AMES — What started out as something to pass the time during the COVID-19 pandemic turned into an opportunity to play for a national championship.

Scott Ferguson was a senior at Le Mars Community in 2020 when the pandemic shut down his last spring athletic season. Wanting something to do to stay active, he picked up a new sport.

“I started disc golf when COVID-19 happened because everything else was closed but they left the course open,” Ferguson said.

He continued to play at Iowa State University where he is a member of their club team. This year, Ferguson was chosen to represent the Cyclones on the Division II roster which qualified for nationals from a tournament in Michigan.

“Anyone can try out for the team but there were only eight spots that they were handing out,” Ferguson said. “We had two rounds that were qualifying played on two separate courses and there was also a distance competition and putting competition. You scored points based on how you did in these events and the top eight people got to go to nationals.”

Ferguson competed in both the singles and team competition at the DII College Disc Championship which was held at North Cove Leisure Club and Disc Golf Course in Marion, North Carolina in April.

The team competition features four players on the roster. Ferguson explained how the team portion worked.

“You are on a team of four and you are paired with one of those guys on your team,” Ferguson said. “Two people would tee off of hole one and then the other two people on the team would play from the best lie from where the first two threw to. Then it alternates every shot until your team makes the putt. Then the people who didn’t drive on hole one would drive off of hole two. So two people would tee off of all the odd holes and the other two would tee off of all the even holes.”

The team competition featured three rounds of this format, two on the Gorge Course and one on the Boulders Course. The other round consisted of each of the four players doing an individual round and then averaging the four scores for the score for that round. Competitors played the River Run Course for the individual round.

Ferguson and his Iowa State team finished second, one stroke behind the national champion team from North Carolina State. There were 51 total teams in the competition.

There were two layouts which…