The Patrick Park Disc Golf Course was established a half decade ago in Yorkton, and over that time the sport has grown.
The next step in that growth takes place this Saturday as the course hosts its inaugural tournament.
“We’ve seen good growth in participation this season hosting a ‘disc golf gathering’ Tuesday evenings, and with the installation of a functional ‘back-nine’ so we felt it was the right time to host a tournament,” said event organizer Trevor Lyons.
The tournament will be a Trilogy Challenge event.
“We decided to be part of the Trilogy Challenge series for several reasons, starting with the fact it is an established series which has been highly successful all over the world,” said Lyons.
In 2014, 273 Trilogy Challenge events were held in 44 different U.S. states and eight countries with more than 10,000 players.
“Being part of something that has caught the attention of players worldwide was something we felt would work here,” said Lyons.
And that has proven to be the case.
“We were hoping for 20 entries in our first year. We have 35 which really is a great number,” said Lyons.
Most of the entries are local participants but Lyons added people do travel to play disc golf and there are entries from Regina, North Battleford and Benito, MB.
The Trilogy Challenge is supported by three well-known disc golf manufacturers; Dynamic Discs, Latitude 64°, and Westside Discs with players receiving a disc from each company as part of the entry fee.
Players are only allowed to use the three discs they receive in their player pack and if they lose a disc during the round, they must finish the round without it.
“It’s a great event for new players of which we have a growing number locally because they get discs they can use for years,” said Lyons.
“And since everyone will be using the discs for the first time, it evens the playing field a bit too.”
In terms of sport growth Lyons said 2015 has been a great year in the region with new courses established in Springside and Sandy Beach on Good Spirit Lake.
In addition courses have been installed at Fort Qu’Appelle, Lemberg and Carlton Trail Regional Park.
“We’ve worked on all five of these projects,” said Lyons who has helped in the design work of the courses along with Calvin Daniels.
“It is great to see these communities show interest in the sport and be so willing to put courses in,” added Daniels. “Disc golf is such a great sport recreation which is affordable and playable by almost everyone, so having more courses locally is great.”
Daniels said he expects to see more courses in the future too, as several other communities in the region have shown interest. Plans are in the works for a course in Melville to be installed soon.
To build on that growth there is a plan being formulated to establish a Parkland Association of Disc Golf to promote all courses in the region, and to support the sport in any way possible, added Lyons.
As for the Yorkton tournament Lyons said spectators are certainly welcome, so people curious about the sport are invited to Patrick Park Saturday. The first group will tee off at 10 a.m.
