient portals. My disc just went through that basket and came back through
[00:05:09] Unknown:
time. Through time. But the mountain will test more than just their disc golf skills. Some truths are buried deep beneath the snow and each adventurer must confront their deepest fears as they uncover clues of civilization long forgotten.
[00:05:24] Unknown:
These drawings seem to show giant yetis throwing hyzers around mountains.
[00:05:31] Unknown:
In the heart of the Himalayas, an earth shattering revelation awaits awaits that could change the world forever, and a legend is about to be reborn.
[00:05:40] Sean Kelley:
All the other Yetis call me Carl. Carl
[00:05:44] Unknown:
the Yeti. Prepare for a journey that will push the boundaries of both disc golf and reality itself. This is Ascent of the Abominable.
[00:05:59] Unknown:
Track the elusive Yeti every Tuesday at Fort Buenaventura from March 4 through April 22. Flex starts 7AM to 6PM. Choose your faction. Chase some tags. Pretend Utah is the Himalayas. No actual cryptids guaranteed.
[00:06:18] Nick Jennings:
Okay. Is that Flippy? Yeah. Let me finally hear her voice. Yes. Flippy. Flippy? Flippy is is That's amazing. Breaking out of her software. It sounds like Yeah. She's not happy about it.
[00:06:29] Scott Belchak:
When we heard her, she's like, I'm doing podcast now. Really?
[00:06:33] Nick Jennings:
But to be fair, Flippy's not really happy about anything. So No.
[00:06:36] Scott Belchak:
So that so that was made by my friend Jason in That's amazing. Who's a two time Emmy award winning audio engineer. Shout out to Jason. That was fantastic. Yeah. And he's he's, one of my best friends. I love him very much. I know he's listening. So I love you, Jason. That's
[00:06:53] Sean Kelley:
great. That's pretty cool. Yeah. Well, do It's ridiculous. It's yeah. Which is great. I kinda wanna see it animated.
[00:07:00] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. Well, that'd be great. I mean, you know what? AI will get to a point where we can just do that Yep. Just hit that. At some point. You know? But, my goal is to have a lot of these for these leagues because these leagues should be fun. They should be ridiculous and over the top and because, you know, sanction leagues are boring. You know? Like, a lot of people are just like, oh, sanction leagues. And, you know, I can't drink and smoke. Well, actually, yes. You can. Let's go. First of all, you know, it's in the rules. It says right there. Oh, hey. By the way, you can drink and smoke. Well, they don't say to smoke. But, you know, if you're in cal California, go ahead. Yeah.
But they should be fun. We should be having fun doing it, and and we should be, you know, whatever. You know? So
[00:07:39] Sean Kelley:
Hey, man. For what's already out there right now with all those series and the names I mean, we've talked about having a like, just coming up with different themes. There's so many out there. There's so many. So the possibilities are endless, but Well and I've had a lot of fun with them. I I enjoy I enjoy Flippy, usually just throwing it in my face after rounds or whatnot.
[00:07:57] Scott Belchak:
Loving her critique. Yeah. I've had to tone her down a little bit. Yeah. She's been pretty brutal a couple of times. Yeah. Every now and then well, if you're if you play bad, she's gonna let you have it. Yeah. She lets you have it. She's gonna let you have it. She doesn't hold back. No. No. She does not. So, yeah, make sure you get out to the fort, today. It's just like it's like having an ex girlfriend can, you know, criticize
[00:08:17] Sean Kelley:
your disc golf game.
[00:08:21] Scott Belchak:
It's it's I I wanna remind people that it's $4 to play the fort, and, you need to do it by scanning the QR code when you're at Hole 1, because, Cody's shop distracted is closed on Tuesday, so you're not able to pay for your round on Tuesdays. So make sure that you Venmo the county $4 for your round. It it helps it it all goes back into maintenance and and helping that course be great. Yep.
[00:08:44] Sean Kelley:
Keep our courses beautiful.
[00:08:46] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. So we have that to look forward to. Crypted series starting yesterday, and going through April
[00:08:52] Scott Belchak:
and April. Towards the April. Right? Eight weeks. Yeah. And then we'll start something else. I think Sean has a pretty good idea that, for a league, that you can probably learn about in our, happy hour series where we talk about all sorts of stuff, that's accessible only to Patreon members. So make sure you get on the Patreon and sign up for that so that you can hear, some you can hear all about Sean's weird idea for his body parts league.
[00:09:21] Sean Kelley:
Oh, you're putting that on league?
[00:09:25] Nick Jennings:
And if you want to sign up for the Patreon, there is a link that says show your support. You just click on that. It takes you right to our Patreon page, and you can start donating there. And, you know, help grow Elevate Utah, which is which is an awesome thing.
[00:09:40] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. Which which, by the way, helping grow Elevate Utah is actually kind of, something that that I we didn't cover in the happy hour that's an that's an update is that we last episode, we talked about chapters and maybe creating chapters for, Elevate Utah. We're well on the way. We're I I'm talking to some gentlemen in the Uinta Basin in Roosevelt, maybe about starting a Uinta Basin chapter. And then also, up north by you, potentially starting a new chapter as well. Yes. That would be great. So there's two Dustin wants leather vests with patches
[00:10:16] Sean Kelley:
with the one percenters. I believe those are called cuts. Yeah. Cut sorry. Cuts. Yeah. I don't own a motorcycle, but we're gonna adopt the whole
[00:10:24] Nick Jennings:
you know? Let's get some local disc golf gangs going. That'd be awesome. Yeah. I was told that I resemble Opie from from Sons of Anarchy. And I was actually Opie for Halloween one year. Oh, nice. Okay. Yeah. Anyways, we digress. We are here to talk about the Wasatch Wonder, which if you haven't been up there, it is a wonderful course. 18 holes up at Wasatch Mountain State Park, and we're gonna learn all about how that kinda came about and Scott's wielding of a chainsaw
[00:10:55] Scott Belchak:
and, you know, all sorts of things. It was a fever dream is what is what the Wasatch Wonder was. It was a it was a fever dream that took me, like, a year and a half to to wake up from. It was it was a wild time. It really was. But, yeah, what do you guys wanna know about it?
[00:11:12] Nick Jennings:
Well, I guess, let let's start with the timeline. Right? When when did you first have the idea to put a disc golf course in Wasatch Mountain State Park? And, you know, kinda let's start there. Sure. So it must have been,
[00:11:24] Scott Belchak:
late twenty twenty one. Maybe maybe early twenty twenty two. I had taken my mom, on a drive, up over Guardsman's Pass, just on a just on a drive. You know? Hey, mom. Let's go for a drive. And we stopped in at the Wow parking lot. Are you familiar with the Wow? Uh-uh. It's Wasatch Over Wasatch. It's, it's it's about 9,000 feet. It's on the other side of the mountain from Brighton as you're going up and over to drop into the the wonder. We actually held a pop up tournament there in 2020. It's called Garsman? Garsman's. Yeah. Yeah. It's a beautiful drive if you've never been up there, though. So it's at the the easternmost, end of, Wasatch Mountain State Park property, whereas it ends there and then it's private property and then and then it goes up to Bonanza Flats, which is owned by Park City, and and then it's Brighton.
