Construction has begun at the Felch Township park on a planned nine-hole course that, when finished, would cover 10 acres.

Ryan Wille, who is leading the effort, said he’d hoped to have the NorDisc Golf Course ready for play this summer, but the township first wanted to finish logging at the park. Then, the individual enlisted to clear brush and trees for the course fairways was busy with other jobs in the past couple months and had to delay the work.

Wille and town officials now concede the course won’t be opened until next year, as the course will have to be seeded after being cleared. It’s taking a little longer than he’d imagined, Wille admitted.

“This,” Wille explained, “is my first time building a course.”

THE DISC GOLF course will be on both sides of Norway Lake Road, winding throughout the 10-acre park. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

The township board earlier this year approved not only the project but funding for equipment, which already has been purchased and is in storage at the North Dickinson County School. They hope to perhaps qualify for a state grant for some of the expenses, said Bob Mattson, township supervisor.

Disc golf is a game in which players “tee off” by throwing plastic discs, like Frisbees, toward metal mesh baskets on poles that function as holes. As with golf, each hole on the course has a number of shots for par for keeping score.

Wille, 27, is part of the Iron Mountain City Park Disc Golf Club, itself an offshoot of the Menominee Range Gliders club. In addition to the Iron Mountain and Florence County venues, a course has been set up in Iron River; Wille said other parts of the Upper Peninsula have courses and clubs as well.

These disc golf enthusiasts have a number of tournaments in the area, such as the fourth-annual Keyes Peak Off the Chains event set for Oct. 13.

He said he got involved in disc golf after ending his service in the U.S. Army in 2014. “It’s just something I really enjoy,” he said.

SOME WORK ALREADY has been started to clear brush and trees for the course at Norway Lake Park, but delays have pushed completing the project to spring 2019. (Theresa Proudfit/Daily News photo)

“The sounds of the chains,” Wille said of the attraction of the sport. “When you hit your first putt at 20 to 30 feet and you hear the sound of the chains.”

Wille, who grew up in the Felch area, first suggested a disc golf course a year ago after hearing from a relative that the township was looking for something new at the former Dickinson County park.

“It was kind of a joke at the moment,” Wille said. Yet by January, he said, he was in a snowy Norway Lake Park, sizing up its potential for a disc course.

What makes disc golf a good choice for public parks, Wille said, is it doesn’t take much equipment to participate — he personally competes with 20 discs but said one or two will work for most people — and even beginners can have fun playing.

It also is not just a game for the young, Wille said: a player in Iron Mountain is in his 60s and a cancer survivor. And it can be played in winter as well.

Most of the holes at Norway Lake will be par 3, Wille said. Astro-turf will be used for the tee-pads.

They plan to have an opening tournament when the Norway Lake course is finished, Wille said.

Mattson said the addition fits with a recreation plan that calls for expanding what Felch has to offer, especially at Norway Lake Park, which the township took over from Dickinson County in 2016.

“It’ll draw people up to the campgrounds (at Norway Lake Park),” Mattson said. “That’ll be good.”