will schusterick

Urbandale teen is disc golf rising star | Iowa

admin basketball, disc golf championship, gannon buhr, golf, golf course, sport, tournament, united states, will schusterick 0 Comments January 2, 2023

, 2023-01-01 00:01:00,

URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) — The sun was starting to set on a warm November day as Gannon Buhr walked off the disc golf course at Urbandale’s Waterford Park. Buhr stops when a man walking a dog notices him.

“Great season this year,” the man yells to Buhr, who was out trying some new discs.

He didn’t know the fan, but these interactions on the disc golf course are common for Buhr, one of the sport’s top players in the world. He can stroll in and out of most places around Iowa and go unrecognized. But the second he steps on a course, it seems everyone knows him.

“It’s cool to a certain extent,” Buhr told the Des Moines Register. “Sometimes I just want to go out and practice myself and tune the world out.”

At age 17, the Urbandale resident and Waukee Northwest High School student racked up nearly $90,000 in prize money in 2022 and tallied a victory in one of the sport’s top events. After quickly rising to fame, he could be even better next year. That’s why he’s one of the Des Moines Register’s People to Watch for 2023.

“I think it’ll be very big because people are looking for him to prove that he is actually that good and it wasn’t just a fluke,” said disc golf star Will Schusterick.

Buhr played flag football, was a pitcher in baseball, tried basketball and even played golf, with a regular club and a small ball.

But none of those sports stuck with him. Disc golf did. He got into it when he was around 9 years old by using a disc golf basket in his neighbor’s yard.

Disc golf offered him something most of those other sports didn’t. Buhr had complete control of his results and didn’t need to rely on teammates to get him the ball, force a stop or make a big play. Buhr was the entire team.

The sport requires participants to throw discs, smaller than frisbees, into a basket in as few tries as possible. It requires precision, focus and coordination. But it’s also accessible to people of all ages and many physical abilities.

And it has become increasingly popular. According to UDisc, which helps players find the often-free courses, the number of courses in the U.S. has grown from a few hundred a few decades ago to more than 9,000 today. Travel Iowa says the state has more than 300 courses and nearly 100 tournaments, making it, potentially, “the amateur disc golf capital of the world.”

Buhr traded his…

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Courses

Edwards Park, Westside Park to host major disc golf tournament April 16, with concert afterward at Burr Park | Local News

admin animal, area, chance, commissioner, dalton, disc, economics, enforce, golf, golf club, golf course, golf player, golfer, grant, law, legislation, lot, marcus morris, months, music, neighbor, ordinance, park, petition, plan, politics, prodigy star series, resident, rita burrows, robby staten, sport, subdivision, tournament, united states, welfare, whitfield county, whitfield county board, will schusterick, zoology 0 Comments April 7, 2022

Dalton-area residents can see some of the best disc golfers in North America compete on Saturday, April 16, at the courses at the Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department’s Edwards Park and Westside Park.

The tournament is the finale of the Prodigy Star Series, hosted by Prodigy Disc, a Dalton-based manufacturer of disc golf discs and other equipment.

“We have hosted an event each month for the past six months,” said Will Schusterick, co-owner of Prodigy Disc, a former No. 1 disc golf player in the world and three-time winner of the U.S. Open.

“The tournament round will start at 10 a.m.,” he said. “We are more than happy to have anyone come out and watch. There are separate divisions. Westside will have the amateurs, and Edwards will have the pro division.”

Matt Zollitsch, event coordinator for Prodigy Disc, said the series has had more than 700 competitors from the United States and Canada.

“The series has brought sponsors from all over the disc golf world,” he said.

The tournament will conclude at 2 p.m. with a concert at the Burr Performing Arts Park in downtown Dalton by The Whole Fam Damily, a Dalton-based band.

“We’ll have live music, disc golf vendors,” said Schusterick. “It will be a fun atmosphere, and we welcome everyone to come out and take part.”

According to Sports Illustrated, disc golf was one of the few sports that thrived during the COVID-19 pandemic, “likely partially due to its ability to be played outdoors and socially distanced. But it was also the continuation of a growth trend that occurred through the 2010s.”

The magazine reported that the Professional Disc Golf Association now has 150,000 members, “with 70,000 of those retaining active status for tournaments — a figure that’s doubled since 2016.”

The Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department’s Westside Park Disc Golf Course was voted one of the top four courses in the United States in 2020 by the readers of Connect Magazine. It finished behind Maple Hill Disc Golf in Leicester, Massachusetts; Quaker’s Challenge at Gifford Pinchot State Park, Lewisberry, Pennsylvania; and Blue Ribbon Pines, East Bethel, Minnesota.

“We see people from out of town daily playing these courses,” said Whitfield County Parks and Recreation Department Director Brian Chastain.

In addition to the courses at Edwards Park and Westside Park, which were designed by Schusterick, there is a disc golf course at Heritage Point Park in Dalton and a nine-hole course at the Tunnel Hill Golf Club. There are also two practice baskets on the grassy area next to the train tracks at the old freight depot off Morris Street in Dalton.