So this thing is up at up at elevation, and it's just the most ideal place for a disc golf course. And it's basically between the Wonder and Brighton. Okay. Up high. And so they've got this awesome parking lot there with a bathroom already. So I popped in there. Did Dustin, did you play the Wow? No. I had Okay. Sean, you played the Wow. I played the Wow. Of course. Yep. Yep. Yep. You helped me pop that up. So so I I pulled in there, and this was this was before I started the nonprofit and before I really, you know, did much. And and I just I pulled in there and and looked at this place, and it was like, there's a parking lot here. It's a state park. Like, this would be perfect for a disc golf course. So that really is what got my gears going.
The wonder was born from the wow. In fact, the reason the wonder is called the wonder and the reason that it that is spelled that way, I haven't told anybody this, is that it's under the wow. Oh. So that's why it's spelled the wonder because it's under the wow. Wow. Yeah. So which which coincidentally was the perfect name for it because it's a German town and, oh, wonder. You know? So So that's how the wonder started was was was me thinking about the wow and getting this idea in my head that the wow needs to be something that exists. And so I I started thinking about it, and and I I got this idea together, and I let it coalesce in my mind for about a month. And then I contacted, the state park and said, hey. I've got an idea for this golf course, up at the Wow.
Can can we have a meeting and talk about it? And, that was in February. That was that must have been in February or Guardsman's was closed, and, and so we we couldn't start on it right away. So so I went in and and talked to the state park manager. His name is Jonathan Hunt. He had been on the job for three or four weeks, when I reached out to him. So he was fresh and willing to willing to break some some eggs, crack some eggs. You know? Make a make a statement. He was he was willing to to put his mark on some things. I'm pretty sure he's happy with his, decision. Yeah. So I so I reached out to him. I got a meeting, and I went in and talked to him, and I pitched him on the idea of building a premier disc golf course up at the Wow. And he said, I love it.
Let's do it. Sounds great. In fact, I think we have nine baskets, and I learned that they were, the recruit no. The step down from the Patriot baskets. They're Patriots, not veterans. Mhmm. And then I thought, well, I don't really want those up at the wow. Let's just install those in this campground here. Let's just put a nine hole course in the campground here, and we'll just call it we'll just use those here so that we'll buy nice baskets for the wow. You know? And that's how the wonder got got started was was me saying, you know, let's just use these baskets and put them in the campground.
And so I got started thinking about it, and, I I designed a nine hole course and quickly realized that we had room for 18. So I told the state park manager, I think we got room for 18. So if you can get baskets, I'll get them in the ground. And not knowing anybody in in the scene really, because that was before I had really even connected myself to anybody. Mhmm. I just I had committed to building this course and then just expected people to show up and help me, and that's what happened. So, it was Easter of twenty twenty two that we had Easter weekend. It was it was Easter Sunday, that we had our we we threw our very first discs up there. And, I I reached out to Westenringer and, Wasatch Disc Golf Club and said, hey. I've got I've got a property, and let's pop up some baskets and see what's going on and just explore the land.
And that's what that's what happened. So I called Wasatch. They brought, like, 50 people on Easter Sunday to play doubles on a pop up course that I had designed with just flags in in the ground, and we learned some crazy things that week. We learned that the design was terrible and awful. And so I said, alright. Everybody come back next Sunday, and we're gonna do the same thing. And I spent the week thinking about it and popped up a completely different design, essentially, and said, alright. Come back up on Sunday. Let's play. And we they came up, and we played. And I remember thinking, well, that was fun, but we were not in any of the woods because we weren't in any of the woods.
So then I said, alright. Everybody come back next Sunday, and let's play. And if anybody wants, I'll be up here on Monday with a chainsaw, and we're going into the woods. And I had, like, 15 people show up on a Monday
[00:17:22] Sean Kelley:
Power tools day. Incredible.
[00:17:24] Scott Belchak:
To just chainsaw ourselves some fairways. Wow. And that's how that's how it got started. So we just started cutting, and then people came up on the next Sunday, and we popped up, like, four new holes in the woods, and we played those. And then I did the same thing one more week, and we had the rest of the holes built by then, and then that's it. We we hung out without any tee pads for a little while. We got all the baskets in the ground within, like, four weeks. We went we went from we went from it being an idea. I'm pretty sure it's a world record because we went from it being an email that I had sent to park staff saying, hey. What about disc golf? To having a PDGA sanctioned c tier in I think it was four weeks, four, five weeks Wow. With a permanent installation.
Yeah. That's pretty incredible. It was fast. Yeah. It was fast and furious. And then the kind of the rest is history. You know? We we had, a few really good work week work weeks that were called. The first one was to put tee pads in and had had a really group of really good group of of people go up for during a a work week. We I I called it from a Monday to a Saturday Monday to Sunday where I had us, I had the group campsites booked, and I said, alright. Whoever whoever wants to come up, let's go. And some really good people came up. Mark Kohut came up
[00:19:01] Sean Kelley:
That's how I found out about course. With his crew.
[00:19:04] Scott Belchak:
Marley and Janet came up. Creech. Just some really qual and then people came in and out throughout the week, but that was really the main crew that that did it, and we built all those tee pads. We essentially put those tee pads in in, you know, three or four days, four or five days. We'd spend you know, we'd build six of them a day, and then we'd chip them. And it was it was a lot of work. Lance Lance Hill from Nudga was that was there with his trailer. Evil was up there. Mhmm. We don't necessarily have to get into all the specifics of that because it was a crazy week. It was a crazy week. It was a lot of fun, I'm sure. Yeah. There's lots of no sleeping for some people.
But it was it was really fun. It was a really good time. You know, I did refer to it as a fever dream because that's kinda how it felt because we were moving so fast. And we would get done, and we'd be so tired because cutting trees down and moving trees is a lot of work.
[00:20:03] Sean Kelley:
Yeah.
[00:20:04] Scott Belchak:
And it's much easier to do things with machines.
[00:20:07] Nick Jennings:
Yep. So it was built all by hand and power tools or basically hand tools. Yes. Wow. If you haven't been up there to play it, it is it's a pretty remarkable property up there. And, like, Hole 1 is right off of the guard station, and then you just kinda play up and through the campground. And there are some shots there that when I played in WonderFall last year, that absolutely ate my lunch. Like, they are there are some tough shots. Like, I think about Hole 4. It's only, like, what? 350 feet or something like that, but it's a par four, five.
[00:20:44] Scott Belchak:
But, like, straight up the hill. Oh, yeah. Hole 4. It's it's 560
[00:20:48] Nick Jennings:
feet. Is it five sixty? Mhmm. Yeah. Yeah. But straight up
[00:20:51] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. The pin is at 6,000 feet, which is kinda cool. It's, like, right like, it's at 6,000 feet of elevation. The pin is exactly at 6,000 feet. It's kinda fun. Yeah. And the tee pad is, like, a couple hundred feet below that, I feel like. Oh, yeah. It's it's pretty It's a steeping. Yeah. That's a beautiful hole.
[00:21:06] Nick Jennings:
First time I I played through, the night before WonderFall, I tried to drive that hole. And my typical miss is, like, I I I have a very low driven shot. Like, I I struggle throwing up. And I sunk one of my discs into, like, the rock right in front of the tee pad.
