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Friday, October 30, 2026Oct 30

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Give it a whirl: Disc course in McDonald expands facilities of Johnston Woods

give-it-a-whirl
give-it-a-whirl give-it-a-whirl
photo Jay McIntire of Broad Street United Methodist Church aims for the basket in a disc golf match at the new nine-hole course at the Johnston Woods Retreat Center.

Alex Everley is hoping if you build a disc golf course, they will come.

So Broad Street United Methodist Church in Cleveland, Tenn., recently completed a nine-hole course in Johnston Woods Retreat Center, a nearly 400-acre outreach ministry of the congregation in McDonald, Tenn.

Everley, who designed the course and chaired the church’s committee that oversees the retreat center, said he hopes the new layout will make the center more attractive to youth groups and other visitors.

“It’s a little jewel [that] nobody knows about,” he said. “We want to make people more aware [of] what it offers. We want to create new revenue streams, and we think the youth angle is the way to go.”

To officially inaugurate the course, members of Broad Street UMC invited members of North Cleveland Baptist Church for a Sunday evening worship service and disc golf matches.