County to host disc golf tourney | Sports

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Fort Bend County will prepare to hold its first tournament using Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) rules on May 21. The Fort Bend County Commissioners’ Court has waived rental fees for the tournament at Jones Creek Ranch Park, where the event will be held.

A brand new portable new disc golf course was installed at Jones Creek Ranch Park last fall. The Houston Disc Golf donated tee posts, baskets and more to the course. The organization also helped with the course’s design.

Houston Disc Golf is a non-profit, volunteer organization that donates equipment to cities and counties to help grow the sport of disc golf. Typically, these cities and counties would not have spent their funds for disc golf otherwise. Houston Disc Golf Director Steve Stanley says Fort Bend County has been particularly helpful moving the process along.

“Fort Bend County has just been amazing,” Stanley said. “They’re on top of trying to do everything they can to get the course put in for their constituents.”

According to registration data from popular disc golf scoring app, UDisc, the Jones Creek Ranch course averages around 500 players each month. This isn’t including people who use the course and don’t log their scores in the app, so this is likely an underestimate. Stanley says most of these players are coming from out of town, bringing visitors to the county and adding to its economy.

“Think about it. All these people are driving into town, buying gas, stopping for drinks or maybe having lunch while they’re in the county,” Stanley said. “That’s probably more important than anything, these are people coming from outside your area.”

Fort Bend County Parks and Recreation Director Darren McCarthy echoed the importance of bringing new people into the county through this course.

“A lot of people playing disc golf had no idea the park existed,” McCarthy said. “Once people come, they’ll want to come back. This could bring in people from all over Houston.”

The upcoming tournament will be called the 2022 Zambia Open Fundraiser. In addition to cash prizes for winners, donations and proceeds from the event will go toward equipment and course upgrades for disc golf courses in Zambia. The funds raised will also help pay some of the Zambian staff’s salaries for the 2022 Open season.

The Jones Creek Ranch Park course will need to see some improvements before it’s PDGA ready. Namely concrete tee pads and tee boxes, but Stanley the course is well on its way.

“We’re close, but not there yet on the baskets,” Stanley said. “The county has been very good about going through all the steps.”

It is fairly common for organizations filing as non-profit entities to have certain fees waived by the court. Waiving the fees to use the park is one less hurdle for event organizers as they prepare for the tournament.

“We’re going to have more eyes than ever on Fort Bend County,” McCarthy said.