[00:21:29] Scott Belchak:
It never quite flew through the same after that. You know, I I think the the full story of the wonder is probably an episode that should be on the happy hour Yeah. Oh, okay. Honestly, because there was there was a lot of Shenanigans. There there was a lot of things that happened. The the wonder was it's very hard to just talk to talk about it without without going into detail on a lot of the things that happened. And there was a lot of things that happened to make that thing happen, and it's difficult to talk about those in an open setting, I think. You know? Because there's we built that place with very intimately with, like, seven or eight people, you know, and the and the relationships that happened up there. And it's all about, you know, interconnectedness and you know? I it's it's it's really hard to give the whole history in an open format, I think. Yeah.
Well, you mentioned evil.
[00:22:28] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. And so that explains a lot, I think. Yeah. Yeah. Okay.
[00:22:32] Scott Belchak:
I thought about asking him if he wanted to be a guest on this Yeah. To talk about. He'd be great. He would be great. I mean, we'd probably end up talking about, astral projection.
[00:22:42] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. You know? Yep. Maybe we invite him to the happy hour. That would be good. Recording that. I don't know. We'll just maybe not invite him at all. So so you went from nothing to,
[00:22:57] Scott Belchak:
running a seat here in four weeks. Yeah. Right? I I think it was five it was five weeks from from email sent from, hey. Can we have a disc golf course? To having Callie McMoran with her rig come through and run a sanctioned event with permanent t with permanent baskets. That man, I'm just I'm trying to wrap my head around that and the amount of work that had to go into that. It was five weeks straight. It see, one thing that helped was that Wasatch Mountains I I had a little pop up camper, and Wasatch Mountain State Park gave me a a camp spot for the year. So I just parked my camper there and said goodbye to my family for
[00:23:37] Sean Kelley:
a month. K. See you later.
[00:23:39] Scott Belchak:
And then I did the same thing in the summertime too. When it was time for T pad installation, I said goodbye for a month. And I was just up there disconnected from reality. And and I remember reaching out out to my work and saying, hey. There's something really important that that I need to do. You know, I've been with you for almost twenty years. I need to take a sabbatical, and I took a sabbatical from work. They were gracious enough to give me a month off, and I went up there without cell phone service for, like, a month, and I was just working on the course.
Honestly, that sounds perfect. It was way fun. That sounds amazing. It was the the summer of twenty twenty two was simply magical. Just being up there. I was always too tired to play, but, I was the strongest I've ever been that year. I was the healthiest I've ever been that year. I weighed the the least amount, and I had the most muscle I've ever had in that year because I was out working, you know, not sitting at my computer, like, programming flippy. Yeah.
[00:24:39] Nick Jennings:
So, Sean, were you able to to go up and help kinda with some of that clearing of the brush? And the initial part, no.
[00:24:47] Sean Kelley:
Because I actually found out about the Wonder. That summer, I was extremely busy. I was building I was building I was building, 100 glamping tents. And so I was basically I was up in Francis, Utah. A friend of mine had a big space that allowed me to be able to bring all this timber and all this wood. I would basically go every day to and from, Wasatch Lumber. Shout out to Wasatch Lumber. You guys know Bridger. Go up there. He'll get you all your lumber needs. So I was up there working, and I had a buddy of mine from back east out here. And so I didn't I wasn't actually playing a lot of disc golf June and July that year. And so but either way, I ran into Mark Kohut when you guys This legend. Yeah. Shout out to Mark Kohut, by the way. We miss you, buddy. He I I was playing around at Creekside, and I just ran into Mark. And I was just like, oh, what's what's been going on? And he was just like, like, I think he I think that at one point I could be wrong, but he was complaining about when we were playing and throwing that his fingers were so callous and, like Yeah. Just beat up from, like, ripping out branches and pulling weeds and moving rocks. And he's like, yeah. We're building a course, you know, that he was basically building the wonder. Yeah. And he's just like, it's been kicking my ass. Like, I'm just like you know, we're just ripping out trees and chainsaw and cutting all the stuff down.
And so it it it dawned on me to be like, what are they talking about? So he ended up telling me where it was, and I ended up driving over there and just taking a look at it. The fur funny story is the first time I actually played it, I played it alone. I was just like, I'm gonna run through this. I wanna go I wanna go check it out. Now, I think at at that point, it was Hole 9. It's, now, like, it The golf course hole? Yeah. The golf course hole when you throw down. I'm sorry. It was it'd be Hole 10 shooting up into the, little Oh, yeah. Protective basket. Baby hole. So I was actually, earphones in, talking to my wife.
I had, teed off, and I'm just walking to the hole. And what I thought was just a deer that had jumped out, but it wasn't. It was actually a bear. A bear a bear had jumped out, so I immediately just dropped to the ground. And I'm talking to my wife, and she's like, what's happening? I'm like, there's a bear. It's a bear. There's a bear. And she's like, what? What did you just say? I'm like, there's a bear. It's a bear. And so she's just like, get out of there. Run. And I'm like, no. No. No. I'm like, go sit there. And so I just was like banging on a pot and pan. I abs from the tea box, I'm just, like, sitting on the ground behind kinda, like, the the grass or whatever, and it just kinda slowly started walking over to, like, towards the golf course down into, like, where that river was. So I basically ran up, grabbed my disc, and ran back across the road to the other side of the fence, just kinda keeping the hand head on a swivel. But, so yeah. Initially, no. I wasn't part of the actual initial process. I don't actually think I even knew you then. So Yeah. It was it it was yeah. Yeah. We went about a year a year and a half ago. After that. Yeah. But I played it, and then I was just like, this is awesome.
Like, I loved it. I mean, if you go in the in the like, when the waters are raging in the spring, it's it's one of it's it's one of my happy places. Seriously? Like You know? Like, whole whole 15. Have you played it when the water's up? Oh, yeah. Okay. It's unbelievable.
[00:28:15] Scott Belchak:
And you have you have not, Nicholas. I have not. It's fantastic. Yeah. My first time playing. Course. Oh, and it and and the the sound of being in there when you're in the woods by the Shocker and and Hole 15 and Hole 16 It's, like, raging. It's just, like, you can't hear yourself think. And it's just a wonderful place to just sit on those benches slash hangout zones and just relax and be. Yeah. And the those those early days too when no one knew about it, and it was my own personal playground, it was just this magical happy place. And now and now we're we're in a whole different zone. You know? It's it's been focused on, Utah States, so it's had national coverage. In fact, just in the fall, we we had our wonderful tournament there, and there was this guy that was from do you remember where where he was from? Pennsylvania. Pennsylvania. They did. Area. Yeah. Yeah. He got in his car, saw that this he because he had seen it on Utah States and was like, you know what? I got a week off work. I'm just gonna hop in my car and drive to Utah from freaking Pittsburgh.
Yeah. And he did. He spent thirty hours in in the car to come play the Wonder. He he didn't even play Brighton. He just popped in his car, played the Wonder three times, and then went back to Pittsburgh in his car. Yeah. He was a cool dude. He's a cool guy. I played a couple of rounds with him that weekend. I can't recall his name, but I remember who Jacob. Yeah. Yeah. That sounds right. Yeah. That that rings a bell. I think I have his number somewhere. I need to text him and say what's up. But So so so now we're in a whole new zone of of of this because the people of of Heber are starting to play, and they're starting to figure that out that they've there's this fun thing to do. So it's creating and I knew this was gonna happen. As soon as I installed it, I knew that this is gonna be the key to the Wasatch back. You know? We're we're going to create new disc golf players and a new disc golf zone.
