When you need a break from your disc golfing ...

The Brickyard disc golf course at UW-Stout will be getting a face-lift this season with the help of the Stout disc golf team and a $30,000 budget.

The Brickyard, a historical reference to brick-making companies once located there, is a rugged, nine-hole course a short distance from campus, near the Menomonie Dog Park and Dunn County Humane Society.

The club plans to build stairs, add benches, improve signs, work on drainage, do landscaping, and – if the budget allows – build a brick oven for grilling. The group plans to start cleaning on Earth Day, April 20, with the help of 40 students from Menomonie High School.

Though there are five courses in the Menomonie area, and another four in Eau Claire, team member Chris Fischbach says that the Brickyard is unique in many ways. Not only is every hole sponsored by local businesses and the disc golf enthusiasts who are in charge of taking care of the hole and making upgrades on them, but the Brickyard is also unique in that each hole has two tee pads and two baskets, meaning the layout offers an option of 36 different combinations of holes one can play.

The club itself has between 25 and 30 members, but the course has a much larger following. More than 200 rounds were playing in one day last fall, and more than 20,000 rounds are estimated to have been played since 2005.

“The Stout Disc Golf club is dedicated to the growth of the sport of disc golf around the Menomonie area,” Fischbach said. “It’s a great way to get communities involved in their recreation areas. The disc golf club has a place to call their own, and the community of Menomonie gets to use and help maintain the course as well.