This week, Calvin’s disc golf club team made a trip down to Rock Hill, South Carolina to compete — for the first time in Calvin’s history — in the college disc golf national championships. The group — sophomores Jacob Lanning, Dylan Meengs, Devon VanAndel, and Brady Swiech — qualified for regionals, and then competed at that competition in November to qualify for the national championships. This national event brings together over 800 student athletes from across the country.

For those unfamiliar with disc golf, it’s a sport similar to traditional golf, but instead of clubs and balls, players throw flying discs into metal baskets. Each ‘hole’ has a par, and the goal is to complete the course in as few throws as possible. It’s easy to learn, cheap (you just need discs) and, as Meengs, a sustainability coordinator, pointed out, “just another great thing to help get people outside and involved with the world.” For the competition at nationals, according to Lanning, “There’s three doubles rounds and one singles round.” The singles round takes the average of all four player’s scores.” During the three doubles rounds,  pairs of players alternate teeing off and selecting the best shot between them. 

Calvin has not been immune to the sport’s growing popularity, as evidenced not only by the competitive team but also the recent addition of a course on campus. The baskets were installed last weekend, and though signage and maps are still in progress — thanks to help from freshman Jace Porter and some geographic information (GIS) students — the course is officially playable. It’s now listed on UDisc, the go-to app for disc golfers. 

 The new course is actually Calvin’s second. An earlier disc golf course was removed a few years ago due to it being a hazard for students walking on campus. Supervisor of Landscape Operations Robert Speelmann also mentioned how “some discs ended up on rooftops [such as] Prince Conference center’s roof.”

At one point, Hekman Library also had a tradition of hosting an annual disc golf tournament inside the library. 

Lanning took initiative reinstalling a disc golf course as a project for his project management class. He then worked with Director of Campus Rec and Outdoor Programs  Ryan Rooks, Head of Facilities Robert Spielman, and cross country coach Nicole Kramer to get the course approved. After that process, Lanning said they “got people from the club together to help put the course in last Saturday.”

The course begins just past the underpass of the beltline, then up the hill to the right. The first tee pad is located in the area between the road leading to the DeVos Communication Center and the Beltline. From there, the course extends outward and eventually winds its way through the cross-country trail.

In the future, Meengs and Lanning mentioned how they hope for Calvin to host a tournament, or some other more structured fundraising type events to fund future trips. Meengs said he believes having the course right here at Calvin will immerse people around our community in the sport and help fundraising even more.