Climbing on rooftops, jumping into ponds and dodging oncoming traffic in pursuit of wayward Frisbees, Frolfers are used to taking on a challenge. This fall, Whitman’s dedicated crowd of Frisbee Golf players must overcome yet another obstacle as construction on Sherwood continues to interfere with the layout of the Frolf course on campus.

Though Frolfers have been known to play by their own rules, most players at Whitman compete on a 17-target course that incorporates a number of campus landmarks and buildings. Starting at Jewett Hall, the course sweeps through the amphitheater and Narnia before making its way to the tennis courts and across Lakum Duckum. From the front lawn of the Baker Faculty Center, the course swings around Douglas and over to Sherwood Center, where it swoops down to the Harper Joy fountain before curving around the Science Building and across the library. Past the fish statue, players must make a final show of strength by hurling their discs over Ankeny and back to the final destination of Jewett.

To the frustration of many, making the circuitous route around campus is more aggravating now that construction on Sherwood has eliminated three of the course’s most exciting targets. Now that the athletic center is off-limits, Frolfers are compelled to circumnavigate the facility by relocating affected parts of the course to the Harper Joy parking lot, necessarily eliminating the challenging Frisbee traps occasioned by Sherwood’s tight corners, multiple stairways and split floor levels.

The event of construction on Sherwood is not the first time Frolf players have had to modify the course. Last winter, violent windstorms ravaged Whitman’s campus, damaging key targets such as the “fork tree” on the Baker Faculty Center lawn and the beloved “paper clip” statue formerly situated behind the banana tree. In response, resourceful Frolfers were able to preserve the integrity of the course by displacing the ruined targets to nearby objects: a task not so easily achieved in the midst of large-scale construction.

Overall, the construction has had little impact on students’ Frolf activity. For some, the injury to the course has compromised much of the fun of the sport.

“Why play now? Construction ruined three of the best holes, which is why I don’t play as much as I used to,” one Frolfer said.

As evidenced by the still-perceptible scraping of Frisbees along dorm buildings, however, Frolf is not in danger of dying out any time soon.