Red baskets bankrolled by local player create disc golf options

Thanks to a charitable donation by one of the better disc golf players in the area, more people will be able to enjoy the lovely Cape Henlopen State Park course this summer. The donation resulted in the installation of nine new red-marked baskets to create a shorter layout.

“[For] a lot of kids, a lot of newcomers watching, seeing the more professional players like myself throw a disc 400-plus feet is very daunting for someone who can only throw it 50,” said Chris “Eagle” Peters. “It tends to shoot them down, so giving them an opportunity to par is huge for a newcomer and for a smaller child.”

Peters ponied up $3,855 he earned working at Summer House restaurant in order to bring the  baskets into the park. He viewed his income as generated by tourists and saw the donation as a way to give back to the locals who support him year-round and the visitors who come every summer. He picked up the game from his mom at age 16 and soon began playing with his uncle, who was nearly the same age as him.

He has played on a variety of courses but has a fondness for his home circuit and thinks it is unique in the disc golf world. “Being [on] a beach course is really interesting,” Peters said. “People come here from all over the place just for the beach, and this gives them an opportunity to play a sport that they play at home in the woods.”

With the new baskets and layout, that special part of the course can be enjoyed by everyone, not matter their skill level. Beginners will have a shorter drive to get near the basket, and experienced players can customize the holes a bit more. Everyone will have a chance to enjoy the outdoors on hotter days with a shorter course time.

“Some of the older gentlemen that I play with now have chosen to switch over and play this little-shorter layout,” Peters said. “It's easier for them, it's giving them an excuse to get outside, they're enjoying nature and they're walking through the park.”

The course also keeps a connection with his late mother, who would join him on the course but play the shorter pins to the yellow basket while Eagle launched from the far pads.

“She always loved watching me play,” Peters said. “I knew this would be something she would want; she totally inspired me to do this.”

Peters got the nickname Eagle because he has twice rattled the cage two tosses under par and is comfortable with his long game, but he believes the new red baskets will benefit his short game as well. Some of the red baskets are more or less straight forward from the close pins, but they are settled into tough angles or hard-to-reach areas if someone is launching from the farther tees.

Experienced or new, younger and older, smaller and taller will notice their level of enjoyment has increased with the new baskets.