For anyone who still thinks disc golf is just a pastime for stoned college kids, the $10,000 purse up for grabs in both the men’s and women’s divisions of this weekend’s Match Play Championship in Bailey should shatter that illusion. Over the past few years, the sport has exploded, both at the recreational level and among professionals, the best of whom are signing multiyear, multimillion-dollar contracts with corporate sponsors.

Starting on Thursday, June 16, Coloradans will have an unprecedented opportunity to watch 32 of the top disc golfers in the world rattle chains in our backyard—specifically, at the BOERA (Bailey Outdoor Education and Recreation Area) disc golf course, less than an hour southwest of Denver on U.S. 285. Normally 21 holes, the mountainous course has been altered to create a special 12-hole layout designed to challenge the pros as they contend with the terrain and how discs fly in the thinner air at 8,310 feet.

Part of the 2022 Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT), the invite-only event is smaller in scale than most of the season’s tournaments, which can see 150-some players. “It is a very elite field, kind of small and intimate, which is pretty cool,” says Bailey resident Dan McKercher, who works as the DGPT’s operations and partnerships manager and is also the vice president of the Foothill Flyers Disc Golf Club. We asked McKercher to help us put together this spectator’s guide (the match will also be livestreamed on the Disc Golf Network) to Colorado’s first DGPT competition.

The Format

Unlike a normal round—in which players’ throws to reach each basket get added up and the lowest score wins, à la traditional golf—match play pits two players against each other on every hole. For this tournament, if you win the hole, you…