Disc golf team competes in national championship

Photo by Elizabeth Banfield

By: Richard Martin

When walking around campus, students may run into the yellow cups and cages with numbers painted on the side and be confused about what they are. These are the “holes” for the sport known as disc golf.

Gardner-Webb’s disc golf team, led by Dr. Bob Carey, traveled to the Hippodrome Disc Golf Complex in North Augusta, South Carolina, to compete with 50 other schools in the National Collegiate Disc Golf Championships April 13-16.

The team consists of five players: seniors Kane Dunn and Chase Richards, junior AJ Carey and sophomores Tyler Helms and Tyler Macy. The team entered into the championships ranked 27th in the nation according to the monthly Innova Disc Golf rankings. At one point this year however, the team was ranked as high as 25th in the nation.

Photo by Elizabeth Banfield
Photo by Elizabeth Banfield

According to Carey, the team was tied for sixth after the first two rounds. As of 9 a.m. April 15, they are tied for 13th.

The team was only established at Gardner-Webb in 2015. In its inaugural season, the team finished 32nd in the nation, competing with much larger schools such as Clemson, Liberty, and North Carolina. They also finished 31st out of 61 schools in the National Championship Tournament and current member Chase Richards set the National Course Distance Record of 620.5 feet.

Disc golf has the same rules as regular professional golf, in that the lowest score wins, there are par scores for each unique course, the matches are played in singles and match play and there are sometimes even hazards such as water or trees that the players need to be aware of.

The difference, is that instead of using balls and clubs, the players use discs of various sizes that are equivalent to drivers, irons, chippers, and putters of the golf world to get the disc in the basket in the lowest amount of throws as possible.

Keep a look out for the post game article following the championship.