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Maine's disc golf courses provide inexpensive outing for growing numbers of enthusiasts
By TRAVIS BARRETT Kennebec Journal & Morning Sentinel Saturday, July 28, 2007

FAIRFIELD -- After more than three decades of being cooped up inside, Lloyd Beaulieu decided he'd had enough. He was going to work outdoors.

Three years ago, the native of Fort Kent sold his machine shop in Chicopee, Mass., and moved to Maine to pursue a career as a disc golf course owner and designer. Early this month, he opened SkyRiders disc golf course in Fairfield, where he lives with longtime partner Edith Enman.

From 78 acres of woods, rocks and hills, Beaulieu carved out a nine-hole course that by this time next year will be expanded to a full 18.

"This was meant for me," said Beaulieu, 59. "This fits my lifestyle. I've done my time, and now I'm happy."

There are 22 disc golf courses in Maine, and they are used by everyone from first-time recreational players looking for an alternative to traditional "ball" golf to certified Professional Disc Golfer Association members. Some are looking for the competition, some are looking for a trip through a natural environment and some are looking for a way to incorporate them both.

Like Beaulieu.

"You've got to like it to do all this," Beaulieu said of the 12-hour-a-day work that goes into course design and construction. "Not everybody wants to be outdoors all the time. I do."

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The game of disc golf was much more difficult than I imagined, as I found out after a couple of 18-hole rounds with Brunswick native Bob Enman, who owns three courses and has designed numerous others as a hired consultant. The obstacles of traditional golf, like trees and water, are every bit as real in this game.

But unlike traditional golf, which is played primarily in open spaces, disc golf feels more like a mile-and-a-half hike in the woods with some stops to pick up a disc and give it a throw. Still, it's different than a game of frisbee in the park. Whereas throwing a frisbee to a friend takes little in the way of power or accuracy, both are needed to compete effectively in disc golf.

Enman discovered the game in the late 1980s, when he found an unopened frisbee package at a yard sale. On the pack of the package were the directions to a game he'd never heard of -- frisbee golf. He began teaching the game to a group of troubled youths he was working with at the time, and they would pick out objects or landmarks as their "holes."

In 1995, Enman played at Beaver Brook campground in North Monmouth -- the first disc golf course in the state. He's been hooked ever since. One year later, he opened Enman Field in Brunswick, which boasts two courses he designed.

"I've been playing ever since," said Enman, 49, who now puts more effort into course management than he does into playing.

"I love courses," Enman said, "and I want them to be great."

The Beauty and The Beast courses at Enman Field are both that. Both are 18-hole courses that take roughly half the time of a traditional round of golf to play. The Beauty is a 5,400-foot course, while The Beast is slightly longer at 6,000 feet. Most courses run between 5,000 and 6,000 feet, and feature holes varying from 150 feet in length to more than 700 feet.

"Any disc course is a good course," Enman said, "unless it's going to turn people off to the sport."

Recreational courses are built with the fair to middling player in mind, while pro courses are typically a little longer and offer more challenging layouts. Some courses feature holes that are long, laid out over a large field, for instance, while others use bends and doglegs in the woods around trees to make them difficult.

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Bobby Harris of Lisbon and Steve Mitchell of Sabattus were on The Beast course Friday morning, squeezing in a round before reporting to work in the afternoon.

Harris said he plays somewhere in the neighborhood of 200 rounds per year.

"They're a pretty good sampling of our biggest clientele," Enman said of the pair. "They're working guys. This is affordable, and they can get in a round in about two hours, while they're on their lunch or before going back to work.

"But, we've got players everywhere from those just beginning to walk to those who can still barely walk."

Enman points to his uncle, 78-year-old Louis Senegal Sr., who helped Lloyd Beaulieu design SkyRiders and does a lot of the work associated with building holes -- like removing trees, cutting brush and shaping tee pads and landing areas. Senegal only took up the game a decade ago, at the seasoned age of 68.

Beaulieu relies heavily on Senegal's advice when it comes to SkyRiders' layout, one that places emphasis on the natural surroundings.

In fact, Beaulieu wants his place to be more than just a disc golf course.

"I want to protect nature," Beaulieu said. "I won't cut down any trees I don't have to cut down, and the ones I do get re-used. The tee markers are all made from trees we cut down.

"I also won't ever cut down an apple tree, no matter where it is. I love the apple trees, and I want the deer to be able to come here. Before I bought the land, I know they used to hunt here, and I don't want that here anymore. I want to turn it into a deer sanctuary."

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I played a few holes at SkyRiders early this week, and I got a chance to play on both The Beauty and The Beast at Enman Field on Friday.

"For your first real game," Bob Enman said of my decision to keep score during our round on The Beauty, "a good score would probably be an 84 or something right around that."

Given that it's a par-66 course, carding an 84 would be similar to carding a 100 in a round of tradtional golf. I made an 81, having taken a double-bogey 7 on No. 5 and a triple-bogey 8 on No. 15. My round included eight pars, something I wouldn't be able to do on the traditional golf course on my best day.

Even in firing off an 81, I hit trees, took penalty strokes for going out of bounds and found myself in "the rough" often enough to get frustrated.

No wonder disc enthusiasts refer to it simply as "golf."

I used only one disc, a 135-gram multi-purpose disc, though professional golfers carry as many as 20 discs in their bag at one time. Enman used four discs pretty regularly over his 7-under par round of 59, including two drivers, one intermediate range disc and a putter. Unlike in traditional golf, there is no hard and fast "rule" for deciding to use the putting disc.

Though Enman plays regularly, Beaulieu, by contrast, doesn't play much at all. He'd rather create an outdoors experience for people who play the game.

"I just think it's an excellent form of exercise," said Beaulieu, noting the cost of disc golf, which averages less than five dollars a round. "And you can't even go bowling for what it costs to play this. I don't even like to play as much as I enjoy watching people play the game, but it's a great way to lose weight and stay in shape.

"And you can't beat it. Look at this," Beaulieu said, looking around. "It's great being outside all the time."

Travis Barrett -- 621-5648

tbarrett@centralmaine.com

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