The first-ever disc golf tournament, held Saturday, October 10 at the new disc golf course in Hartland Park in Bergen, drew twenty enthusiastic participants.
“We’re really excited,” Village Mayor Anna Marie Barclay said. “We are reaching our goal of promoting health and wellness in Bergen.”
The course is the first of its kind in Genesee County and the Columbus Day weekend tournament drew a mix of pros and amateurs.
“We come everyday,” one participant who lives next to the park said. “We’re obsessed.”
The Bergen disc golf course includes nine holes. Tournament participants played the course up and back for a total of 18 holes.
“The president of the Greater Rochester Disc Golf Club is playing in the tournament,” Mayor Barclay said prior to the event. “He has told us this is an amazing course.”
Disc golf utilizes frisbee-like discs which come in various sizes and weights and are similar to putters and drivers in traditional golf.
The course is getting lots of use, Bergen Village Administrator Cortney Gale said. “People are here everyday.”
Doug McIver, who mows the park for the village and is a disc golf player, suggested creating the course in Hartland Park, Gale said. McIver also worked to lay out the course. The village removed brush and undergrowth from beneath trees and constructed three new bridges across Minnie Creek to create the course.
Also on October 10, the first-ever “Bergen Family Shenanigans” was held across Route 19 in Hickory Park Saturday afternoon and evening.
“There were cartoons, stories, a camp fire, carnival games and participants stayed overnight in tents,” Barclay said. The festival included arts and crafts and local vendors.
A group of residents got together to organize the event, she added, and noted that all parks in the village are now connected by a trail system. “We are working with the New York State DOT to get a cross-walk across Route 19,” the mayor said.
