Disc golf grows in popularity

“We all compete and we all want to win, but we all just have a good time out here,” Sky Eagle said. “But what I really enjoy the most is just watching that Frisbee fly.”

The start of the 2012 Kenneth Brent Edwards Memorial disc golf tournament began with the sound that every flying disc golf player loves to hear: the rattle of chains as a disc hits its mark.

Unfortunately for the thrower on Hole 6, the disc had glanced off the chains and spun out of the basket.

“Go big or go home,” James Porter said while he watched from the tee box for Hole 7. “That's the only way to play.”

Eighty-three of the best disc golfers in Oklahoma competed in the tournament on Saturday at McClellan Course in Norman.

The course was custom-made by Mitch McClellan on his own land and features a professional-style course of 18 holes with baskets, tee boxes and boundary lines.

The tournament was an Oklahoma Professional Disc Golf Association-sanctioned event with cash prizes for the winners and a separate pot for whoever made a hole-in-one during tournament play.

Association President Cameron Kaspereit said disc golf in Oklahoma has been growing exponentially over the past few years and has doubled in size nationally.

“It's probably one of the fastest-growing sports around, and it's definitely the fastest-growing sport nobody's ever heard of,” he said. “Once you get somebody out to play and experience it, they are usually hooked. For anyone that likes to play regular golf it's similar rules but it doesn't take five hours to play and you don't have to spend 60 bucks for a round.”

There are 33 full 18-hole courses in Oklahoma.

Sky Eagle said he thinks the rise in popularity is due to the culture of the people who play it.