Like, we're gonna see a disc golf shops, oh, you know, open within five or six years. You know? We're gonna see local kids come out and play. And sure enough, it's starting to create players. And, I was recently the the the nonprofit was a was recently the recipient of a Wasatch TAP grant. Did we talk about this on the first episode? We have not. Okay. No. So this is a this is a the the Wasatch TAP grant stands for trails, arts, and parks. It's a fund that they take point 01% of every single dollar that could spend in the Wasatch County, and they fund, trails, arts, and parks with it.
Anybody anybody who's a nonprofit or a municipality can, go requisition these funds. And, this one specifically is every six months. So every six months, they have $700,000 available for nonprofits to come and requisition. Salt Lake County has it. There theirs is the Zap tax, which is Zulu Arts and Parks. American Fork just used it for Art Die. They've got one specifically that's called the the park tax, p a r c, parks art parks, arts, recreation, and culture. West Jordan, I think, has one or maybe they don't. But, basically, every single municipality, it seems, has some sort of of this, and none of them can agree on the acronyms. They're they're like the zap or the the PAS or or the park or the crap. You know? It's like, it doesn't even matter what it is. In fact, I was talking to these Roosevelt guys, and they're like, oh, yeah. We've got the ARP fund.
It's like the ARP Over 65. ARP.
[00:31:47] Sean Kelley:
ARP. ARP. ARP. ARP. ARP. ARP. ARP. ARP. They're all out there.
[00:31:50] Scott Belchak:
So, we recently received, some grant funding from them to be able to expand the parking lot and put in some tee pads up there, which is great. So we're entering into a new phase of this project where, it's it's receiving county help because the county is just like, oh, yeah. The disc golf course. Yeah. Oh, you're a nonprofit that wants to improve our public spaces? Oh, cool. Here's some money. Why don't you go make it nice? Okay. Thank you. And and then what's cool about that is that I'm able to take this cash that I get from Wasatch County and then go to the state and say, hey. Utah State, Wasatch County believes in this project.
Do you guys believe in it too? Oh, yeah. We believe in it. How much do you need? Oh, well, we'd like you to match what Wasatch County gave us. Okay. Well, how much did they give us? Well, they gave us 60,000. Well, k. Here's 60,000, and then you get this this pocket of cash. And what's awesome about about the Wasatch County TAP program is that it's a 25% match. So for every quarter that I have, they've got 75¢. And then they also say, well, that quarter might be too much for you to afford, so we'll cut that quarter in half. And you can you can give us half of your quarter in volunteer hours.
So we basically only need a dime to get 90¢, which is great. So we run we run one tournament in the fall, wonderful, which generated us, like, $77. And we're able to take that $7 along with $3,000 that we had from, leftover from the Wow fundraiser tournament that we ran. We're able to take that $10,000 and essentially turn it into a hundred.
[00:33:36] Nick Jennings:
That's pretty amazing. Yeah. That is amazing.
[00:33:39] Scott Belchak:
And these things exist all over the the all over Utah. And that's and that's why I'm focused on trying to create chapters of Elevate Utah that are educated on our social programs so that they can go into their communities and learn how to requisition these these fundings and then also have a a legal entity that they can funnel it through with Elevate Utah that has the mission of being able to do these things. Because if we get we get all this funding, then we can hire the work done, and the community doesn't necessarily have to go out and break their backs like Mark Kohut did. Yeah. I'm sure he appreciated it, though. Well, there's a reason we call him this legend, and that's that's because you should have seen him tamping these these tee pads when we were putting them in the That's what I was saying. He was pretty, he was pretty beat up Nice arm. Yeah. Well, we had we had joked, because you lose track of sense and self when you're at the wonder because I didn't have any cell phone service up there. So, you know, you're able. But, we decided that his superpower like, if he was ever gonna be, like, a, like, a superhero, he'd he'd he'd he'd be someone that just walks around with, like, a a tamping hammer, and he just, like, walk around and go, tamp on.
[00:34:52] Sean Kelley:
Just smash it.
[00:34:54] Nick Jennings:
I feel like we need to create a visual for that for now. No. No. No. We're not making a tampon visual.
[00:34:59] Sean Kelley:
That's not right. That's not right. I just go to the see what you did there. Now I wanna see it. But it's kinda I mean, in that, the the wonder has been through a a a few different face lifts, since its original concept of, jumping in there. But we had was it last year? Last year, it it got a pretty good face shift. The chipping. Face lift. Yeah. It was a chipping. Filling it with chips. That's where we that's where we extended hole for. The brush bandit. The yeah. The brush bandit. Which which is which is, like, 70 years old. That thing was built in the fifties, this chipper. It's huge. It's like
[00:35:39] Scott Belchak:
it's it's like one of those Fargo chippers that you could just throw a whole body in. Yeah. It's It's hanging on. What? It's struggling.
[00:35:45] Sean Kelley:
I feel like it's the only chipper that smokes butts. But, no. I mean, it got a it got a big face lift. We spent a lot of time last year, which I think, you know, definitely gave it gave it a new look. Just a a very cleaned up, run through that place with with, you know, more more chainsaws, more, more clippers,
[00:36:11] Scott Belchak:
mowing some things out. Yeah. Well, and the local crew extending. The local crew up there is just is just amazing. You know? Like, Bobby and Isaac and Jumbo, you know, and Chip and Pops. Like, those guys are all just, like like, so they love that place. Yep. Because, like, imagine being a disc golfer who lives in Heber, and you love disc golf, and the closest 18 to you is the Freakside. Or Ardi. Right? So it's, like, an hour to go to Creekside or Ardi. Yeah. Well, technically, it would be the the the nine hole At Canyons, which I don't even know still exists. Well, it's under it's under snow, and it's 18. We should get up there this year. 18? Yeah. It's a $30 gondola ride. But,
[00:36:57] Sean Kelley:
Which I'm fine with. Like I said, every ski resort should have a disc golf course. And
[00:37:02] Scott Belchak:
You also have to be done with your round at 5PM because the last gondola otherwise, you're just gonna have to hike hike down. It's, like, two miles. It's alright. Get on the schedule. You can make it happen. Yeah. I can. I can. And they got a restaurant up there too, which means that you go up there and play a a morning round and stop at the end and then have lunch and, like, three $18 beers Yeah. And then go around again and then hop down. Yeah. But imagine being in in Heber and not having a place to go, and then all of a sudden you have the wonder. Yep.
It's like, thank you. Yeah. So they're stoked, and they they love working on it. But this next phase is gonna be interesting. So, a little bit about the schedule. Sean and I, we have a week scheduled in April to go up there and start, chainsawing a bunch of, reclaimed telephone poles. Yep. Sean's got a pretty good plan to make some 70 foot telephone poles. By four feet in diameter These things are huge. What are you what are you doing? They're, like, 24. Do you wanna take a week off and and go build some bridges with us?
