Course of the Month – Flyboy Aviation (Part 2 of 3)
July 16, 2010
To celebrate the launch of our site and our first ‘Course of the Month’ we are publishing a 3 part whale of a story about one of the coolest courses you’ll ever hear about, written by one of the coolest and most genuine guys you’ll ever meet – Kelly Leggette. Here is part 2 of 3 on how ‘Flyboy Aviation’ came to be. You can read Part 1 here.
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Flyboy Aviation Disc Golf Field of Dreams
“If I build it, will they come?”
Part 2 of 3
By Kelly Leggette
Liz Carr tees off on #3, "No Guts No Glory"
I identified three “critical cornerstones” required to build the ultimate disc golf venue: An awesome tract of land on which to build a championship caliber course, a comfortable, inviting clubhouse with a pro-shop, dinning, and maybe even lodging facilities, and finally, the right people to run the operation and make it fun. As if I had coincidentally been on the correct path all along, the light bulb flickered on in my noggin, and I discovered that I already had all three “critical cornerstones,” right in front of me! The land for the course? The airpark community property I lived on, right out my hangar door! The clubhouse? My half-completed airplane hangar/house, just waiting for the final defining features. The right people to operate it? My retired parents whom I’d just recently moved into the hangar/house could handle day-to-day operations; my new fiancé (now wife) could run the business end; and my new carpenter at the time, Brad Orman was the perfect fit for course pro. As it turned out, I had effectively been building my disc golf “field of dreams” for quite some time, without even knowing it, starting way back before I’d ever heard of disc golf! I just got a chill.
One of the many scenic holes at Flyboy
The course: I had bought my airplane hangar in a community airpark encompassing hundreds of beautiful acres: hills, lakes, woods, manicured grass taxiways, and a plush ½ mile long Bermuda grass runway stretching right through the middle of the property. Little did I know it was disc golf Nirvana, just begging to become a world-class course! Once I finally set about designing the course in earnest, it took several months of flinging discs all over the airpark, circling over the property in airplanes, and countless hours staring at it on Goggle Earth, to yield 18 new holes, in addition to some serious tweaking to the holes I’d already set up around my yard. I began inviting my new disc golf friends out to play the new layouts, which I regularly adjusted, largely based on input from the disc golfers themselves, who were now showing up at the monthly “Flyboy Action” in increasing numbers…15, 20, 30 at a time! Wow, they really were coming! Maybe it was mostly Lillian’s cooking that attracted them, but the course was starting to make a real name for itself too. Before long, some of the touring pros caught wind of Flyboy Disc Golf. Tom Monroe and Phil Arthur showed up early on, followed later by Liz Carr, Avery and Valerie Jenkins, Nate Doss, Cameron Todd, Leslie Herndon, Dave Feldberg, and “The Champ,” Ken Climo himself…world champions, hanging out at Flyboy! All these world-class players have been extremely encouraging to me, and provided invaluable feedback on how to improve the course. The days of shared baskets and crossing fairways were long gone, and by now the flow of the course could accommodate a full-blown disc golf tournament. The layout had evolved from 9 to 18 to 27 holes, and at one time there were 36…two full 18-hole courses! The available land out here is so vast and suitable for disc golf that I could continue carving out excellent golf holes, but hey, you gotta stop somewhere! Now that the dust has settled, the layout has matured into a 27-hole, 14,000-foot, championship caliber course playing a par 101, with some of the most spectacular holes in the game, including the longest known disc golf hole in the world at 1600 feet playing down the manicured Bermuda grass runway. The course can also be played as an 18-hole “Signature” par 72 layout, in line with the layout of a ball golf PGA tournament course. Most golfers want to play the entire 27 holes though, assuming they have the required 4 to 5 hours to kill! My “field of dreams” disc golf course is finally a reality, and has truly exceeded even my greatest expectations. One excited player reviewed the course this way: “If God had a disc golf course, he might have concrete pads, but I bet he would copy Flyboy on several holes!” That comment put a tear in my eye…and we’re working on the tee pads!
The clubhouse: Back when I bought my airplane hangar, there were no living quarters inside. A divorce created the need for a place to live, and I set about building my house inside the hangar itself, a hangar/house, which is what I’d always dreamed of living in anyway! What bachelor wouldn’t want a gigantic living room filled with airplanes, ping-pong and pool tables, comfy old couches, and a 24-foot wide movie screen? Unfortunately, having never built a project of this magnitude before, I was totally winging it, and the progress dragged on slowly for a few years. Then…I was introduced to disc golf by my friend “Riz,” and my hangar/house project practically ground to a halt as I found myself playing disc golf every chance I got! Miraculously, some of the living space eventually became livable and I moved in, vowing to complete the project around me at my own pace…yeah, right. My saving grace finally came when I fell in love with an incredible woman who knew much more about creating unique spaces to live in than I ever will. She gave me the inspiration and confidence to push through and complete the remaining 30% of my hangar/house project, which now reflects both our design tastes. Believe it or not, many women do not want to live in “the ultimate bachelor pad” with their in-laws (how could she not love my coffee table made out of an old aircraft radial engine?) and alas, our subsequent marriage resulted in me moving back out of the hangar/house and into her beautiful house in Midtown Atlanta, leaving my folks and our two dogs to hold down the Flyboy Aviation fort. Funny the hyzers life throws at you! It’s all good though, and my ultimate bachelor pad has morphed into the ultimate disc golf clubhouse, complete with a pro-shop, Mom’s southern cooking, bunkroom, and big screen in the giant living room for tournament briefings via power point and laser pointer. Who would have thunk it?
Unique basket placement on hole #13
Dave Feldberg Aces the "Hangar Ace Run"
————————————————-here ends part 2 of 3 ——————————————————
Check back next Friday for the final entry on Flyboy Aviation. Also, click the link below to learn how to submit an entry for a future ‘Course of the Month’ to be published on our site. We are seeking entries for August and beyond right now!
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Comments
2 Responses to “Course of the Month – Flyboy Aviation (Part 2 of 3)”
Brad from Joburg disc golf club, South Africa. Flyboy is top of our list to visit on our U.S tour, hopefully in a years time. We need time to practice for that 1600ft drive ! Great course, however the winning formula is the “package deal” that Flyboy offers ! We wish all the best to the greatest sport ever imagined.
looks like an amazing course!