Disc golf arrives in city

Disc golf at Tucumcari’s new disc golf course is like regular golf except that:

• You carry a set a backpack or cloth case of throwing discs around instead of long, heavy bag of clubs to hit dimpled little balls.

• You dress for a hike in the back country, not in cleats for the fairway.

• If you did use a vehicle, not recommended, it would be a four-wheel-drive all-terrain vehicle, not a golf cart.

Tucumcari’s 18-hole disc golf course has made a favorable impression on professional disc golfers, and the Tucumcari course will host a state professional tournament on Oct. 14 and 15.

A Tucumcari Disc Golf Association has been formed and is seeking sponsors for the tourney while making arrangements to prepare the course for the onslaught.

Golf discs look like Frisbees, the throw-and-catch disc from Wham-O, but they’re designed to be thrown for distance and accuracy, not to be caught.

As with regular golf, disc golf is scored by the number of shots you take to propel the disc from a tee area to a basket hanging from chains, which serves the function of the pin and hole in golf. As in golf, the lowest score wins.

Also, similarly to ball golf, it takes practice and experience to advance from beginner to serious levels in disc golf.

Tucumcari’s disc golf course now consists of 36 tees, 18 for pros and 18 for amateurs, and 18 baskets that direct players into the seeming wilderness surrounding the old Five-Mile Park swimming pool.

Tucumcari District 4 Commissioner Robert Lumpkin, mayor pro tem, brought disc golf to attention of City Manager Jared Langenegger last March. Lumpkin had taken a tour of the disc golf course at the Sipapu Lodge Ski Area, which climbs the mountain through the trees next to the ski slopes.

“I thought this would be a great idea for Tucumcari,” he said. “It’s a fun way to encourage people to get some exercise,”

Langenegger and Lumpkin went to Five Mile Park to explore the idea, and Langenegger like the idea so much, he outlined the course himself, using satellite photos of the park area and visits to the site.

Langenegger said the golf course is likely to become a tourist draw, not a destination activity, but one that people spending the night in Tucumcari may add to their schedule before they hit the highway again.

Meanwhile, Lumpkin had talked to Albuquerque disc golf professionals Jeff Lewis and Geno Caggiano, who are also evangelists for the game.

“By professional,” Lewis said, “it means we play for money occasionally. We don’t make our living at it.”

In May, Lewis and Caggiano brought their disc cases to Tucumcari and played a few rounds. They brought Dave Smith, another Albuquerque pro, and Mark Zimmer, an advanced Tucumcari amateur player, joined them.

Zimmer, who started playing disc golf in Gillette, Wyo., said he plays for fun and to socialize.

The visiting pros were impressed with the course. So much so, they proposed it for the statewide tournament in October.

Lumpkin and Langenegger brought the disc golf course idea before the Lodger’s Tax board and the City Commission in May, and both bodies agreed to spend $32,300 in Lodger’s Tax funds to pour concrete for tees and install regulation baskets on poles for the 18-hole course.

The baskets include one perched atop a rock outcropping, and one in stone just above a stone wall that drops about six feet below the basket.

The newly formed Tucumcari disc golf group is now organizing to prepare the course and surrounding area for the tourney in October.

The first task, raise money, according to Daniel Zamora, the association’s president.

Zamora, who works in Quay County’s mapping organization, is also a professional disc golfer.

Zamora said he’d like to raise $2,000 from local sponsors to help defray costs related to the tournament, which include some grooming to outline fairways, signs to direct golfers to the next tee when they finish a hole, and clearing the area next to the old swimming pool for parking.

Zimmer has already started seeking sponsors among local businesses.

While little scientifically gathered information about disc golf’s popularity is available, most observers agree that interest in the game is growing, due to disc golf’s low costs for players and course developers, compared with those for ball golf.

Locally, a beginner’s set of three discs is available for about $32 from various area merchants.