Saturday morning at Lake Olmstead Park, Augusta’s Disc Golf Association board members cleaned up some gator dredging to prepare for Sunday morning’s disc golf tournament at 9 a.m.
In the past, board members of the association have had make several requests for the city government to maintain the park in various ways, such as mowing the grass and trash disposal.
“The city does about as good of a job as I can expect them to do,” said Matt Flynn, Augusta’s Disc Golf Association course manager, as he picked up trash and trimmed some plants. “They’re shorthanded like everywhere and anybody nowadays. So we had to get on them a little bit, but they came through on mowing the grass for this week.”
Flynn said some of the board members were out in the park Saturday to handle some minor housekeeping and touch-ups to ensure the course is ready for the “Throw at the O” Tournament.
“This particular park is maintained by a crew of inmates that come and cut the grass,” said Jeremy Hughes, President of Augusta’s Disc Golf Association. “I think the important thing is keeping it in their forefront so they do it more often, but we just had to make some noise about it for the city to do it.”
Hughes said the new Deputy Director of Parks and Recreation, Tim Fulton, is making it a habit to get in the face of the city’s government and asking them to keep up with the local parks. Hughes said Fulton is setting a great example for how public parks are supposed to look like.
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The “Throw at the O” tournament is expected to involve around 40 locals from the community playing for bragging rights and fun.
“We have over 2,000 active members locally. It’s huge,” said Hughes. “We have the world headquarters here in Appling for the Professional Disc Golf Association, so we have that going on.”
Hughes also mentioned the Augusta Classic, one of the oldest tournaments in the country for disc golf, would be holding its final round of disc golf at Lake Olmstead Park towards the end of September.
“We’re really anticipating that. We expect around 200 people or more will be here for the final round,” said Hughes.
Flynn added the fine-tuning, cleaning effort and small tournament was the association’s method of helping prepare the park and participants for the Augusta Classic. Both Flynn and Hughes said it was a very popular and important activity for the community, one that received even more attention during the pandemic.
According to Hughes, disc golf exploded worldwide because of COVID-19 which he believes is a result of it being a naturally socially distanced sport compared to other sports like football. Flynn said he thinks its rising popularity is because the sport easily becomes addicting and is quick to learn which makes it a great hobby.
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“Other sports require the participation of bigger numbers whereas disc golf you can play by yourself, or with two people, or you can play with a big group,” said Sammy Navarre, Secretary of Augusta’s Disc Golf Association. “It’s also inexpensive. Some of the other sports, like golf, you have to pay fees and purchase pricey equipment. It’s almost an investment to get into it, whereas disc golf all you need is a small set to get started and a lot of the time you can play for free at outside parks.”
“There’s a joke that says a democrat, a republican, a pastor and a sailor all got to play disc golf one day, and that’s the end of the joke. The reason is you can have a widely diverse group of people who all come out together to play with some plastic in their hands, and it’s all about the love of the game and being outdoors,” said Hughes. “It’s all about the inclusivity, the friendship, the camaraderie and the competition.”
Navarre will be director of the “Throw at the O” tournament Sunday and invites those who are interested in disc golf to join Augusta’s Disc Golf Association or follow the Facebook page for future meetups and events.
Liz Wright is a correspondent for The Augusta Press.