[00:38:03] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. That sounds great. Yeah? We we got both those cabins up there. Oh, definitely. We got some cabins. We're just gonna be sleeping in cabins, eating pizza, drinking beer, and eating. We we got the Alaskan chainsaw mill. You know? We're gonna we're gonna rip that out. We're gonna Gotta use my teeth for something. We're gonna cut, we're gonna cut some telephone poles in half, and we're basically just gonna
[00:38:21] Scott Belchak:
build some new bridges for the the wonder. And I think we might have some machinery too,
[00:38:25] Sean Kelley:
the the But we're gonna I hope so because moving those Moving those things is moving those things is impossible.
[00:38:31] Scott Belchak:
It's gonna be very hard. It's gonna be very hard. So Yeah. So from We'll need to have, like, a mini exit to put them on a chain or something. And so that's our first step is is to well, the the first step is to expand the parking lot, and we've already done that. Mhmm. So that's done. Putting in some paths, putting in a a little practice area.
[00:38:50] Sean Kelley:
Yep. Couple little,
[00:38:52] Scott Belchak:
park benches. Part of this part of this funding, there's a stipulation in there that says that, you have to have a plan for ADA accessibility to use this money. So in order to do that, and get the money, we decided the best way of doing that is to say that we're going to create ADA parking in the parking lot. So we're gonna put two ADA concrete parking spots in there so that people can get in there and get their chairs out. And then we're gonna create a ADA accessible walking area up to an ADA accessible picnic area, which is where the kiosk the disc golf course kiosk will be. So it's kind of a multipurpose thing where, the the campground up there doesn't really have a day use picnic area. Mhmm.
So it it'll be a day use picnic area for the public to just go enjoy. It'll also be a good spot for, people in chairs to be able to get to it. And then we're gonna connect the walkway, basically, that overflow parking lot with the road right there with that accessibility area so that anybody who's in a accessible, campground spot up in the campground can get quickly down to the Campground main office. So it's a it's really it's gonna be a really nice dual purpose thing that we're creating, for disc golf as well as as the public. And I think that that's a very valuable lesson for us to learn when we're thinking about these disc golf courses is if we can figure out how to position our disc golf courses as multiuse as much as possible, it's gonna open up additional funding opportunities for us, and it's gonna open up additional doors for us because I think it's very hard for municipalities to say, but you want $400,000 for a disc golf course? Well, yeah. But you you you also understand that disc golf courses are great places for people to go just enjoy walking around like this course in in West Jordan. You know? Like and we see it down at the river bottoms where, people are down there walking their dogs to the fairways, and they're using it to short to shortcut, the park to walk to their homes.
Well, there's just Yeah. We just built new paths for them in general. Yeah. So we like that. We you know? And so many disc golfers are like, we we want our own spaces. It's like, yeah. We do. But space is limited in Salt Lake City. We need to be okay with sharing it. Space close to your home is limited.
[00:41:16] Nick Jennings:
Important thing to to kinda touch on. Like, we live in a bowl here in Salt Lake. Right? There's only so much space. So I and I I really like that about kinda Elevate Utah's mission is that it's not only to to build awesome disc golf courses, but it's to elevate Utah for everybody who lives here. Right? I think that's that's really, really cool. And one of the reasons that I I have loved getting involved with Elevate Utah. In fact, the wonder well, wonderful last year was kind of the first time that we really got to work together at all. I I think it was, like,
[00:41:57] Scott Belchak:
four weeks after we met or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. You're like you're like, hey hey, coach. Put me in. I was like, alright. You're in, bud. Yeah.
[00:42:04] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. I took Rocky up there for the weekend and and played through it for my first time, basically, in the tournament. And I met Dustin Yeah. For the first time at the Chili Cook Off. Yep.
[00:42:16] Scott Belchak:
Which, by the way, I've been I've been trying to perfect a new chili recipe Okay. For this year's Chili Cook Off. Okay. So It's it's secret. What is the website and NDA. Yes. Hopefully, it's a chili and not not a white bean or whatever it is. Like a
[00:42:31] Nick Jennings:
chili verde.
[00:42:33] Sean Kelley:
Yeah. Chili verde. Yeah. I think it was the one that won. But,
[00:42:37] Scott Belchak:
it was good. Yeah. If you're listening to Eric Erickson, it's not a chili. And and you need to bring your trophy back.
[00:42:45] Nick Jennings:
Yeah. Chili with an e does not count. Chile. Yeah. But, like, going up there and experiencing that course for for the first time and and being able to I mean, I I don't feel like I did very much to help you out other than, you know, providing Starlink and, you know, setting up a couple of flags and and things like that. But, just being able to experience that course for the first time, it's magnificent. It's marvelous. Yeah. It's a getaway. I mean, even if it's just for the day, it's a getaway.
[00:43:14] Sean Kelley:
You get out into the mountains. There's Uh-huh. There's
[00:43:18] Scott Belchak:
nothing really around you. Yeah. And, well, and we've seen turkey. We've seen deer. We've seen elk and bears. We've seen bears. We've seen moose. Moose. There's there's a video on Instagram somewhere of, these people that found an entire family of moose with, a male and a female and two babies over by a whole twelves tee pad. And and they were just like, no. Thank you. Yeah. But there's been moose like like Noel Noel Covey.
[00:43:47] Sean Kelley:
Mhmm.
[00:43:48] Scott Belchak:
She had moose in the in the river while they were playing. It's like, we've seen everything up there, like, everything. And it's a marvelous place. It's a it you're right. It's an escape. It's an escape.
[00:44:00] Sean Kelley:
But at the same point, like, you introduced me when we were up there doing the, giving it the face lift last year, was, you can still go over to the golf course and get a great breakfast or lunch. Yeah. Exactly. Right over there. Go get go get a couple drinks. Don't even have to leave. You don't even have to leave. You just you you can actually pause your round. Just pause like, out the whole nine. Down a whole nine. Yep. Stop. Drop your bag. Get a hot dog. You can walk into the you know?
[00:44:25] Scott Belchak:
Into a place where people are happy to see you. Into a place where you can get some food. You can actually sit down, have a cup of beers. So many people are afraid to go in there because it's a golf course. Oh, well, fine. It's not well, yeah. It's a golf course, but it's also a bar. And you know what? They'll sell you beers. They'll sell you beers, and they'll ask you if you want it in a bag with ice. And you say It only it'll it's only hiccup golfers because disc golfers will still play golf. Golfers won't play disc golf. I don't know. I think they're starting to break that down. We're starting to break that down. But it's a barrier. I'm a ball golfer first. You're a ball golfer
[00:44:53] Nick Jennings:
first? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Alright. So I was for a lot of years. Corrected.
[00:44:57] Scott Belchak:
And then when I hurt my back, I had to I had to sell my clubs because I it was too hard for me not to go back. And I just bought new clubs. There you go. Uh-huh. You should take you should take me out you should take me out. Ballfin. You wanna go ballfin for me? I'd love to. I'm actually pretty good. Oh, we should go ballfin then. Oh, I'm not I mean, I've I've played a couple times. Okay. But I think I can hit a ball. Good. Yeah.
