Group keeps passion for sport flying

Instead, one can walk by the disc golf course at Mitch Park in Edmond on any given weekend and think a major disc golf tournament is being played. The course's increased traffic is thanks to the newly formed Edmond Disc Golf Association, which has tried to pick up where Cunningham left off.

Cunningham was an avid fan of the sport and was working with the city of Edmond to build the city's first free disc golf course at Mitch Park before he died in the winter of 2004 at the age of 29. The course was finished, and is thriving.

"If you go out there and watch the number of people that come and go ... there's a lot,” said Justin Barr, a founding member of the Edmond Disc Golf Association.

Until this year, the course lacked the care it needed. Trees, bushes and ticks took over during the summer months when disc golfing is most popular. This year, it's a different story. The course is nicely groomed. Each tee box is well-marked with a metal sign, and trails between holes are marked with small metal signs that read "this way to next hole.”

Despite all that has been done to maintain and improve the course, the list of work it needs still continues. Association members met last week with Edmond's superintendent of park operations, Earl London, to discuss future improvements to the course. "We're open to the ideas they have,” London said. "They (the association) have the ownership values where they want to take care of the course.”