Where to see pro disc golf this weekend in Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky
Small saucer-like objects will be flying about the England Idlewild Park in Burlington, Ky. this weekend. These plastic spheres are commonly known as Frisbees but to those that fling them far and wide on a regular basis, they are a disc.
There is a disc golf course in the park and you may be surprised to know there are more than 6,600 such courses in the United States. Kentucky had 111 in a recent 2020 count with Ohio weighing in at 264. Texas leads the way with 448.
Thanks to the surging popularity of the sport, there is also a Disc Golf Pro Tour. The smaller, harder discs sailing this weekend will leave the hands of professionals who will be competing in the Idlewild Open. The course in Burlington is located about 30 minutes from downtown Cincinnati and just 12 minutes from the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky airport.
It’s an event so much in demand that tickets are sold for spectators to watch competitors send a $10-20 disc into orbit. VIP passes priced at $130 sold out in the beginning of July. The event begins Friday and runs through Sunday. Individual tickets are $10 for Friday and $20 for Saturday and Sunday. Tickets are available at www.theidlewildopen.com. It’s the first time general admission tickets have been sold at Idlewild.
“The Disc Golf Pro Tour is the premier tour in disc golf,” Idlewild Open spokesperson Andy Shenk said. “They have an Elite Series, which is their top tier. The Idlewild Open is one of their top 10 events. All of the top players in North America will be at this event.”
Approximately 1,000 fans per day are expected. The course is considered one of the tougher ones on the tour. The event will also be live-streamed for a subscription fee. The recent World Championships had 37,000 live stream viewers at its peak.
To give you an idea of who you may be watching or what’s at stake, five-time world champion Paul McBeth recently signed a 10-year $10 million sponsor deal with Discraft. a maker of discs. Cincinnati native Rebecca Cox, currently ranked 12th on the tour, has been a pro since 2012. Cox was third at Idlewild in 2018.
The money is far from what traditional golf pros make, but top-rated player Eagle McMahon has made more than $44,000 this year for his weekend flings. Minus a sponsor deal like McBeth, tour players rely on merchandise sales at events and it’s not uncommon for disc golfers to stay with others to save on lodging expenses. McMahon is the defending Idlewild men’s champion.
For perspective on the difference of a professional player and someone engaging in picnic Frisbee, top males can easily throw 600 feet or 200 yards (two football fields) with the top distances nearing 700 feet in an open field. Top women clear 400 feet which was actually what the men were throwing 10-15 years ago according to Shenk.
Strangely, one of the byproducts of the coronavirus pandemic was it made people look for non-contact sports involving social distancing. Thus the increased popularity of disc golf. Traditional golf courses were one of the first things to re-open with restrictions and disc golf courses have always been in the open.
“Covid was a huge boost because people didn’t have many other things they could do,” Shenk said. “Local participation skyrocketed. The local disc golf shops doubled their business last year. Local tournaments that would never fill up in the past opened up online registration for amateurs to play and would sell out in 30 minutes, filling up 100 spots.”
As a result, where the Idlewild Open used to be free, fans are now willing to buy tickets.
“We have food trucks and everything set up,” Shenk said. “We’re also looking at future years adding an alcohol license where there could be a beer tent and we could get some local breweries involved.”
With men’s and women’s divisions, tee-off times begin at 7:30 a.m. for men and 1 p.m. for women. Like a PGA event, there’s seeding and the top players eventually tee off together on Sunday. Like the PGA, players have caddies.
Prize money is dependant on ticket sales.
“Idlewild has the reputation of being the hardest course and hardest tournament on the Disc Golf Pro Tour,” Shenk said. “It’s because of the amount of trees, the amount of tight fairways and the amount of danger if you go off the fairway and are stuck in the bushes.”
The Idlewild Disc Golf Course was designed specifically for disc golf and has been ranked among the Top 10 on the circuit. It is open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a week.
