Welcome to Badco’s Adventure ..In the coming moments I will attempt to walk you thru ten years of badco history.
The story starts with two guy’s working on street lights in Pueblo Colo- Ronnie Ross And Brett Marshall.
We were aproached by some nice locals and asked if we wanted to play some golf thinking that they meant the traditional kind. We laughed and said we don’t play golf.
They then explained to us that this was a different kind of golf and we would love it. We decided to give it a go and off we went, From that point on, we were hooked.
That same summer, we attended the Worlds Biggest Disc golf Weekend at Ruby Hill.
We had been looking for a club to join for quite some time but could not get anyone to talk to us or to take us serious.
So, we decided along with 2 other freinds, Desean Brown and Bill Askew, to start our own club and we would name it BADCO !
We were the butt of many jokes for the first year. But then we built and designed Badlands Disc Golf Course. People were playing the course before we could even get the last basket in the ground.
After that we went on to build and design many other courses like Badlands South, White Hawk, Easter Seals (Thunder Mtn.) and our latest Pacos Gulch, We also had a part in Aurora’s Edge…If the truth be told! And we donated all the Chains and Poles for Golden High School’s Course which was built and designed by Badco member Monty Kozlowitz and his student body.
We have been on TV many times and have gotten the word out about disc golf to 1000′s of people.
It now appears that some have followed in our foot steps and have begun to do the very things we were told couldn’t be done. Like putting a Disc Golf Course in Open Space Areas or getting the City of Denver to put a course in, which no one else could do. But WE did it!!
We will not stop, we will not be told what we can and can not do, if we had listened to all the nay-sayers, we would not be where we are today.
We continue to expand on the courses we have already built and work on getting more courses in. We believe that we can make Disc Golf just as viable as any other sport there is. On top of all this, we have worked with many charities and youth programs such as Third Way Youth Center , Girl Scouts of America, Church groups and many others. So….. in closing, let me first say thank you to all that have helped BADCO accomplish these things over the years. You are the elite!

This article is to address the importance of not throwing your drive at the wrong time. Let me start out with a story or two to help set the groundwork.
Myself and a group of 3 other golfers were throwing a round at one of our local courses on a nice day with no wind or rain, just lots of sunshine. All but one of the guys in the group were fairly good players. We step up to the tee and get ready to drive. I throw mine no problem. As the next guy is getting ready there is an older couple walking down the sidewalk a long ways away. After assessing the situation, it is determined by the player that it would need to be a terrible shank shot for him to hit them, and that that would not happen. So he shoots and, whoops, grip locks it straight down the sidewalk right at the couple, and yes, one got hit.

Next story. Again myself and another fairly good, above average player, are playing a round on a nice day. He throws his drive with a girl headed towards us on a bike. She was a long ways away with no way to reach her. Woops, she turned her bike right into the flight path of the disc and it nailed her right in the chest. The bad part is she had just had heart surgery and it hit her right in the scar.

The reason I mention these two stories is that both accidents were done buy good players, confident in their throwing ability. I believe that it is better to wait until there is NO! possibility of hitting someone, rather than to take a chance, even a small one, and hit someone. Nothing will get a course pulled quicker than hitting someone with your drive. And hitting non-players is not good for the sport either. As players we need to take extra precautions to insure the safety of everyone in the park, in regards to disc golf. So please, when in a group, everyone should be on the look out for possible problems and make each other aware of them.

For the second year in a row BADCO disc golf club?s Ronnie Ross And Brett Marshall have been invited to the Governor?s Executive Residence. To receive an award for the work at the Easter Seals camp in Empire Colorado.
Last year Ronnie and Brett accepted one award on behalf of the entire club, Matt James received one for all the hard work he had put in on the course. This year Shawn Ennis will be in attendance to receive the award for the 19 baskets he built for the course.
We are very excited to see Shawn receive this well deserved award! This will take place this Tuesday June 21, 2024 from 5:30 to 7:30. BADCO would like to give our Congratulations and our deepest thanks to Sean, we will see you there.

update: BADCO showed up at the Govenor’s place in full dress and looking good. Shawn Ennis and his lady were looking great. When the award was given out they called Ronnie and Brett up to get it. Ronnie took Shawn up and told the crowed that he was the man who built most of the baskets on the course and was the one who should get the award. There are pictures on the web site under photos called BADCO @ the Govenor’s mansion check em out, pretty cool.

Since Badlands disc golf course was built there has been a rash of BADCO sightings and happenings. BADCO has designed and built 3 more disc golf courses since then, White Hawk (Westminster Colo.), Thunder Mountain. (Easter Seals Camp), and Badlands South (South Suburban). And our newest one is coming soon. (Pacos Gulch Denver).

Along with that we helped Golden High School and one of our best members, Monty Kozlowitz, out with 9 chainz poles for a 9-hole course located on school property. Monty was a teacher at the school and got the powers to be to sign off on the project. He and the kids designed and built this fun course themselves. BADCO has introduced the sport of disc golf to literally tens of thousands (a conservative estimate) of new people since its inception, through news media, brochures, demos, radio, park and rec literature and the never ending word of mouth.

BADCO will continue to work on the courses we have and will continue to work on new courses as long as we are here on earth. BADCO has also worked with numerous youth programs and charities such as Third Way youth program of Denver for kids at risk for gangs and drug abuse, Americorps an organization that is dedicated to helping those less fortunate, Easter Seals of Colorado for people of all disabilities, and the Girl Scouts of Colorado just to name a few.

BADCO and its members have also donated countless hours working to improve the parks that host our courses. Badlands: mowing weeds, removing dead trees and picking up trash. Badlands South: leveling the dirt tees, putting up side boards for tee boxes and building stairs on hole 3 along with picking up trash on the course. White Hawk: keeping the course looking good by sweeping tees and removing snow in the winter and of course picking up trash. Thunder Mountain: removing dead trees, creating paths, marking the course and you guessed it picking up trash. This is just a short list of the things BADCO does for the parks we love.

But what has BADCO done for the disc golf community? Well I will just say read the above. All of this is for the disc golf community. With new courses come new players, with new players come media attention, and with media attention come bigger and better sponsors. We also hold pretty good events for the players by hosting tournaments, weekly doubles and tag play. And in asking every one to pitch in 1 or 2 dollars during a tournament or doubles to go back into the park we give the disc golfer the chance to say I helped with that.

We look forward to serving the disc golf community for years to come and hope that most of you will support our efforts by either participating in our events, or in the park maintance or by joining one of our 3 chapters (BADCO central, BADCO south or BADCO Boulder). Join us and 5 years from now you will look back and say I remember when this sport was just getting started and now look at it, and I helped it happen.