[00:45:16] Sean Kelley:
I'm down. Anytime you are. You've gone from good
[00:45:19] Scott Belchak:
to I think I can hit a ball. Well, so I don't I don't know how good I am because I don't play enough. But, last time I played, I I I was up at The Wonder, and I was trying to get some time with Jonathan, the park manager up there, and he's like he's like, hey. I got a tea I got a tea time because he just goes in and and takes the last tee time of the day up there, and he'll just go out and
[00:45:41] Sean Kelley:
play. And he's like, hey. You wanna go play? I was like, yeah. Sure. So that's a bunch of golf. Tournament we should run. We should play nine hole disc golf, and then you play nine hole regular golf. Did one of those. Yeah. That'd be fun. It was called ball and chains. Ball and chains? Oh, I like that. I like that. Guess who won? Dustin Hansen? This fat guy. Really? Yeah. You're not fat. You're elusive. Nice.
[00:46:06] Scott Belchak:
So, yeah, the so the the very next stage of the wonder going back to the the the the next stage is is that, we'll have a we'll have a little bit of money this year depending on how much I can get from the state of Utah, for this grant to be able to build tee pads. So the last step of this is to hire a a construction company to come in and build tee pads. And it's also trail building too because we really wanna make sure that that we create flat level, hangout spots with the tee pads so that you're comfortable at every at at every tee. It's very important to me. It it is. I I agree.
Yeah. It is. And everyone laughs at me about hangout zones, but it's so important. People don't realize how important it is until you I know how important it is. Every course we walk around,
[00:46:52] Sean Kelley:
the main focus is where the hangout zones are. Where are we hanging out? Where are the hangout zones gonna be? It's the key. And I and I agree with you. I you know? I'm a I'm a big fan of the, the the the stop and pause for a second. You know? Hang out, socialize for a second.
[00:47:07] Scott Belchak:
But It's how you build community. Yeah. If your disc golf courses aren't comfortable for people to enjoy on every hole, you're not gonna build community because they're because people are just standing around. They're not pausing. They're not stopping. They're not Well, they're not taking a moment. They're not taking a moment. Taking a moment. And the play the wonder itself is like a, it's a beautiful course where you can just take a moment and be like, look where we are right now. Yeah. Well and and and Hole 11 at the river bottoms,
[00:47:31] Sean Kelley:
perfect take a moment spot. Yeah. You know? You got that bench underneath that big tree. It's the only shade on the goddamn course. It's like Hole 14 has a great take a moment spot. Although when you step up, I'm still on I'm still on the search for whoever had the chainsaw and cut down half that tree. Oh, yeah. Oh my god. I love I think the hole is great, but for some odd reason, that half tree that's about, like, 12 feet away from the center of the two bed. I can't believe someone kicked that down. And you know someone kicked it down. Uh-huh. Yeah. Oh, this is the first time I'm hearing it. Broken in half. Someone kicked it in half. And then I think it was zip tied. And I zip tied it. You zip tied it back up? Yeah. Well
[00:48:10] Scott Belchak:
And I actually took the PDGA
[00:48:11] Sean Kelley:
Tim Tim Messer from the PDGA through it with it being zip tied up there, and he was like, what's up with this? Why is this zip tied? He's like, this course is I've never hit it. I will say I've never actually hit it, but it is the only tree that stares me down on that hole. It definitely gets in your head. It gets in your head. It is it it bug eyes you, like, right there at the end of the tee pad because it stands no more than 15 feet away from you, and it is just a straight pole straight in front of you. And it's it's a tight tee box too getting out of there. Yeah. You have about maybe two to three feet on either side of that. It's a good hangout zone. Yeah. It's a great hangout zone. It's nice and shady.
[00:48:47] Nick Jennings:
So I I believe kinda as part of the, like, of the fundraising effort, we're gonna be running another tournament this spring. Right? Yeah. Wondermint will be this spring.
[00:48:58] Scott Belchak:
It's I think it's May 31 or June 1. It's the weekend after Memorial Day, which is always the best weekend for us to have it because, Guardsmans is open. And everyone's really excited about going up and over Guardsmans, and, our mountain courses aren't open yet. So it's kind of like just like a, hey. Your mountain courses are almost open. Come play the wonder. Yep. So very, very excited about that. Plus, the water's gonna be up. Yeah. The water's
[00:49:23] Sean Kelley:
running. You know? It's cool.
[00:49:26] Scott Belchak:
And we've got an expanded parking lot, which is gonna be nice. Everything's still everything's get coming back to lush. Mhmm. And it's not too hot. Nope. But it's hot enough to make you want to put your hat in the water. Yep. And you can put your hat in the water. Put your feet in the water. Put your feet and put your whole body in the water. Yeah. So definitely looking forward to that. We are gonna be doing our 22 hole layout, and it's gonna be a a one one one day two round thing. So you're gonna be playing 44 holes. So it's definitely gonna be a push.
We probably won't play the the the 22 holes if we don't fill. So if we don't fill, we we won't set them up. But So sign up. I believe at the time of this podcast airing, sign ups will be just a couple weeks away. Just a couple weeks away. Yeah. It's the end of the end of of March is when it opens. And I'll also remember if people who haven't played it, the the raffle is top notch Yeah. Down at the Wonder. Every every single year, every every single event that comes around, I'm just like, you know what? This is I'm not gonna do it again. I'm not gonna do another raffle, and then somehow the raffle's always better. The raffle's always better. The raffle is so good. It's so good. Well and and just those weekends are magical. Yeah. They're so fun because every people are camping, and you just get to unwind. And if you have AT and T, there's no service, so you actually have to unplug and unwind. Stay at the cabins. You can You can win you can win, a stay at the cabins for next oh, is it the waterfall? And I think I I think Marley and Jana have it again. So, yeah, they've gotten it three out of the five times because they put all their raffle tickets in that one. Yeah. I mean, you get free entry into the tournament plus You get a bed. Plus a cabin stay, which is great. Cabin stay is great. And this year, the yurt the yurt? Zach Melville won it. I don't remember. Zach Melville won it. He was there he was there in the fall. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. So I think it is Marley and Janna.
But now the the yurt's been redone? Yeah. So I think we can raffle off the yurt. We can raffle off the yurt, which is great. Which is awesome. You can bring an RV down. Yeah. We took the ambulance down Yeah. With the dogs and had just an absolute wonderful weekend. Yeah. And camping is cheap because we've got 18 spots right at Tournament Central. You don't have to rent a a camp spot because I think camp spots in the campground are, like, $45 a night. It's not that expensive. I did the camping last year. It was awesome. Yeah. You did the camping in at Tournament Central? Mhmm. Yeah. That's $25 for the weekend. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. It was nothing. And the weekend is Thursday to Monday. Yeah. It's come down Thursday, and you can stay through Sunday Yeah. And leave on Monday if you want. So it's definitely a deal.
[00:51:56] Sean Kelley:
And That's great. Does it glow around?
