Pima adds disc golf course to park redevelopment plan

Pima has put disc golf at the center of its park redevelopment plans, and town leaders are treating the course as a practical public investment rather than a novelty. At the June 9 Town Council meeting, officials agreed to include a disc golf layout in the upgrade of the park near the Vard Lines Roping Arena, tying the project to a broader effort backed by State Parks grant money.

The strongest case came from the numbers. Lee Patterson of the Gila Valley Disc Golf Club said Discovery Park logged 2,418 rounds in 2025, with 107 of those players coming from more than 30 miles away. That kind of traffic matters for a small community: it shows the sport already draws steady use from local players while also pulling in visitors who can spend time, and money, around the park and nearby businesses.

Patterson also said the new course should cost about $15,000 to develop, a figure that puts disc golf in a very different category from many park upgrades that carry larger construction bills and heavier long-term upkeep. Because the sport does not require watering or turf-heavy maintenance, it offers Pima a way to activate open space without locking the town into the kind of operating costs that can strain park budgets over time. That makes the course less of an add-on than a durable piece of park infrastructure.

The club’s role strengthens that argument. Patterson said the Gila Valley Disc Golf Club will help design the course and help maintain it after construction, giving the project a built-in support network from the outset. In a town where every public-space dollar has to work hard, that volunteer partnership helps turn a course into something closer to shared civic equipment than a one-off amenity.

Pima’s decision also fits into a wider Gila Valley pattern. There are already two disc golf courses in the region, at Discovery Park Campus and the Graham County Fairgrounds, and the Fairgrounds layout may be redesigned once county upgrades are complete. Safford is also in the early stages of considering a course at Mt. Graham Golf Course.

Taken together, those moves show disc golf becoming part of the area’s recreational identity. Pima is betting that a low-cost course can deliver exactly what park redevelopment is supposed to produce: more activity, broader use of public land and a park that keeps paying off long after the ribbon-cutting ends.