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Flying discs
A disc-golf tournament hit the slopes of Mount Bachelor this weekend
By Katie Brauns / The Bulletin
Published: August 25. 2008 4:00AM PST
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Jere Eshelman, 31, of Bend shoots for the basket on the first hole of the final round of the Lava Launch disc-golf tournament at Mount Bachelor on Sunday.
Peter Strong / The Bulletin
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MOUNT BACHELOR — Sunny, scenic and snowy, the high-altitude venue for the Lava Launch Disc Golf Tournament is one-of-a-kind.
“It is one of only three tournaments where you get to ride a lift up a mountain and play in the snow in August,” said Jim Tobish, 41, of Crooked River Ranch, who took second in the masters (age 40 and older) professional division. “That’s really unique in all the sport of disc golf. So it’s a gem in that regard. Plus there’s a huge family of people camping out here, 60 people all hanging out last night playing games.”
The two-day Lava Launch ended Sunday at Mount Bachelor with the professional division’s final nine holes. The pros also played another 18 holes earlier that day.
More than 100 disc golfers, representing one of the seven divisions — men’s professional, advanced and intermediate, master’s professional and advanced, and women’s advanced and intermediate — took on 45 holes of disc golf Saturday and Sunday.
Disc golf is played much like golf, but with plastic discs instead of clubs and balls. The holes are metal baskets that stand about five feet tall and are strewn with chains to the catch the flying discs — and make a ringing, clink sound when players sink them.
Avery Jenkins of Eugene, the eventual pro winner, joined the local competition for the first time in the event’s four-year history.
“I’ve always heard of this tournament, but never had the opportunity to come out and play this,” Jenkins said. “I just happened to get done with worlds (PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships in Michigan) and this is an off weekend, there’s nothing else going on around the country. This is the biggest tournament of the weekend. So we came out here, we’re having a blast and enjoying the weather. It’s good to be back in Oregon, I haven’t been back in three months.”
Jenkins, 30, travels around the world playing disc golf. Recently in Japan and Switzerland and hopping around the U.S., he is now back in Oregon after three months on the road for a disc golf tourney tour.
“It’s cool because I get to travel and go to all these cool states and cool countries,” said Jenkins. “And along the way I get to make money along with it and kind of pay for the trip and hopefully more, and have a good time with it, meet a bunch of cool people and make new friends along the way.”
About 60 percent of the tournament’s 103 participants were from outside of Central Oregon. Players traveled from Washington, Nevada, California and Idaho to compete. And not only did they play lots of disc golf, but they enjoyed a sunset dinner Saturday night at Mt. Bachelor ski resort’s Pine Marten Lodge. Several players, along with family and friends, camped in the Cascades and celebrated a summer of disc golf.
During tournament time, competitors played three different course designs and 45 holes, including an 18-hole alpine layout that follows the Skyliner Run down from the top of the Pine Marten chairlift, the Super Nine nine-hole alpine course, and an 18-hole course following nordic ski trails.
“The nordic course is going to challenge even more experienced golfers,” said Bend’s Tyler Davio, who was watching the pros toss their last shots on the 18-hole alpine course. “Because it’s not just the same shot one after another, each hole is totally different.
“And the Super Nine is just really hard — period,” he added. “The holes are all twice as long and that’s why it’s called the Super Nine. That course, even the pros had a hard time with.”
The Super Nine’s course distance is 5,460 feet.
“A normal 18-hole course is less than 5,000 feet these days, some of them are longer,” noted tournament director Ryan Lane. “So this (nine-hole course) plays as long as an 18-hole course, but it’s only nine.”
The alpine courses took participants up to nearly 8,000 feet in elevation, where the wind factor played a part in score outcomes.
“Downhill golf is one-of-a-kind,” said Michael Suchocki, a pro disc golfer from Gladstone. “You can throw over a thousand feet in distance. … When you have that much potential energy in front of you throwing downhill you can be a few 100 feet off the hole — easily.”
With views of South Sister and Broken Top’s cinder-red, snowy-white volcanic peaks, some golfers said the backdrop was distracting.
“This is the best venue we play in all year,” said Leland O’Driscoll, 27, of Eugene. “You look at volcanos when you are throwing shots.”
Eugene’s Andrew Rich, 23, added: “The backdrop: you’re looking at a putt and looking at a mountain and you’re like, ‘Oh, I’m putting.”
The two Eugene residents competed in the pro division; Rich noted that he won the tournament in 2006.
Despite visual distractions, top players consistently drove their discs into the baskets with a minimal number of shots. Accuracy was essential.
Two hole-in-one shots were scored this weekend — one by Bend’s Andrew McGettigan and another by Dallas Albright of Ukiah, Calif.
“It’s a blind shot, you can’t see it,” said McGettigan of his hole-in-one. “So, I threw the shot and heard the basket and I was like, ‘Is it in?’ And one of the guys in my group was like, ‘Heck yeah, it’s in.’ It was pretty sweet.” McGettigan won the men’s advanced division, scoring an even par on the 18-hole nordic course on Sunday.
The event, sanctioned by the Professional Disc Golf Association, was part of the “Steady” Ed Tournament Series, made up of seven competitions throughout the Northwest. Lava Launch is hosted by Hyzer Desert Rebels Central Oregon Disc Golf Club in partnership with Mt. Bachelor ski area.
“We are obviously a beautiful mountain setting in the middle of nature, dark skies and big bright stars at night,” noted Lane of what attracts participants to Central Oregon. “They come out for the feel of the event, and we always make sure that the atmosphere is right up here, to have a really good time. I think they have seen that for the past few years.
“And they came back for more.”
Katie Brauns can be reached at 541-383-0393 or kbrauns@bendbulletin.com.
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