BROOKVILLE – The Jefferson County Disc Golf Club hosted its first sanctioned tournament last weekend at its course at the Pinecrest Country Club, marking a major milestone for the organization and sport in the area.
The organization that is now the Jefferson County Disc Golf Club first approached the country club about building the course in 2018. By 2020, a regular disc golf league was playing the course regularly, and the first tournament was held.
Last weekend, the club hit a new milestone by hosting its first Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned tournament. One of the club directors, Jake Leadbetter said there were 35 people who signed up from within a two-hour radius around the state.
“This is a PDGA sanctioned C tier event, which means players ratings and placement actually go into account towards their overall performance for the year through the PDGA,” Leadbetter said.
The tournament was a two-round event, 36 holes total for the day. North Fork Makers partnered with the club to offer trophies and a koozie for winners of the tournament. There were also “closest to the pin” or CTP prizes given away for each division, as well as a hole in one competition. CTP is a hole dedicated to whoever lands a disc closest to the basket, and division winners of this had a choice of discs and towels available.
The club also received two discs from Chains or Dye Disc Golf to raffle off during the tournament.
“A lot of people from the surrounding area come and support us, which is always the case and we’re always very thankful,” Leadbetter said. The outreach from other companies, disc golf and non disc golf related, has been very impressive, especially for our first sanctioned event.”
He said building numbers within the club was the first step in getting to where it is today. The club started generating local interest and now have about 10 regulars who show up to club rounds.
The club has also consistently pulled 35 players or more for planned events, which Leadbetter attributed to the support of other local clubs.
“Getting the numbers on everything was obviously a big task and that wouldn’t have been possible without outreach from other local clubs in the surrounding area,” Leadbetter said. “The disc golf community is very well communicated between clubs within the state.”
Leadbetter said there were more steps to go through running things through the PDGA, and the days leading up to the tournament involved a lot of course prep. He said out-of-bounds was added to increase the difficulty, and some of the pars were adjusted.
Overall, he was pleased with how the event went, and said the club only hopes to build on this for the future. He hopes to offer more to the players than just “show up and throw a round of disc golf and win a trophy, maybe.” There were also vendors set up at the meeting point of the course like Camber Disc Golf Company and Buds to Blooms Farm.
With the continued support of the club, things on the course have been added and upgraded along the way. Some notable additions include an elevated basket, and a cleaner more defined course. Leadbetter also said the relationship with Pinecrest is excellent and the disc golf club continues to work hand in hand with the country club.
There are continued plans and efforts of the club moving forward that will continue to improve the course. He said the next step is to revamp some of the areas the club initially didn’t invest in as much because the money wasn’t available, or areas that weren’t a priority at first.
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