A hole-in-one in just his fifth-ever round hooked Gillis MacDougall onto disc golf in 2019.

Two years later it led him halfway across the country to Milford, Mich., where he took second place in the 2021 PDGA United States Amateur Disc Golf Championship held earlier this month.

In just his third year of playing disc golf, the 17-year-old MacDougall now finds himself as one of the top-rated amateur players in the region.

After being exposed to the sport for the first time at Four Rivers Charter School in eighth grade, MacDougall took a casual interest in disc golf before his personality turned it into a passion.

“Anything I do, I don’t want to suck,” MacDougall said. “I’m a pretty competitive person.”

He started watching YouTube videos to correct his form, bought his own discs and began practicing throws in his free time.

MacDougall entered his first intermediate-level tournament in September 2019 and took first place. The following spring season was delayed due to the pandemic, but MacDougall continued to enter tournaments while raising his player rating.

Entering this spring season, MacDougall received an invitation to play in a national amateur tournament in Michigan, but said there were obstacles in the way.

“I looked at (the invitation) and was like, ‘I don’t have a license, I’m not even 17 yet, so probably not but I’ll ask my dad,’” MacDougall said. “I called my dad and was like ‘Can we go to Michigan,’ … and honestly it didn’t take too much convincing.”

MacDougall entered the final day of the event sitting outside the top three, but in his final round he shot a tournament-low 57 strokes, which earned him an “incredible” second-place finish.

He said it was a grueling weekend and he started to lose focus in the final round, but he persevered and put up his highest-rated round ever.

“I wish I had played all three rounds like that,” MacDougall said. “My friend kept telling me, ‘Keep doing what you’re doing.’”

Once he arrived at the tournament, MacDougall said he found out one of the players entering the tournament had a professional-level rating so he was determined to play his best and see how the results came out in the end.

“Rating is just a number,” MacDougall said. “In the end, losing to someone who a lot of people think should be a pro was way more than I ever thought I would get out.”

MacDougall said his takeaways from the tournament were that he was good enough to play at the national stage and the Professional Disc Golf Association takes care of its amateur players as well as its pros.

“Yes, I can stack up against the country,” MacDougall said. “The whole weekend atmosphere was crazy … it’s amazing to see how well amateur players are treated.”

Looking back on his hole-in-one, MacDougall said he had no clue it would change his life to the point where he was traveling around the country to play disc golf.

“I had no idea how much of my life it’d take over,” MacDougall said. “I was completely hooked. I signed the disc and it’s in my room.”

He added that disc golf’s popularity has grown in the past few years to the point where professionals can play as a full-time job. The pandemic also definitely drew a lot of new people to the sport.

“It’s grown big enough to where you can sustain yourself,” MacDougall said. “The sport and pro scene has exploded over the past year.”

MacDougall said he wants to continue playing the sport because he has fallen in love with disc golf and it is a possible career path now.

“It never feels like work,” MacDougall said. “I never want it to get to a point where it feels like work.”

Chris Larabee can be reached at [email protected] or 413-930-4081.