New Pitt Meadows disc golf course to transform Bonson Park: designer

The disc soared out of the man’s hand, twisting in the sky for the length of a football field before falling to the ground. 

Over two decades ago, when he was in his late-thirties, Chris Hartmann tracked the disc on a Cultus Lake field. 

“What did that guy just do and what is he throwing,” Hartmann said to himself. 

Hartmann, a disc golfer from Surrey who has since represented Canada internationally three times and now co-designs courses across the Lower Mainland, grew up playing frisbee with his father — tossing the disc back and forth, spinning it on his fingers, throwing it different ways. 

But he never saw someone throw it that far, so he approached the man and asked him what he was doing. 

It was the first time Hartmann was introduced to the sport, disc golf. 

As his company, INdesign, puts the finishing touches on a new disc golf course in Bonson Park, Hartmann is hoping that his designs will similarly inspire Pitt Meadows residents to pick up a disc for the first time. 

“It’s a similar story with a lot of disc golfers, one day you see somebody throw a frisbee really far,” Hartmann said. “And it captures your imagination.” 

Disc golf is one of the fastest growing sports in the world, with nearly 22 million rounds scored on UDisc — a popular scorekeeping and course discovery app — in 2023, more than five times the number of rounds that were scored in 2019. 

In Canada, the popularity is largely concentrated in B.C. and Ontario. The two provinces hosted half of Canada’s roughly 300 disc golf courses at the time, according to analysis by the CBC in 2021. 

Interest in the sport began a couple years before the pandemic, Hartmann said. Courses started to get busy, tournaments started popping up more frequently and retailers started selling a higher volume of discs. 

But that momentum was accelerated during the pandemic — a time when people longed for safe, social interactions outdoors in small groups. 

“I think that brought a lot of people into the sport,” Hartmann said. 

The interest has also extended to Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge. 

A group, Ridge Meadows Disc Golf Club, was formed online three years ago and now has more than 400 members. The group also manages a 12-hole course in Thornhill Park — a course with a rating of 4.1 out of 5 on UDisc — and runs a recurring league for competitive players in the region. 

And last August, Pitt Meadows jumped on the bandwagon. The city launched a pop-up course at Bonson Park that attracted 133 people, high demand that even surprised Pitt Meadows officials and paved the way for the creation of a permanent course at the park this summer. 

Development is already being celebrated by local disc golfers. 

A new Pitt Meadows-based disc golf club on Facebook, featuring 20 members, praised the addition to the community and to the Ridge Meadows Disc Golf Club for promoting the Bonson Park location. 

Jordy Stace-Smith, a Pitt Meadows resident and avid disc golf player, has lived in the community for one decade and helped organize the pop-up event last year. Disc golf, he says, is a family-friendly activity that encourages people to be outside. It’s also a low-cost and accessible sport, which is why he thinks it has resonated with so many other locals in recent years.

“Whether you are familiar with the sport of disc golf or not, the addition of the Bonson course provides members of the community with an opportunity to gather, move their bodies and spend more time in nature,” Stace-Smith said. “Disc golf is a sport that brings people together, regardless of your skill.”

Hartmann, who notably co-designed Raptors Knoll in Aldergrove, a course that was ranked as the 13^th best in the world according to UDisc in 2022, says that both the city and local disc golfers are excited about expanding disc golf in the community. 

Raptors Knoll, like the new disc golf course location in Bonson Park, used to be a garbage dump. But that land had some wooded areas and slopes — obstacles for disc golfers — that suited a potential course. 

INdesign’s goal was to sketch out a course using those natural features, while highlighting the view of Mount Baker in the distance. On one hole, they built a raised green, elevating the basket so it had a backdrop of the mountain. 

“That image of that hole, I’m probably not stretching it to say, it’s one of the most recognizable disc golf holes anywhere,” Hartmann said. 

Shortly after INDesign was contacted to work on the Bonson Park location, Hartmann and his team canvassed the area to find similar, unique features that would give the course a special feeling like the one in Aldergrove. 

The first time he walked the park, Hartmann noted how it was a depression and had a lack of trees. Trees, he says, not only serve as a safety measure to prevent discs from flying onto nearby homes or trails, but also present challenging obstacles on a hole. 

For the last couple months, city officials have planted new trees, added shrubs, boulders and other landscaping to the park — designs that Hartmann thinks will transform the previously sunken piece of land into a neat space for disc golf.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we end up planting 100 to 200 trees over the next few years,” Hartmann said. “The city has been like, ‘What do we need to do to make this special?’” 

The park, which is scheduled to open this fall, depending on weather conditions, may not host competitive tournaments with 300 or more people. But Hartmann says it has the potential to introduce even more people — young people, especially, with its proximity to Pitt Meadows Secondary School — to the sport. 

“It’s going to be a wonderful place for people in the community to get out and be outdoors,” Hartmann said.