[00:51:59] Scott Belchak:
Well, that was something Friday night? That was something Mark Kohut would always set up is is the glow, and I never have the energy to do it. So I'm always looking for a volunteer to say, I will set up the glow. I I will set up the glow. There we go. Look. Just like that. Easy. It's just that easy. I just inherited
[00:52:15] Nick Jennings:
36
[00:52:16] Scott Belchak:
little battery powered work lights Okay. From one of my friends. It would be perfect to light up the baskets. And I've got 18 disco balls. There you go. So you just gotta set set those up. We haven't really ever done the full 18. It might be fun to do the full 18. We've we've always just done nine. We've always just done kind of the wooded holes and, like, a modified nine holer and put all of our eggs in that one basket where you just, like, let's do just do nine best glow holes that we can and just stay in the woods. One through seven and then
[00:52:48] Sean Kelley:
sixteen and seventeen or 18 maybe? Essentially. Yep. Okay. I mean, you could keep activities go you could run a just like a like a putting a putting tournament
[00:52:58] Scott Belchak:
at a tournament central at night, like a glow putting tournament if you wanted to. Yeah. I like to do non disc golf stuff things at night out there too. You know? Like, I think one year we had a a we had a dance party or something. That's when the cohorts were here, though, and and we had kid energy, which was great. God. I missed it so much. Cohut's a big kid. Well, yeah, he's he's a big kid, but then he's got three awesome kids. Yes. That's him. So, yeah, this this year is gonna be the year of the wonder as well as the year of West Jordan and the year of the river bottoms. And it's like we're we're going through a renaissance right now, and it's really exciting. It's really fun. Yeah.
[00:53:39] Nick Jennings:
I just have to share one quick little anecdote about the raffle. Going back to that for just a second. So when, when I approached you, Scott, to, you know, to start helping out, and you're like, oh, hey. I've got WonderFall coming up if you wanna help me with some of that kind of stuff, and get some some items for the raffle. I was, like, I was super excited. And I just have to say, I don't feel inferior very often, but, like, I felt inferior with what I brought to that raffle. Because, like, I I I only had a couple weeks to do it, but, you you basically, like, can't kinda gave me free rein and and said, you know, go pick up some stuff. And you gave me a couple of ideas. I went and picked up the stuff at grip six, which was cool, and then went to 2 Row, which is now host of our putting league. And, and they gave us, like, a little bag, and I went, you know, and got some stuff from Sports Connection.
And I was thinking, like, that was gonna be, like, the majority of the things in the raffle. And I get up there, and you've got, like, a tournament basket, and you've got a, like, a putting pod, and you have, like, a thousand dollars worth of raffle items. $5,000.
[00:54:41] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. Oh, go on. Yeah. Yeah. No. I think Lots of raffle items. Yeah. $500 snowmobile excursion. Yeah. I I mean, you know, things things like this the the the raffles get easier to ask for things as as you continue to have success because people people like supporting successful things. And, success breeds success.
[00:55:03] Sean Kelley:
Well, it also just I feel it it it created the ultimate hangout zone Oh, yeah. After a tournament. Because sooner or later, you know, you know, how you placed, what you did, and you're like, okay. I'm done. I'm out of here. But at least at this point before we do the raffle, raffle, there is like, hey. Everyone's sticking around to see if they want if you wanna see if they can get you. All all the winners are getting announced. They you know, they're getting their trophies, you know, that type of thing, cash outs. But it is, like, I mean, there's just a big crowd still sticking
[00:55:33] Scott Belchak:
around after this tournament. Yep. You know? Well and and that's what's fun about the wonderment too with instead of tee times, we do a shotgun start for the the wonderment, which means we do awards and raffle, and we do awards before the raffle. And it's so rare in disc golf these days where there's an awards where everyone's clapping for the the champion for FA four. Yeah. Because she's there and Everyone else is here. Everybody's here. Yeah. We all just got done. We're exhausted because we just played 44 holes in the sweltering sun. And, you you know, you can hear the water going while you're still there, and we got music going and disco ball lights going. So it's it's gonna be a fun time, but it definitely takes a lot of energy to pull these things off. And I don't think peep people realize how much, energy and how how much spiritual and emotional energy it takes to to put one of these things on.
So make sure you're generous when you come up. Be be generous in the raffle and be generous in your donations when you when you do these things because this is the these tournaments have been the lifeblood of of Elevate Utah. You know? We don't have a lot of fundraising opportunities. The league software helps because that's a recurring source of revenue. But by the time we play, we pay Flippy and by the time we're we're we're done, you know, like, paying our hosting costs and all that stuff. You know, we're making probably 50¢ for each registrant, which isn't a ton.
Working on trying to reduce that cost a little bit. But these tournaments are a huge fundraiser effort for us. So it's important that you guys are are, happy to come up and and not only compete, but to, you know, donate your time, treasures, and talents. And ask if you can help. You know? Figure out if you can bring some things to the raffle. You know? Ask if, you know, if you can't compete, but you wanna come up and and spot and pull people's discs out of the out of the water, come on up. You know? That one year that we had all that record snow So great. We had, like, eight people just sign up where they were just like, okay. Well, I just wanna come up and hang out and drink beer and There's guys hanging out on rivers. And Picking up picking up discs or pointing out discs, just spotters. It was great. Well, the water was basically overflow. Raging. It was overflowing into the fairways, which is crazy.
[00:57:51] Sean Kelley:
Like, yeah. It was one hole. Like, you couldn't even it was so loud. You couldn't even hear it. Hole hole two.
[00:57:57] Scott Belchak:
Well, they had, like, three spotters Yeah. Just on that. Yeah. Well, there's three rivers that run through that hole. Pretty much. Yeah. I love that. Still lost my zone.
[00:58:06] Sean Kelley:
But, no, I mean, with all the I guess, let me ask you guys a question. With I I feel like the Wonder has a has a wide arraignment of just different different style holes out there. You get the big open bombers. You get the the the, the tower of power. The power tower. The power tower. What you're gonna call it. The, and then just some of those, like, straight straight alley the shocker, the straight alley holes. And now, like, hole four, which is just, like, an absolute beast. Awesome hole. Yeah. What, what what what are your favorite holes out there?
Two? We ace two together.
[00:58:44] Scott Belchak:
Oh, yeah. We're Eskimo Brothers. Eskimo Brothers. We're Eskimo Brothers. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So Hole 2 is yours, Dustin? I think so. Because you aced it in a tournament. Yeah. For sure. That was my first tournament ace, and it was and I aced it in the very first tournament at The Wonder. So that's pretty cool.
[00:59:04] Sean Kelley:
Let's see. That is really cool. I've been I've been I've I've witnessed a few aces at, The Wonder. 1 and and once again, coming back to Mark Kohut, I think it's now Hole 18. But at the time, you were down crossing the back Hole 18, and Mark actually ended up yelling out to you. He was like, hey. Why don't you record this so he can show you how to do it? Yeah. And I just walked away. He just walked away and he threw it and he aced it. He was like Hey, Scott. Get your phone on. I'm about to ace this. Yeah. He just witnessed it. I was like, whatever. From the team. I got things to do. So I went back to tournament central.
[00:59:38] Scott Belchak:
Ching.
[00:59:38] Sean Kelley:
Ching. Yep. It was good. But,
[00:59:41] Scott Belchak:
called an ace and I didn't even stick around to watch it. What did you do? I'm sorry, Mark. I'm sorry I wasn't there for you.
[00:59:48] Nick Jennings:
Man, it's hard to it's hard to decide what my favorite hold on there is. I I personally am a big fan of, like, big bomber holes. Right? I I love just getting up there and ripping a disc as as hard as I can. Mhmm. So hole eight. Hole eight and hole nine are both awesome. But at the same time, hole hole 10 is a challenge that I hadn't faced until I played the wonder. Like, that super tight fairway, there's trees,
[01:00:18] Scott Belchak:
like, kind of sporadically throughout the fairway. It's only, like, a 90 feet. Yeah. So baby bottom's old. Yeah. If that Maybe one 40. It's a hundred and it's it's a 40, but I think on the sign, we put a 70 because you can't have a tiers, have a hold that's less than a 70. Oh, wow. Yeah. There you go. So we just lie about it.
