BRYAN, Texas — After weeks of back-and-forth discussions, the City of Bryan has announced it will remove the disc golf course at Park Hudson effective immediately.
- The City of Bryan extended the disc golf course at Park Hudson in fall 2023 without asking for public input from residents and homeowner associations nearby.
- Since the course opened, residents have complained to the city of flying discs and trespassers.
- Disc golf leaders were hoping to work with the city to make the necessary changes to keep the course, but the city announced its plans to remove the course completely.
- SEE MORE: 'We want to be good neighbors': Disc golf community rallies to keep course open
UPDATE: Newly released statement from the City of Bryan on February 29:
The City of Bryan is seeing receiving misinformation about the Park Hudson Disc Golf Course and would like to provide some clarity.
About 10 – 15 years ago, a 6-hole disc golf course was installed in Tiffany Park through a Bowen Elementary School grant-funded project.
Late last year, this course was expanded, around the Park Hudson Trail area, into an 18-hole course. This included the installment of 12 new holes, and new baskets and concrete tee pads at each of the 18 holes. Since the expanded course opened, residents began to recognize the impact of the new amenity and voiced their concerns to the City.
The expanded portion of the Park Hudson Disc Golf Course is being removed along with tee pads. The removal process started this week. A number of reasons prompted the removal, including the City not having more public input before proceeding with the course, the City not doing a thorough review of the property before implementing changes, complaints from residents in the area, an injury claim from an alleged disc golfer, etc. The City recognizes the oversights and is working to address them.
Essentially, the original 6-hole disc golf course will remain. Staff is working on removing concrete tee pads and making basket location adjustments to the original 6 holes, based on concerns from the expanded portion. The plan is to put Tiffany Park back to its original, natural state.
The City has three other disc golf course locations:
- Austin’s Colony Park (9-hole)
- Bonham Park (9-hole)
- Cherry Park (6-hole)
BROADCAST SCRIPT:
Walking through Park Hudson, you would have no idea that just a few days ago, the park had an 18-hole disc golf course.
Monday, the city announced it will remove the course from Park Hudson, leaving players with limited playing options.
"What we’re standing in now this is beautiful, wooded landscape that you can see there are still trees throughout all of this," Nick Willis said.
"Disc golf, as opposed to ball golf, wants trees and obstacles and fairways like this. The other courses nearby are much more open and basic or much shorter — it would be like having a someone who plays golf and telling them that you have a putt putt course that they can come enjoy."
Nick Willis is the co-owner of Armory Disc Golf. He is one of the people speaking with the city about compromises to keep the golf course safe, while also being good neighbors to nearby residents.
This issue has been evolving a lot over the last few weeks.
In the fall of 2023, the City of Bryan extended a disc golf course that already existed in a smaller capacity in Park Hudson.
In the months afterward, nearby residents complained of discs flying on their property, golfers trespassing private property and discs being thrown across a walking trail.
On Feb. 8 , the city announced plans to completely remove the course from Park Hudson.
That same day, the disc golf community created a Change.Org petition, getting nearly 2,000 votes — the city changed course.
On Feb. 13, the city removed four baskets that caused the most concern and continued speaking with stakeholders about how to best move forward.
On Feb. 15 and 18, different city officials walked through the park to get an idea of the course and the complaints that have come from it.
Then on Monday, the city announced it will remove the course from Park Hudson effective immediately.
In a statement, a spokesperson said:
“Before opening the extended area, the City failed to gain public input from residents and homeowner associations in the immediate area. Once opened, issues were expressed to the City about discs being thrown across the walking trail, discs going onto private property, golfers trespassing onto private property, and other concerns. To exacerbate issues, a golfer filed an injury claim against the City. Effective immediately, the City is removing all disc baskets and tee pads from new fairways within the Park Hudson Disc Golf Course.”
To the disc golf community, it's a big disappointment.
“There were several compromises that we’ve offered, and we thought that we were going to get sat down in a meeting and said let’s change this, let’s work together, let’s figure this thing out," Willis said.
"At the end of the day, none of that was offered and we were just told, 100 to zero — a $50,000 tax pay investment is gonna go up in smoke."