Marana may be home to a brand-new disc golf course as soon as March 2027, bringing a decade-long town undertaking within putting range.
“It’s a legacy project for some of the folks at parks and rec,” said public art review committee member Alexandra Chavez at an Oct. 27 meeting regarding the course’s artistic elements.
One of those folks is recreation superintendent Bob Stinson, who has seen thedisc golf course through all its stages during his career at Marana parks and recreation.
“I’ve been here 11 years,” Stinson said. “About 10 years we’ve been talking about getting this off the ground.”
Finding land to accommodate a course proved a tough obstacle, Stinson said, until the Town of Marana entered into an agreement with Pima County to put the course on a parcel adjacent to the El Rio Preserve, a 104-acre riparian area popular among birders and cyclists.
The new course will sit just south of the site of the informal, citizen-run Marana Rock Disc Golf Course, which the town shut down in 2025 due to flooding.
Stinson said that the project is “for the most part through the permitting process,” which entailed floodplain permits, a no-rise certification and other use permits.
“We had a meeting with Pima County last week and were able to pretty much shore up any questions that they had regarding our project,” he said.
Earlier this year, the town sought contractor bids, which came back too high, so parks and recreation “drastically cut some of the nonessential features” of the course, Stinson said, like vegetation and irrigation.
“There already is some natural vegetation out there, so we’re just going to work with what we have,” Stinson said.
In her Oct. 27 presentation, Chavez described the current plan as “bare bones”: baskets, tee pads, and a pathway, which will either be a 6-foot wide pathway or scaled down to “something similar to a maintenance path.”
Chavez said the artistic design will also be cut back, but the planned archway monument at the entrance of the course will remain. The monument will resemble a disc being thrown, as well as a farming tool, she said.
This second round of bid solicitations closes Nov. 5, and the town will award the bid by the end of the month. Stinson surmised the holidays could push construction to January.
From there, construction is expected to take 75 days, placing its completion sometime in spring.
“March is probably when we’ll have it delivered,” Chavez said.
Designed by landscape architecture firm McGann & Associates, the course will follow a flat, 18-hole layout similar to the Santa Cruz River Disc Golf Course. The design makes use of natural obstacles, though it will not offer built-in mandos (mandatory obstacles) because of its floodplain location.
“We’re hoping for two baskets per hole, and an alternate would be having two tee pads, like an A and a B,” Stinson said. “It really depends on where the money will land.”
Stinson said the town may name the course Marana Rock as a “shout out” to the former community staple. Once the course opens, he is hopeful to work with a local disc golf club to set up a tournament.
“We appreciate everybody’s patience,” Stinson said. “I thoroughly enjoy playing disc golf as well and, you know, we’re excited to get this open to the public.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s taken this long, but hang in there, we’re going to get this bad boy across the finish line.”