Calgary Parks Foundation announces new, specialized disc golf park

Tucked into the tall hay and deep valleys of northern Albertan rests the home of Treasure Richardson’s favourite memories of her husband, David.

David passed away in a tragic drowning accident last year, but Treasure still smiles when she recalls the long days they spent on that northern farm – though sun and snow – playing disc golf with their friends on a “rustic renegade course.”

“Whenever David was playing disc golf, he was very much in his ‘happy place,’” she said. “Enjoying the outdoors with his close friends, his family and his dogs.”

David’s love for the game led to Wednesday’s launch of the $700,000 David Richardson Memorial Disc Golf Park along the Parks Foundation’s Rotary/Mattamy Greenway.

The 27 acres of rolling hills in northwest Calgary are set to become an 18-hole facility that is expected to be one of the best in North America.

The Richardson family has already donated one third of the cost of the course for disc golf, which Steve Meeker of the Calgary Disc Golf Club says is, “one of the fastest growing sports in the city.”

Mayor Naheed Nenshi joined the launch, noting that the course’s location at the intersection of Country Hills Blvd. and Stoney Trail is “the jewel of the Greenway.”

“The Rotary/Mattamy Greenway, as a whole, is a gift to all Calgarians,” he said. “Whether your family has been here for thousands of years or you arrived last week from a refugee camp in Jordan, you understand that places of great beauty like this are for everyone in our community.”

Of the 138-kilometres of pathways on the $50-million Greenway, only 10 km are left to be built. Myrna Dubé of Parks Foundation Calgary said that, while $2-million is left to be raised for the project, she expects it to be complete in 2017.

Treasure said the park will be a legacy for David and for generations to come, adding that he would be so pleased to see a disc golf course in his own neighbourhood, and he “would have loved to play it.”