New Whitehorse disc golf course may prevent crime: golfer

Whitehorse disc golfers have had one of their courses vandalized, again. It's the third time it's happened over the past year.

Alan Hill of the Whitehorse Disc Golf Association said the latest incidenthappened sometime Thursday night. The temporary, 19-hole course is set upin a wooded area between the Alaska Highway and the McIntyre Creek pump station.

Vandals destroyed 12 of the course's 19 targets, which are made of stove pipes, hung in trees or mounted on posts. In the game, disc golf players must hit the targets with a frisbee, but the vandals used something else.

"It looks like they hit them with the blunt end of an axe," said Hill.

"And the ones that were the stand-alones, on the wood posts, they just chopped the wood post. Or else, if they were hanging from a tree, they just chopped a branch of the tree."

Plans for a permanent course

The incident comes as the association applies to developa more permanent course, in the same location. An application is now before city council.

Disc golfer Noel Sinclairbelieves that developing the area might reduce the likelihood of further vandalism.

"If you think about having a permanent recreational facility down there, that lots of people are using, you're going to find that some of thosesort of negative elements are just going to be kind of chased out of there," Sinclair said.

Developing the course would involve constructing tee pads and installing signs througha 6-hectareswath of forest.The hanging stovepipes would be replaced byremovable basket targets, mounted in concrete sleeves in the ground.

A public input session on the proposed course will be held next Tuesday, with council expected to make a decision in April.