Sidney's Tawawa Park opens new 20-hole disc golf course

Tawawa Park became Sidney’s newest disc golf stop on Friday, when city and county leaders, local supporters and touring pro Tony Moe Reiss cut the ribbon on a 20-hole course that took six months to build. The opening gave the park a layout with more bite than a standard nine-hole amenity, and it arrived with enough visible backing to look built for regular play, not just a ceremonial debut.

The course’s footprint already points to that ambition. UDisc lists Tawawa Park Disc Golf Course with a 4.1 rating based on 92 community reviews, an estimated round time of 2 hours 37 minutes, an estimated playing length of 3.9 miles and an extremely hilly terrain profile. Shelby County Disc Golf is promoting the site as a premier 18-hole championship course, while the ribbon-cutting marked the opening of a 20-hole layout.

The build leaned hard on local support. The course includes six benches, three of them donated, and each hole has a sponsor whose name is printed on the hole markers. The ceremony photo shows Sidney Park Director Duane Gaier, City Manager Jon Crusey, Shelby County Disc Golf President Paul Sweeney, donor Dan Jock, Mayor Mike Barhorst, Cameron Jack and Ed Thomas all taking part, a public-facing list that underscores how many hands went into getting the project across the finish line. Donor Jason Weigandt and Reiss each threw a disc during the opening, giving the event a disc golf-specific flourish rather than a standard park photo op.

Tawawa Park’s opening had been in motion for months. On April 8, 2025, the City of Sidney Recreation Board approved moving ahead with fundraising for the course. A July 1, 2025 update said the 20-hole design would stretch back into what used to be Brookside Park, and an October 2025 report said baskets were set to be installed throughout Tawawa Park in the coming weeks and that the build was being funded entirely by private donations. Those details make the project look less like a municipal add-on and more like a donor-driven course assembled piece by piece.

The park itself gives the new layout a stronger platform. Sidney’s parks page says Tawawa Park was named after Tawawa Creek and that Big Rock, the glacial feature inside the park, dates to 1876. Local historical material places the park’s establishment on May 24, 1948, and Sidney Daily News said Tawawa Park was again the city’s most visited public site in 2024. That kind of traffic matters for a course that is meant to draw families, casual park users and traveling players into the same space.

The opening also leaned on Reiss as both a pro and a local face. The Sidney Visitors Bureau says the grand opening included a free clinic at Geib Pavilion led by Reiss, a Lehman Catholic High School graduate, PDGA pro since 2011 and 43-time career tournament champion. For a course hoping to matter beyond opening day, that blend of sponsorship, local buy-in and pro endorsement is the clearest sign Tawawa Park is being built to stay in rotation.