MENDOTA – There have been disc golf baskets circulating the park at Lake Mendota for a few years.
However, there has never been an official course.
Over the last year, the City of Mendota, Reimagine Mendota, Mendota Parks and Recreation Director Nick Stremlau, Mendota Project Director Annie Short, and disc golf aficionados Dana Vicich, Wes Black, and Dan Nagle, among others, have designed and created a full 18-hole disc golf course at Lake Kakusha.
After the winter is over and spring is upon us, the final touches will be complete and disc golf can be officially played in Mendota.
“I saw on Facebook where Annie was looking for feedback and interest in fixing the disc golf course because right now there is just a number of disc golf baskets scattered throughout the park at Lake Mendota,” said Vicich, 40, who grew up in Ottawa, but made many trips to Mendota over the years to spend time with his grandparents and mother, who were lifelong Mendota residents. “There are baskets, and you can play there, it’s not technically a course. It’s like going out to a field with holes and saying it’s a golf course.
“One of my goals in life is to grow disc golf in La Salle County, where I grew up and spent most of my life. Over the last 10-15 years, I’ve been involved with two courses in Ottawa, one in Streator, one in Oglesby, one in La Salle, and one in Peru.
“When I saw the opportunity to help Mendota with its course, I jumped on it and offered to work with Annie and the city to design the course free of charge. My grandma, grandpa, my mom, and my aunt (the Fahler family) have all passed on, so I don’t have any close, immediate family ties to Mendota anymore, but Mendota still holds a special place in my heart.”
Vicich, who now lives in Mokena, has been around the game since 2002 when he began playing in Ottawa.
He turned professional in 2007 and from 2009-2016 he played across the United States, Canada, and oversees as a touring pro.
After settling down to start a family, he stopped traveling as a player, and has worked in the disc golf industry ever since designing courses, sales, and branding.
Vicich saw promise in the Mendota disc golf course right away and was excited to take on the endeavor.
“We looked beyond the crowded space of the park at Lake Mendota to Lake Kakusha,” Vicich said. “The City of Mendota has been amazing. Nick Stremlau and his team have worked on removing evasive trees and clearing out fairways.
“The fairways are all cleared out. We now have cement tee pads that have been poured as well as the sleeves for the disc golf baskets. The next step, this spring, is to install signage and the baskets.
“We are very close in the grand scheme of things, but we’re still a winter away from playing disc golf in Mendota.”
The City of Mendota, Stremlau, and Short are appreciative of Vicich’s assistance.
Now Mendota can use the new and improved disc golf course in its marketing campaign as the city is striving for improvements and updates.
“Through Reimagine Mendota and the Heart and Soul Seed Grant questions, one of the things that came up was the disc golf course,” Short said, who has also served as a co-director for Reimagine Mendota and the grant program. “The course at Lake Mendota was unplayable because the lake has grown so much that the baskets are in inconvenient places when there is a lot of activities going on out there.
“In 2023, I talked to Nick Stremlau, who is the Mendota Parks and Recreation Director, and he said we could move the baskets. He just didn’t know where to move them. The more we looked at it, the City of Mendota thought moving the course to Lake Kakusha was a better idea.
“We’re really excited because disc golf is a huge thing right now. It will bring us some tourists.”
The disc golf course also offers sponsorship and marketing opportunities for businesses.
To help pay for the concrete used for the tee boxes and the baskets, the City of Mendota is looking for a sponsor for each of the 18 holes on the course.
Each sponsorship will be $1,000 and the sponsoring business will have its logo on the hole’s sign for the duration of the course, which Short hopes is forever. To become a sponsor, reach out to Annie Short at 815-639-7459 or ashort@mendotacity.com.
With only a winter weather delay in the way before the disc golf course can be finalized and used, all parties wait in anticipation.
“This whole project from the first conversation with Annie to this point has been pretty awesome and unexpected,” Vicich said. “Annie is a great human and a real mover and shaker. Nick and his team have been awesome to work with. They’ve done everything I’ve suggested and asked about. They’ve done it in a real timely manner.
“For me, living 1 1/3 hours away from Mendota, I don’t get there as much as I’d like to, so this has given me an opportunity to come back more than I would have. It’s been nice to get back to Mendota and relive a lot of great memories of my family.”
