Mini-DiscGolfPark Bad Sobernheim

Alex Williamson, born in the U.S. but now a permanent resident in Germany and Bad Sobernheim, first sent an email to the Nahe-Glan Municipality in April 2022 about running a disc golf tournament on a temporary course set up on the land of the Barefoot Path when it was closed in winter. Though that idea didn't pan out, Nahe-Glan Mayor Uwe Engelmann was intrigued by the idea of disc golf in town and funded the purchase of three mobile baskets and over 30 discs that allowed Alex Williamson to run a disc golf summer program for kids and put on other disc golf events throughout the year. The baskets and discs came from Dean Schaub of Amsterdam-based TPF Discs, who gave amazing prices on the equipment in order to help disc golf grow in a new area. After running disc golf events on temporary baskets in the park for a year, Alex attended a meeting held by the city to discuss plans to redesign the area to offer more to locals than open grass and sidewalks. At that meeting, a city official at the time named Volker Kohrs got behind the idea of building a disc golf course in Bad Sobernheim. Together, Alex and Volker worked to bring the project to life, including earning a generous grant covering most of the course's cost from Lokal-Aktionsgruppe Soonwald-Nahe (a LEADER organization). After getting multiple quotes for course-building costs, they opted for an offer from Dominik Stampfer from DiscGolfPark. Baskets were installed in October 2023 and the long version of DiscGolfPark Bad Sobernheim was playable that same month, but the putting course was first set up in summer 2024. The course was always planned to change seasonally, being a putting course in the summer when the Barefoot Path's traffic makes a long course impossible to play and a longer course in fall, winter, and spring that offers both short and long tees so beginners and more advanced players can all enjoy themselves. This plan allows disc golf to stay in the park all year without inconveniencing other parkgoers. QR codes on baskets help people discover what the game is, how to play, and more. Ever more people have been enjoying the course since it was installed, and the local Turnverein – TV 1867 Bad Sobernheim – officially founded a disc golf division in early 2025.