After over five years of planning, Ames is finally going to get its disk-golf course.

Jeff Harper, a professional disk-golfer and former Iowa State student, planned and designed the new course to be located at Gateway Park, near Ames-ISU Ice Arena.

Volunteer workers are helping with the 18-hole course, and they expect to have 13 holes ready by September.

Kevin Shawgo, Ames Parks and Recreation superintendent, said the final five holes won’t be done as quickly because they are to be located across the stream running through the park, and a bridge has to be built for players to cross the stream.

“Not a lot has been done so far, just some mowing and trimming for the course,” Shawgo said.

The park is being built in response to the rise in interest of many residents of the Ames area. Shawgo said every town in the now-defunct Big Eight Conference has a disk-golf course except Ames.

The course will have a recreational and advanced level for each hole, with the average hole being about 425 feet in length.

“I basically just looked at the ground and laid it out,” Harper said.

The game is played with a Frisbee-like disk, but weighing slightly more than a Frisbee disk.

Rules of the game are much like those of regular golf. The flying disk must be thrown into a target consisting of a 4-foot stake, with a 2-and-a-half-foot circular design on the top of the stake that catches the disc.

The holes in disc-golf are generally par two or par three.

Shawgo wants to hold disc-golf tournaments once the course is done, but none have been planned yet.

The public will be welcome to play on the new course free of charge.

Funding for the disc-golf course, about $12,000, is being taken from the Ames local-option sales tax.

“It’s been a long time since Ames has been planning this, and we’re anxious to get it in,” Harper said.