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Chelsea Community Church recently opened the city of Chelsea's first disc golf course, bringing an area for beginners and families to try out and have fun. (Reporter photos/Tyler Raley)

By TYLER RALEY | Staff Writer

CHELSEA – Standing in the middle of Chelsea, a group of men stood chatting between services at Chelsea Community Church, discussing the passion for a sport that has only been growing over the years—disc golf.

Those men brought up the potential idea of creating a course that could spark the continued growth of the activity, especially for beginners. Eventually, the mere idea became a reality.

On Saturday, May 10, Chelsea welcomed the city’s first disc golf course on the campus of Chelsea Community Church, marking the completion of a project that had been long-desired and much-anticipated.

The course is nine holes long and serves as a place for beginners to get their footing and learn the trick of the trade, while also finding some enjoyment in the sport. It is also a place for friends and families to go out and have fun with a leisurely game.

According to Chris Fielding, a member of Chelsea Community Church, the idea for the course came to the surface out of the blue, but sparked his interest.

However, making room and constructing a disc golf course is no easy task, but with a little bit of determination and teamwork, the vision came into view.

“About a year ago, between services I was having a conversation with Bryan Marbury, pastor of service and missions, and Trey Garrett, just another member here,” Fielding said. “During the conversation Trey just said, ‘We should build a course out here.’ Bryan was like ‘Yeah that’s a great idea,’ and I said, ‘Yeah that’s a great idea.’ In my head I said, ‘Man that would never happen but that would be so cool if it did.’ Then about a month later, they had a men’s work day, so the men’s ministry came out here and cleared off an acre of land… When I saw that, I thought, ‘Wow, maybe this could happen.'”

Several months after the men’s ministry cleared off the land, the group planned another work day, so Fielding and Marbury went off to mark some trees for fairways just before it.

After the second work day was completed with those markings made, Fielding saw the project come to life and show potential of what it could become for Chelsea.

“When I saw that, I thought ‘This is becoming a reality, this isn’t something that was just a fun idea,'” Fielding said. “Yes, we have a beautiful building, we have beautiful facilities, but there’s a ton of land around here that is being unused.”

Once the course was completed, the church set an opening date for May 10. However, once it came time for the course to be shown off, bad weather made other plans.

Despite rain pouring viciously throughout the morning though, people still came out and supported the city’s newest place of gathering.

“I thought it was incredible, because when I say a monsoon, it poured all morning long,” Fielding said. “When we had over 30 people come out here in the middle of the rain, Sullivan Tipton who is one of the top 20 pros in the world, who Brody contacted, came out here and played in the rain. He had every reason in the world to be miserable in the rain, with a bunch of people that don’t know what they’re doing, but was just super pumped and positive… It showed me that it wasn’t in vain.”

The excitement for the course fell right in line with Fielding’s passion for the sport, as he discussed how disc golf has played a fun part in his life, allowing time for him, his sons and his neighbors to be together and grow closer.

“My personal passion is something that I can do with Brooks and Bryan (Fielding),” Fielding said. “I coach them in sports, and you’re definitely involved, but it’s different. This is a game we can play together. Brody (Callin), our neighbor, who’s been a big brother to them for years, it’s just a game we can go out and really do it together in several ways. We can go out there and compete seriously and get angry and have fun, or we can just go out and be silly and play games and make up wild holes and have fun.”

With the focus of the course being centered around community and having fun, there is a lot of excitement for how Chelsea Community Church’s newest asset will grow.

Just like the city of Chelsea itself, there is belief that it will continually bring more people to the city and church alike, making it a popular commodity for all to use.

“Chelsea, we’re a young community,” said Michael Abrams, lead pastor at Chelsea Community Church. “I think one of the things that is amazing is that we’ve been in Chelsea, our church has been here, we started in 2018 in the elementary school, so a little less than 10 years, but Chelsea has grown so much in that time. We just love this community and so the fact that we’re able to hopefully give something back to the community that has provided so many things for us, not just for our church, but for our families and for the people that are here, it’s a joy.”

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