Published on January 17, 2024
The City of Lynnwood, community partners and local disc golf enthusiasts braved the chilly weather Tuesday afternoon at Gold Park to officially introduce Lynnwood’s first public disc golf course.
The installation of this course was more than two years in the making and was made possible with extensive community and inter-departmental partnerships to revitalize and reclaim the historic and culturally significant park. It also required much-needed improvements to Gold Park, including updating the space to include fencing to enclose the park, installing a picnic table, kiosk, and portable bathroom, extensive garbage and landscape overgrowth removal, replanting native plants, and adding arbor chips and gravel. Lynnwood’s Parks, Recreation & Cultural Arts Department also partnered closely with the Lynnwood Police Department to collaborate on how the City could keep the park safe, especially during its revitalization.
The installation of the disc golf course began in late 2022 when local Boy Scout Andrew Young worked to revitalize the Steljixwali “Stolja Ali” Place of Medicine Ethnobotanical Garden pathway inside Gold Park and installed a new trail map, all as part of his Eagle Scout project. The garden was initially developed in partnership with the Snohomish Tribe of Indians and Edmonds College and is a remains a sacred space for education and healing. This work helped spur a significant effort to reclaim the park with multiple community park clean-ups, including last year’s National Public Lands Day and Earth Day events, where volunteers and local businesses helped clean up the park and prepare the space for the course installation.
Last fall, local Boy Scout Braedan Swan and disc golf course designer and volunteer Jeff “Getty” Freeman collaborated with the City of Lynnwood to design and install the course. Like Andrew, Braeden also received his Eagle Scout for his work in completing the course.
“Strong collaboration and partnerships are imperative for any successful project, and this was no exception,” said City of Lynnwood Mayor Christine Frizzell. “It also called for a heart for service. Something we said throughout the progress of implementing this disc golf course.”
The nine-hole course traverses the diverse landscape and topography of the park. Steve Tresler, who volunteered to help install the course and is an avid disc golfer, lauded the course and its importance for the regional disc golf community.
“The disc golf community was proud to partner with the City of Lynnwood to help make this course a reality,” Steve said. “It’s a fun course!”
Gold Park’s disc golf course is one of more than 200 in Washington state. According to the Professional Disc Golf Association, there are more than 4 million disc golf players worldwide. It is also estimated that there are over 15,000 disc golf courses worldwide, spread between over 80 countries, with over 70% of all disc golf courses built within the last decade.
Gold Park and the course are open daily from dusk to dawn, and it’s free to play.