Miami University Hamilton’s newly expanded disc golf course open

“We want to be intertwined with the community,” said Robinson. “We want people to know we’re here and we’re willing to put things out for them to be on campus and have a good time. We want to be a part of the community.”

Robinson said the campus had a small disc golf course, but it was never finished or expanded. They expanded it to 18 holes and invested in making it a high-caliber course.

“We’ve added concrete pads on every hole, which before it was kind of grass and gravel, and all the best courses have the concrete pads,” he said. “All that was done by our physical facilities crew, in-house, which saved a lot on our end in funding.”

There were sponsors to help pay for the course, including Chris Connell, who, with his wife, Wendy, are Hole 1 sponsors. And the expansion of the course was Connell’s idea.

“I actually came up with it driving around Oxford one day and seeing all these students outside enjoying themselves,” he said.

But no matter how full the capacity was at the regional campus, it was usually empty outside.

“I wanted to have something for students to stick around in between classes and do, and I also wanted to have the public to look over here and see kids having fun, and this is the place I want to be,” Connell said, who admitted he isn’t a disc golfer, but he’s going to give it a try now.

The course repurposed the old softball field that had fallen into disrepair and added three new holes in the woods because “especially on hot days, disc golf is really good to play in the woods in the shade,” Robinson said.

In addition to concrete pads at each hole and new signs, they also have a practice basket ― because all good courses has one, Robinson said ― also use the UDisc app so players can log their scores and get course information. The first hole is close to the faculty parking lot, southeast of Rentschler Hall, and close to the faculty parking lot.

Hamilton now has two 18-hole courses, with the second one at Millikin Woods. This adds to the multiple disc golf options in Butler County, which includes Fairfield’s course at Harbin Park and Monroe’s course at Monroe Community Park, Liberty Twp.’s Reserves Park, and Middletown’s course at Wilson Park.