The Oaks-Mokena Park District Course Open!

[roman]

Wait, you need to show ID to play at Mokena?

I just called the park district office and the lady on the phone says that I just have to fill out some card, but I don't need to register for anything. Either the website is wrong or she's mis-informed.

[Bruce Brakel]

I saw that on their website the other day.  Does anybody actually do that?  Every time I've played Mokena I've just played it.  Is there a little man checking for whether you've checked in? 

[pickax]

I think this is something new that was started in the past year. I haven't been down there in a while.

[tacimala]

Tafe Hemler texted me a while back saying that you now have to have a membership card or something along those lines and you can be fined some exorbitant amount of money if you are caught out there without one.

[roman]

I called again, and the lady was just looking at the brochure that was telling her the same thing as the website. She said that when you park at the Oaks there should be people there to help you. I tried to ask her what forms of ID do they take since I am planning a group outing there next weekend and I want everyone prepared, but she didn't know. She said she thinks anything with your picture on it would work. I hope that's the case. I doubt we're going to get any trouble from the park district. At least we better not!

If anyone has more information it would be helpful. I plan on going down to Mokena, West Park and Channahon next weekend with some friends and it's more than an hour drive for all of us. It would really suck if we ran into problems.

[stpitner]

It's free to do it... wouldn't be surprised if they were trying to do this as a way to possibly search your bag if suspected or make sure you aren't the type of player that would abuse the course.  But yes, you do need to go in and check in.

[can't putt]

Don't bring any dogs -- up to $1,000 fine.  West and Channahon are both dog friendly, though.

[damonshort]

I went there Sat and did the registration routine. The woman at the desk was really friendly about it, said they were collecting 'demographic information' (obviously somebody at the Mokena park district looking for a project) and didn't ask for anything other than my driver's license. She mentioned I should carry the card since I might 'get asked for it', but acknowledged that there's a lot of people out there that haven't registered.

There was a pretty good crowd out there that day and I didn't see any DG police roaming about. I'm all for personal privacy as much as anyone but on the whole this doesn't really strike me as that big a deal. It is on municipally-owned land, after all, it's free, and they've got clean bathrooms indoors.    Any rumors about big fines sound extremely exaggerated.

[can't putt]

The dog fine is clearly posted.

[Bruce Brakel]

The Oaks is also a no-smoking park.  When I talked to the parks and rec guy there a couple of weeks ago I asked how aggressively they enforce that.  He said they enforce it primarily through education.  If they see people smoking they tell them it is a no smoking park.  I did not think to ask him about the registration thing. 

They probably enforce the other rules the same way, but I would not test them on anything that is prominently posted. 

[damonshort]

Everything's clearly posted by #1, but a lot of people park over by the ball fields (near #18) -  I usually do - and I don't know if anything's posted over there.

[Jim Bassett]

I Play Mokena more than any other park. There has been a fair amount of vandalism and grafitti over the past year. In my reading-between-the-lines opinion there are two issues they are trying to address with the registration thing. One is the vandalism thing and the other is, they can now kick you out for smoking - anything. So if an officer sees you smoking from a distance, he still has the right to oust you. I have run into a few officers at the back of the park who were friendly and informed me that they were just trying to catch anyone at the park shoud they be involved in any illegal activities.
It is a beautiful facility (they level the tee pads with regularity) and they are trying to keep it that way.
I also registered on Saturday. Drivers license and 2 minutes of my time, no problem.

[dana]

No more Joliet leagues there?  Have I heard correctly?

I was up that way this past weekend and wanted to play Mokena, but the Joliet guys I was meeting refused to go there.

I think the registration thing is a good idea.  They have a really nice facility and want to keep it that way.  Its also a great way to make sure everyone knows the rules.

[pickax]

I'm thinking about going there tomorrow after work to play if anyone is interested. I'm not sure why the J-town crew is boycotting it.

[Mukey]

No more Joliet leagues there?  Have I heard correctly?

I could see that. If they got a bunch of people who weren't registered it'd be a snafu to start on time

[pooleje]

The primary problem with holding league there is that they want us to have insurance.

[CEValkyrie]

Dan & I finished our 6 course tour here today.

I'm not sure I understand the boycott thing. It's easy to stop in the office and get the card. I actually think it's a good thing. They can track who is playing and where they are coming from. Who knows, maybe down the road this will help get a 2nd course installed or they would reccommend another park district to install a course. The course is well maintained so they are obviously supportive of disc golf.

The insurance is an issue. I think an under the radar league would work. This is not the 1st and won't be the last park district that requires insurance to have organized events.

[deucemeister]

Be advised; you can't just go there and have any type of mini-tourney; The boycott is due to the woman in charge who made an ass of herself; at the last  J-town league play that was held there in June, she became irate, and said she demands $5 per head for any type of group play, plus it has to be coordinated through her.  The J-town folks just said no thanks, we'll just not play here again.   ....  reminds me of the old joke; what is the difference between a woman with pms and a terrorist ?    you can negotiate with a terrorist....       

[CEValkyrie]

It sucks that she treated everyong that way.

On a side note: disc golf will be a low priorty for most park districts until it generates revenue like softball & basketball leagues. I have no problem with Mokena trying to charge a small fee. From someone who is not local it seems disc golf is a priority that they care about. I like they are trying to keep vandalism, etc.. to a minumum.

[Mukey]

Just wanted to reply here vs. the 2009 IOS thread. Supposedly this woman at the park district is kinda uncooperative, or at least is wanting a slice of the pie, so to speak. I have also heard that to close the park for a tournament that the PD wants an exorbitant fee.

I've gotta disagree with Dan in that it would've been a bigger travesty if Channahon didn't have a tournament. I haven't played Mokena once this year, and haven't missed it. Don't get me wrong, it's a very nice park, but a lot of the shots feel similar.