Two Rivers bike park adds disc golf

Two Rivers Bike Park in Highlandville this weekend opened a disc golf course throughout its roughly 15 miles of mountain bike trails through valleys and ridges where the James and Finley rivers meet.

Springfield-based disc golf course designer Russ Burns finished installation last week.

“We had the idea to help supplement the trail system out there,” said Matt Blevins, controller of Green Circle Projects, the development arm of the not-for-profit trail system and course. “It is definitely a partnership between disc golf, mountain biking and trail running. We wanted to bring those communities together into one area of holistic fitness and betterment.”

At the start of the year, Two Rivers organizers hired Disc Golf Monkey to design the course, which plays like traditional golf but with Frisbee-style discs thrown hundreds of feet into chained baskets on posts. Owner Burns installed his baskets and poured the cement pads that serve as disc golf tee boxes.

“He’s pretty much the foremost designer in this area,” Blevins said of Burns.

Disc Golf Monkey courses typically run $9,000-$12,000 to develop, Burns said, and Two Rivers’ investment exceeded the averages.

“They’ve tried to keep it as natural as possible,” Burns said, noting the course is more challenging than most with four valleys and parallel ridges. “With that repetition, it’s harder to come up with unique holes.”

He also had to work around the mountain bike trails. The result is a likely par of 59 or 60, well above the traditional disc golf par of 54. The signature 18th hole plays 700 feet, but it’s downhill with a 105-foot drop.

“The biggest challenge is probably the elevation changes and longer holes,” Blevins said. “But at the same time, it is a very fair course to casual players.”

Now, the development team at Two Rivers, led by social entrepreneur Matt O’Reilly, is eyeing a national tournament for this Ozarks scenery. Blevins and crew plan to integrate disc golf activities during Two Rivers’ Single Track Mind Festival over Labor Day weekend.

“We would love to be able to match our disc golf with our trail festival,” Blevins said, noting people as far Pennsylvania attended the first festival, which is sponsored by Red Bull and Clif Bar. “We’ve invested a lot of time and effort to get it nationally recognized.”

They’re targeting fall or spring for a dedicated disc golf tournament, which can attract over 90 players, half of which typically travel in to play.

“We try to build the community as much as we build physical items,” Blevins said. “We want people to get out and start moving.”

Disc golf play has been on the rise, and the number of courses has at least doubled every 10 years since 1985. There are now over 4,000 U.S. courses, according to the 24,000-member PDGA, and five are in Springfield. Another 20 courses are within 50 miles, including private courses on the True Life Church campus north of town and Joe’s DGC in Ozark.