Course renamed in honor of Boy Scouts of America
Aurora’s original disc golf course at Refshauge Park along Highway 14 has undergone a major upgrade recently, thanks to the efforts of former Auroran Harry Eckerson and a group of local volunteers. New and larger concrete tee pads have been poured in the last several weeks, new goal baskets have been installed and the course has all new signage. It will be renamed “Scouts Honor Disc Golf at Refshauge Park,” in honor of local Boy Scouts who contributed to the building of the original course.
Eckerson, who now lives in the Kansas City area and spent several weeks last summer overseeing the completion of the new Merwyn and Betty Davidson Memorial Disc Golf Course at Streeter Park, has been taking the lead on this project as well. He says completion of the Refshauge overhaul is Stage 2 of a three phase overall project involving disc golf and outdoor recreation in Aurora.
“Stage 1 was to do the Merwyn and Betty Davidson Park, and Stage 2 was to come back and renovate the existing disc golf course (at Refshauge Park), which was the one that Merwyn did with the youth center kids originally,” Eckerson said. “Merwyn was pretty much responsible for doing the skate park and the disc golf course over there.”
Eckerson said he is amazed by what the youth center founder was able to accomplish in those projects.
“When Merwyn started that project, he came over to our coffee shop and asked us for a donation,” Eckerson recalls. “And I asked him if we could do No. 9. He says, ‘Well, you’re the first ones we asked, so we’ll start there.’ So we were involved as a donor and, given the size of the park, it was pretty amazing what they actually did there, and it has had a lot of play over the years and the people I talked to really enjoy the course.”
“The size of the park you have to work with determines the length of your course,” he explained. “And this would be what they call a small recreation course, given that probably your average distance is about 235 feet out here versus Streeter which is more like 350 average.”
Eckerson said the Refshauge course is all par 3 with red baskets. He said there is a huge difference in difficulty between the courses at Streeter and Refshauge parks but notes that a course like Refshauge is perfect for getting beginners interested and involved in disc golf.
“So if you want to build a disc golf community,” he said, “you want to get people started on a course to have fun on and the fun takes over.”
The decision to rename the course in honor of Scouting was, according to Eckerson, based on the fact that two Eagle Scout projects were responsible for making the course what it is today. One of those projects was accomplished by Eagle Scout Broaderic Brophy who was responsible for placing the signs at the original course.
“And so what we are doing is we took a picture of that sign and then there will be a picture of that with a little history of how Merwyn did the recreation projects in that park with the kids,” Eckerson said. “And then all of the tee pads will have the Scouting logo. We’ll use that as our theme through all of the tee pads. And then the last basket—No. 9—is called the Eagle’s Nest. We want to preserve the legacy of the Scouts here in Aurora.”
Eckerson said the approximately $15,000 cost of the renovation was paid for through two $5,000 grants from both the Wortman Family Charitable Trust and the Frank M. and Alice M. Farr Foundation, as well as private business donations.
“Basically, we have what we call tee pad sponsors,” Eckerson said. “So they get to sponsor a pad and put their logo on there. And that’s where they can contribute and get a little recognition. Aurora has always been very, very generous in supporting projects that are worthwhile. Aurora is amazing in that way and there’s a lot of small towns that wish they had the foundation support we have here.”
Assisting Eckerson in the Refshauge Park project were a number of volunteers including Matthew and Nicole Broman, lifelong Aurora residents who started playing the course a while back for nightly exercise. Eckerson said he hopes they and other local residents will take up the vision and the mantle of leadership to complete Phase 3 of the master plan which will be a fitness trail running parallel to the Streeter Park course.
“That’s kind of still up in the air what we’re going to do there,” Eckerson said. “And that may just involve putting some small bridges up there in the park to facilitate better movement. So if the disc golf community wanted to hold tournaments up there, it would have better flow because when you get a lot of people on the course there’s a couple of snags up there. Most of them complain about getting from No. 1 to No 2.”
He says that would mean installing a more substantial bridge, which would require more engineering and permissions.
“So hopefully what what will happen is there’ll be a disc golf committee that will start building here in Aurora, and they will take ownership of what’s here and build on what we have now,” he said. “So my idea was to turn the keys over to the next generation, so to speak; let them take ownership and I’m just gonna step back and say ‘Here you go!’ It’s up to the people here. I’m leaving. I said, ‘You have to be the ones who make this happen now. I’ll help if you ask me, but it has to come from the grassroots.’ And I think right now there are people who will make that happen, so it’s in good hands.”
An avid disc golf enthusiast since he took up the sport several years ago, Eckerson plans to spend his summer working with a national organization known as the Disc Golf Course Designers Group, which is made up of people who have been playing the sport for a long time.
“They’re working on a project to develop a glossary for disc golf design,” he said. “So they can create a standard for design throughout the country and even the world where if you want to design a nine-hole course like Refshauge there’s a standard there—a book, basically, that you can refer to so people are conforming to the same standard. So it’s kind of fun to be involved in something like that, but it’s gonna be a lot of work and it’s all volunteers doing this. But they’re really dedicated people and they’re all about growing the sport.”