[01:00:36] Nick Jennings:
But, yeah, that was such a such a fun hole, and kind of a a good separating hole as well. Even though it is only you know, it's pretty sharp. I've seen fours on it. Yeah. I've had my fair share of tournament fours on it. Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of a birdie or bogey kind of hole. Right? Where if you hit the gap here sure. It's it's only about
[01:00:54] Sean Kelley:
30 feet wide because if you if you're off that fairway 30 feet wide. Well, I'm no. I'm saying, like, the the the fairway left to right, side to side. Okay. Once you get to through those two trees, if you hit a tree and you bounce left or right, you are you are in the shit of it. Yeah. And even if you go too long because, like, the out of bounds is, like, back behind those trees, back behind the basket.
[01:01:18] Nick Jennings:
In one of the rounds, I went past that and stayed in bounds, but was behind the tree, and I had, like, no no shot at the basket. It was like like it's a very, very difficult hole, but very rewarding because the last day of the tournament, I almost aced it. I ramped it off the top of the basket, and, like, I was I was so happy about that. But that that's probably my favorite hole is Hole 10. Hole 10. What about you, Sean?
[01:01:45] Sean Kelley:
I think I wanna say 16. Just the long, just, like, straight down the road where to the left is just that wall of trees. Like, you can't go left if you go into left, but you could throw it over. But it's just it that's been the most challenging hole, I guess. Because if you can you you can't to get it all the way down there, you're either throwing a a very far, just a big giant hyzer to get straight in, or you're just you're just trying to, like, line it straight down there. So I like that hole. That's You're thinking 18? No. 16. 16.
[01:02:22] Nick Jennings:
Isn't 16 it's kinda got, like, the the river on the left. Yeah. No. No. No. Then The river on the right.
[01:02:29] Sean Kelley:
So the Shocker 17. The Shocker 17.
[01:02:32] Scott Belchak:
The Shocker 17. I'm going back to Old Hole 16 where the big bomb was Hole 18. You can't do that. You can't go back to you can't especially can't go go do that podcast. You can't that's like that's like art diet. So I go, oh, well, old old whole three, not old whole three, but So that it would be whole three. Whole six.
[01:02:51] Sean Kelley:
That's what it would be then. Wouldn't it be? Yeah. Six. Yeah. Whole six. Yep. I like whole six.
[01:02:56] Scott Belchak:
Six. Yeah. Yeah. And when we've been talking about whole four, we've been meeting whole five. No. No.
[01:03:07] Sean Kelley:
No. Hole five is going the way. Yeah. Look who's going back.
[01:03:10] Scott Belchak:
Look who's throwing it back. Hole 4 is still up at the top. We we changed the position of those holes. Speaking of Hole 4, Hole Hole 4 is my favorite hole out out out there, but but mainly because of what it took to create that hole. I mean, I still love I still love
[01:03:25] Sean Kelley:
current Hole 2 with the island. I love that when it's raging. Yeah.
[01:03:30] Scott Belchak:
Yeah. To create Hole 4, it was we Hole 4 was one of those holes where evil got his chainsaw going, and it didn't stop for six hours. And he was just, like, in a He probably would've kept going further. He was in a wanted He was in a zone where, like, all we we could barely keep up with him pulling wood out and hauling it and piling it up. And by the time we got done piling the wood up, it the the wood pile was maybe 15 feet tall and 40 feet long, and it stayed there for a year. And I remember we we worked on that one hole for ten hours that day and basically from sunup to sundown.
And I remember going back to camp and laying on the concrete and looking up at the stars and having a little bit of a mini panic attack, thinking about, like, oh my god. What have we done? You just murdered a forest. You just murdered a forest. Like, seriously, we took all that wood, and we dropped it down, and we piled it up in a like, what is park staff gonna think? Am I gonna go to jail? Like, all these thoughts. And my body was so sore because it was just hauling wood all day long. And this was, like, three days into into the thing too. So Hole 4 gave me an existential crisis.
And because of that, it's it's my favorite because it's also the hole that turned out the best. Yep. It looks so good. Because we were eventually able to take that entire giant wood pile, haul it all the way down to the tee pad by hand, and then chip it, and then high haul all of those chips by wheelbarrow back up to the to the basket
[01:05:28] Sean Kelley:
and mulch it. And shout out to all those people who wheelbarrowed all those chips
[01:05:33] Scott Belchak:
up and down that goddamn fairway. Speaking of which, his name's Chip. Yeah. It's cool Chip. Coincidentally. Craig Craig was there. Yep. Craig was there. Jumbo, Bobby, you know, all the guys. Like, shout out to those guys. To Nick because Nick was out there. They're just incredible. The the the Hebrew Hucker is like as I like to call them. Yeah. They they don't like it too much. Hey. Where are the Hebrew Hucker? I love them, though. They're they're my they're my favorites. And and we're almost back to to Wasatch Wonder Time, which means that I'll be able to go back up there and see these see these guys. And every time I see them, it's just like, we've been through the shit together. Yeah. You know? Like like, our friendships were forced to fire. You know? It was all bonding under trauma. For sure. Yeah. For sure. And and, the wonder is the reason why I'm all about going after state funding to build these things so we can write a check to a construction company and say, we want this, please. Please.
[01:06:28] Sean Kelley:
It's true. No ulterior motives whatsoever. And when you do go out there, pay your $10. Yes. We'll we'll get the state pass. The state pass will save you money. You can go there unlimited times that year, but please do not sneak in. They are on you. They they watch you. The last time we were having a a meeting up there with, you know, discussing the expanding the parking lot Uh-huh. And the eagle eyes they had on people just trying to sneak in there and not pay their $10 fee to park because, you know, the that place right there, it's special and it deserves your money. It's a place where your money goes far. Well, it's a hell of a deal too. You you spend
[01:07:10] Scott Belchak:
hundred and $30 to get a a state park pass. That gets you access to five five disc golf courses in the state park lands. Yep. Which which, by the way, the news director of state parks is interested in in getting together a tour a Utah State Park disc golf tour Oh, I like that. Where you go around all these state parks and you play tournaments at these state parks, which would be fantastic.
[01:07:31] Sean Kelley:
It'd be great.
[01:07:33] Nick Jennings:
That'd be awesome. So come come and support Wondermint coming up at the May. And like Scott said, be generous with your money in the raffle. Be generous and I I'm gonna add, be generous with your time. If you are coming up and enjoying this beautiful property, ask ask Scott how you can help. And and, you know, I don't know, donate something. Go pick up some garbage around the property or something to help improve and to elevate that course and and just that that whole property. Well, I think that'll do it for this episode of the Elevate Utah Disc Golf Podcast. Thanks for joining us. We'll see you out there.
Introduction and Hosts
The Cryptid Series: A New League
Trailer Premiere: Ascent of the Abominable
Fun and Ridiculous Leagues
Elevate Utah's Growth and Chapters
The Wasatch Wonder: Installation Journey
From Idea to Reality: Building the Course
Funding and Community Support
The Wonder's Impact and Future Plans
Upcoming Events and Tournaments