PDGA Media
Champion golfer Catrina Allen flexes muscle at the PDGA’s Vibram open held in Massachusetts in June.
Madison offers several opportunities to witness world-class competition in unconventional sports up close and in person — from the Tug-of-War International Federation’s World Outdoor Championships to the North American Unicycling Convention and Championships.
Now the city can add the Professional Disc Golf Association Amateur and Junior Disc Golf World Championships to that list.
The Mad City Disc Golf Club and the Madison Area Sports Commission will welcome the elite of a sport many nonparticipants still confuse with ultimate disc to the Madison area July 12 to 16.
Disc golf is a fast-growing sport that dates back to at least the 1920s. The game adheres to the same general rules, terminology, scoring and etiquette as traditional golf — except players throw a disc (which, incidentally, is a radically different design from a regular Frisbee) at a standardized target. Like golfers who traverse courses with numerous clubs, serious disc golfers carry a bag of 10 to 15 different discs.
More than 4,000 disc golf courses are active in the United States, according to the PDGA, which boasts 86,000 members internationally. “Part of the reason disc golf is so popular is that it can be played by a broad range of folks,” says tournament director Mike Batka, who also owns Glide, a disc golf apparel line and pro shop on Madison’s east side. “It’s very accessible and inexpensive.”
The Madison area alone has several courses, including the ones hosting championship action: Elver Park (18 holes), Hiestand Park (18 holes), Token Creek County Park in DeForest (27 holes), Capital Springs State Recreation Area (18 holes) and Bird’s Ruins Disc Golf Course at Charles Langer Family Park in Marshall (where nine permanent new holes were added for this event, bringing the total to 27). The finals will be held July 16 at Token Creek.
A total of 576 participants ranging in age from under 8 to almost 80 will compete, including several local disc golfers who qualified by earning points in 2015 PDGA-sanctioned events. “We’re talking about playing 135 holes of disc golf to crown a champion in some divisions,” Batka says. “Some of the people who’ve won or come close are now the face of the sport.”
One of those faces, four-time PDGA world champion Paul McBeth, will appear at the Flymart, a free trade show open to the public at the Crowne Plaza Madison on July 11 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Admission to watch the action all week is free, too.
