By Nathan Kanter

Provincial disc golf championships to take over Centennial Park

Aug 18, 2017 | 2:00 PM

Hundred of flying saucers are expected at Centennial Park this weekend, but not in the form of UFOs. The 12th annual Saskatchewan open provincial disc golf championships are being hosted right here in the Battlefords this weekend, with an estimated 60 athletes expected to converge on the city for the competition.

The tournament typically travels around the province to different host cities, and this will be the first time the Battlefords is hosting.

“Last year, we just got our course up to a full 18 holes with marked tee boxes and signs, which [makes us] capable to host,” Battlefords Community Disc Golf Club president Evan Zimmer said. “The thing that is special about it this year, is it is a joint venture between two clubs. Typically, it’s Saskatchewan disc golf that handles this tournament but due to the circumstances, it ended up being a co-hosted tournament between our club and them, which means we’ve had twice as many people to work on it.

“More or less, this event will be the biggest disc golf event that Saskatchewan has seen to date.”

The course at Centennial Park is generally considered a fairly easy course, but there have been some adjustments made just for this weekend.

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“The course for the tournament will be generally just as difficult as almost any other course. Lots of risk and reward involved,” Zimmer said. “There has been lots of out of bounds and other mandatory sections of the courses that will increase the difficulty and make it much more challenging for the upper divisions.”

In addition to the actual tournament, there are three mini games as well: longest drive, ring of fire, and putting challenge. 

Zimmer said roughly half the participants will walk away with some sort of prize.

“We have really unprecedented prizes for a Saskatchean event,” Zimmer said. “The prizes and payouts for the pro division in this event are in the calibre of Professional Disc Golf Association sanctioned events.

“We have a mini game that is going to award a long board to the winner. We have another mini game that is going to [award] a camera drone. Just numerous amazing prizes like that.”

There are seven total divisions: pro, advanced, master’s (over 40), two ladies divisions (upper and lower), recreational, and junior.

The upper divisions get 54 holes and then an additional nine on Sunday afternoon for the top-5 in those divisions. Junior, ladies and recreational get 36 holes.

Zimmer said there are still very limited spots available. For those interested, they will have to email tournament@saskatoondiscgolf.ca and see which divisions are open.

“It’s definitely worth a shot to send them an email and see what they say,” Zimmer said. “If anyobody is interested in seeing what disc golf is all about, it’s an absolutely perfect opportunity.”

nathan.kanter@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @NathanKanter11