STORY BY BENJAMIN LERNER PHOTOGRAPHY COURTESY CRAIG LIGHT
DRIVING
Forward
Southern Vermont ’ s Disc Golf Scene gains momentum at Willow Park in Bennington
It ’ s a warm and overcast day at Willow Park in Bennington . At the top of a gently sloping hillside , Mike O ’ Neil bends down to pull a trusty disc out of his bag , then takes a moment to gather his bearings as he looks towards his target . A cylindrical blue basket sits at the bottom of the hill , surrounded by tall ash and birch trees . He squints his eyes with concentrated focus , plants his front foot firmly on the ground , and hurls his disc forward with forceful , yet fluid finesse . As O ’ Neil watches the disc coast over the hillside , the sharp and serious expression on his face slowly morphs into a satisfied grin . The disc then falls to the ground several feet in front of the basket , and O ’ Neil swaggers down towards it with the triumphant comportment of a decorated Olympian . “ That ’ s how you ’ re supposed to do it ,” says O ’ Neil . As he gently lobs the disc into the basket , his teammate , Jacob “ Brew ” Reed , promptly marks their shared team scorecard . It ’ s only the third hole in a round of eighteen at the Willow Park Disc Golf Course , but the spirit of friendly competition is already in full swing .
While walking towards the next hole on the course , Reed and O ’ Neil exchange banter with members of the opposing two-person team . The atmosphere is jovial and merry , but one would be hard-pressed to find a more passionate and knowledgeable group of athletes in Southern Vermont . As the two teams make their way over a series of gently rolling hills , the conversation seamlessly alternates between lighthearted jokes and nuanced discussions about disc flight physics . “ There ’ s a lot more to the sport of disc golf than initially meets the eye ,” muses O ’ Neil . “ I learn something new almost every time that I come out here .”
As the current President of Willow Park ’ s resident disc golf club , “ Discs Over Clubs ”, O ’ Neil feels a deep sense of connection to the Southern Vermont disc golf community . Long before Discs Over Clubs was founded in 2018 by original Club President Tony Malikowski , O ’ Neil and Malikowski oversaw the initial growth of the Willow Park disc golf community from its inception . “ When I started playing disc golf here at Willow Park back in the late 1990s with a few friends , I didn ’ t know that anyone else in the area was really playing ,” recalls O ’ Neil . “ Back then , our course was a lot less developed than it is now .”
Active Discs Over Clubs member Davy Flight adds , “ Over the years , the course was continually shaped and improved upon through a series of consecutive independent projects .” According to Flight , the first fledgling course at Willow Park was erected when a local resident ( who happened to be a passionate freestyle frisbee player ) installed some baskets to create a makeshift course in the 1990s . Although the course was not ideally designed for sustainable play due to its proximity to the playground , it nevertheless laid the groundwork for future projects . Flight elaborates : “ An avid disc golf enthusiast later came to Bennington and installed a temporary 18-hole course that was used by the greater community . Unfortunately , the course was partially dismantled several years later when he left
40 VERMONT MAGAZINE