Disc golf is attracting a lot of interest in the North Thompson with three locations available in the Clearwater area. The Clearwater Ski Hill, Clearwater Secondary School and Wells Gray Golf and RV are great places if you are interested in trying the sport for fun. If you are feeling a bit more competitive, you’ll want to start practicing now for upcoming tournaments throughout the Interior of B.C.
Sept. 29 to Oct. 1, Harvest Huck will be hosting the 2023 B.C. Disc Golf Provincial tournament in Clearwater at the Clearwater Ski Hill course.
Course improvements are underway leading up the tournament with much of the work being done by two new residents, Nicoletta Godbout and Geoffrey McNamara.
McNamara is passionate about the sport for a reason, he competes professionally.
“I compete at the professional level with disc golf. I was sponsored seven years ago by a company called Kastaplast out of Sweden and I travel around and compete under their banner,” he said. “I’m considered a local ‘pro’ and have been to two world championships, finishing in the top 40 and have played in many top tier events locally, across Canada and into the U.S. I’ve gotten around over the years.”
McNamara said with that experience he also brings course and club development.
“My disc golf persona if you will is ‘GMac.’ I have my own brand and logo along with my own run of discs through Kastaplast, an independent disc manufacturer based in Stockholm, Sweden.”
McNamara’s partner, Nicoletta, was a competitive Ultimate player.
Ultimate is a non-contact, self-refereed team sport played with a flying disc [Frisbee]. Points are scored by passing the disc to a teammate in the opposing end zone.
When everything shut down during the pandemic, including most team sports, she decided to switch to disc golf. McNamara said quite a few ultimate players ended up staying with disc golf and haven’t returned to their original sport, which is why this sport has grown so quickly in the last four years.
“It’s amazing,” he added.
When they arrived in Clearwater last year there were four players that would go out on a regular basis.
Now they have determined that there is enough interest that Nicoletta is now putting in the paperwork to get an actual club formed officially.
She has sponsored many of the physical improvements to the course at the Clearwater Ski Hill such as the disc golf pads that they create with pavers and framed with wood, McNamara said.
“Our hope is that down the line we will be able to fund these types of initiatives. On Thursday nights at the Clearwater Ski Hill, we’ve been holding disc golf club nights for about two months now. We are now seeing a few people each day playing the disc golf course. A lot of the CN workers that are in town currently are playing disc golf and when the pipeliners were living here quite a few of them came up to play at the high school course or at the ski hill. The interest is growing, so we will soon have an official club.”
All of the tee pads that are being installed by the hardworking newcomers will soon give people a place to play that has proper footing.
With the upcoming tournament in September, they are pushing to have everything ready since there are currently 179 competitors registered, with most of them coming in from out of town.
“We are expecting up to approximately 288 registered players. It’s a big B tier event. You have the elite series, an A tier, and a B tier. This will be a B tier event. This event is also doubling as the B.C. Provincial Championships. All the best around B.C. and Alberta, even some people coming from as far away as Saskatchewan will be competing in the tournament.”
The Quality Inn and Best Western local business owners, Cass and AJ Bachhal are big fans of the sport and have generously offered to sponsor the event with $10,000 in prize money.
Longtime residents and business owners of Bigfoot Trading Co. in Clearwater and Kamloops, Dennis Greffard and Christine Wright, founded the disc golf course at the Clearwater Ski Hill and are the tournament organizers for the Harvest Huck B.C. Provincial Disc Golf tournament this year.
Greffard also runs a successful tournament series called the ‘Doomsday Disc Golf Series’ which is played in Clearwater, Vernon, Kelowna, Penticton and Logan Lake.
The couple also offers disc golf discs for sale in both of their store locations and are happy to discuss the game with people interested in learning more about the sport.
McNamara said there are no age limits or restrictions with many categories starting at eight years old and working up into teens and beyond.
“Some of the best in Canada are coming to the tournament here. It will really be something fantastic for the area.”
The disc golf pro also mentioned other courses in the region located at Sun Peaks, Logan Lake and Mac Park in Kamloops.
He and his partner came to Clearwater from Vancouver Island and eventually bought a home here last year.
“We came up to play in a tournament here. The area is beautiful. I spent 20 years on Vancouver Island and thought I would never move away from it until we found the hidden gem of Clearwater. Here we are a year later.”
For more information about the upcoming tournament in September visit the website: https://harvesthuck.ca/
