Over the past year, eight new holes were added to the course and improvements were made to 12 other holes by the Mason County Disc Golf Club with assistance from the Eagle Wings disc golf team.

For $25, players will receive a T-shirt and a raffle ticket for a chance to win one of more than 20 items. All proceeds go to the Eagle Wings disc golf program.

The sponsors for the event include Thalman Construction, Disc Baron Disc Golf and Grip & Rip Disc Golf.

The course, now called “Leviathan Reborn,” is better, longer and more dangerous than ever, according to Jim Schultz, who was instrumental in getting the course built and maintained for many years.

The Leviathan course has been one of the more popular courses over the past 15 years. But when the Ludington Area School District bond passed in 2019, a sizable portion of the disc golf course was needed to construct the new elementary school.

“We lost almost one-third of our course,” Schultz said.

The 24-hole course, located in the Ludington School Forest, was established in 2006 and is one of the older courses in the area.

Schultz and Tom Organ approached the LASD school board in December 2005 with the idea of creating a disc golf course in the school forest.

In 2006, the course began to take shape with the help of many volunteers. Schultz, then a youth pastor at Cornerstone Baptist Church, and members of his youth group wanted to serve their community by designing and developing a course that would rank as one of the top courses in the state.

“With more than 150 hours of volunteer work from the Cornerstone Baptist Youth Group and help from the Mason County Disc Golf Club, along with design direction from Eagle Wings disc golf, it was truly a group effort back then,” Schultz said.

Mark Kalchik, who was playing the Leviathan course on Tuesday, said the Mason County Disc Golf Association has done a “tremendous job” maintaining their courses and creating new ones.

“They have done a really good job in promoting disc golf,” Kalchik said.

Kalchik has been playing disc golf for about 25 years and said there are many good disc golf courses you can play within a thirty mile radius of Ludington.

He said they have done a good job of making these very challenging courses.

“Every course is a little bit different, the style that you need to play,” he said.

Kalchik said he and his friends have established their own disc golf tournament annually.

“We try to cram as much disc golf as possible, and we can get more in because we do not have to drive very far between courses,” he said.

Mason County has become one of the premier disc golf destinations in the state and maybe even the Midwest. Mason County alone boasts courses like Goliath, an 18-hole course in the Mason County Park that has played host to multiple state championships. Mason County Park also features two more 18-hole courses: Beauty and Beast, both established in 1993.

The Labyrinth, established in 2012 at West Shore Community College is a 24-hole course that offers disc golfers a chance to use every throw in the book. A few miles from West Shore Community College lies the Scottville Disc Golf Course, a 20-hole course located in the city’s Riverside Park and Western Michigan Old Engine Club grounds.

For more information on the Oct. 3 fundraiser, you can call Jim Schultz at (209) 535-3999 or email him at [email protected].