John McLaren      

A Golf Course Is Not A Park.

The unspoiled beauty of McLaren Park is under immediate threat of being handed over to a sports club with no community input or environmental review.

An area more than 20 football fields in size now comfortably shared by nature lovers and runners, dog walkers, children, and wildlife, will become an 18-hole disc golf course.

Trees will be removed. Groundcover will soon be trampled to dust by players scrambling here, there, and everywhere for lost discs. Bird nesting areas and animal habitats will be damaged. Eighteen cement pads will be poured into the ground and chain-metal baskets that are the course's "holes" will be installed.

Meandering footpaths will become broad barren moonscapes. Game-related signage and large tree shields will blight land now left to nature.

Pedestrians and other existing users of this unique shared open space will technically still be able to use the area.  But over time, the course will come to be used exclusively by players because pedestrians do not feel safe with discs flying around their heads at speeds over 60 miles per hour. This has already happened at the Golden Gate Park disc golf course.

Please, help us keep the wild wonder of McLaren Park available for all, not just a few gamers. Once the trees are pulled down, once the concrete is poured, it will be too late to. . .

Save McLaren Park!

The latest news from Save McLaren Park . . .

  • McLaren disc golf controversy in the news
    San Francisco newspaper El Tecolote covers the McLaren disc golf cource controversy. Article is available en Español and in English.
  • SMP announces 30-30-30!
    We need 3000 signatures and 300 letters by July 30th! Help us reach this goal. Write a letter! Circulate petitions. Volunteer!
  • RPC President Buell Requests Hearings
    At its regular meeting on June 17, The Rec and Parks Commission agreed to accept the resolution submitted by PROSAC (the Parks and Rec Open Space Advisory Commitee), which calls for a hearing on the subject of a disc golf course in McLaren Park. Read more and see video...
  • Disc golf and the environment
    What happens to land turned over to disc golf in three short years? See before and after pictures of the Golden Gate disc golf course.
  • We need signatures...
    ...on petitions! Download a copy, print it and circulate it among your neighbors. more...
  • News from other cities
    Austin, Texas to close disc golf course; Sequim, Washington removes disc golf from plan. Visit our page Disc golf around the country for details!
  • A letter from a neighbor...
    ...to Supervisor John Avalos: "...I am requesting your support in declaring an immediate moratorium on any legal agreement with the S.F. Disc Golf Club for the construction of a disc golf course in John McLaren Park..." more...
  • California Native Plant Society...
    ...issues statement opposing a disc golf course at McLaren Park.  more ...
  • Have you written a letter yet?
    Write to the Department of Recreation and Parks today!  more...
  • Parks, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Committee...
    (PROSAC) ...decides by a 12-1 vote to recommend a moratorium on disc golf in McLaren Park!