Frisbee golf flies into fairgrounds

Fallon’s newest form of outdoor recreation is a hybrid.

Thanks to Tim Shurtliff, Frisbee golf is now a part of the area’s sporting landscape.

Shurtliff designed the course, which is at the Churchill County Fairgrounds, as part of a project to earn his Eagle Scout rank. Shurtliff, along with about 20 other scouts who lended a hand in the project, began building the course one year ago.

On Wednesday, with Shurtliff’s troop’s in attendance and numerous Churchill County representatives, the Fallon teenager cut the ribbon to officially open the course.

“I am excited,” Shurtliff said. “It’s been a lot of work, but I think it will be rewarding.”

Shurtliff opted to design the course after speaking with Tom Flemming, an avid Frisbee golf player. Together, they planned the course, which starts with the No. 1 hole at the entrance to the fairgrounds parking lot and runs alongside Sheckler Road and in front of the indoor pool.

From there, the course banks south through the baseball fields and turns east alongside the back end of the lacrosse field. From there, the course runs north and finishes with a monster 427-foot, par 4 to close the loop.

“There are a lot of people in town who play Frisbee golf but had to go to Reno or Dayton or other towns to play,” Shurtliff said. “So I took it on as my Eagle project.”

The project, which was co-funded by the county and city of Fallon, also gained 18 local sponsors in the form of money or material donations. As a result, the course is free to the public to play, unless discs are required, which then can be rented from the Parks and Recreation Department for $5.

Shurtliff said the first step was to find a suitable location to build the course. Discussions with Parks and Rec zeroed in on the fairgrounds, which has the space to accommodate the walking course.

After, the city and county started buying the materials such as the metal baskets (or holes), wood for the tee box, a rubber-like material to cover the tee boxes to secure footing on the drive and posts to hold the hole descriptions.

The project cost more than $5,000, but about $800 to date has been donated by the 18 businesses.

“We had a lot of different sources for materials,” Shurtliff said.

Ironically, the soon-to-be Eagle has only played Frisbee golf once before. Now that a course has been raised, Shurtliff said he is hopeful to pick up the game.

“I guess the reason I did it was because I didn’t know anything about Frisbee golf,” he said. “I’m going to learn something from this.”