Frisbee Golf Course Has Tournament Debut

The Waveny Open drew 39 players from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island to show off their precision tosses Sunday.

Frisbee golf—or disc golf, as it’s officially known—is new to New Canaan. A temporary course was first installed at Waveny in late 2007. The course now has 10 permanent holes—actually metal baskets on poles anchored to the ground with concrete sleeves—and another eight temporary holes were added to create an 18-hole course for Sunday’s tournament.

“This tournament and disc golf course is all about exposure,” said tournament director Tim Smith who proposed and designed the course with Adam Goodman. “We had many questions from people while we were setting up the course and we found out that most people had never heard of disc golf. This was a way to showcase the sport.”

Like the more familiar form of golf, the goal of disc golf is to get a frisbee into a hole from a “tee”, or designated spot, a set distance away, in a certain number of tosses for “par”.

Participants in the Waveny Open competed in eight divisions: pro open, pro master (ages 40 and older), pro grandmaster (ages 50 and older), amateur advanced, amateur intermediate, amateur recreational, amateur master (ages 40 and older), and amateur women.

The players competed in two rounds: the first round was played on a 6,185-foot course with a par 58, the second on a 6,620-foot course with a par 61, making par 119 for the tournament. Adding difficulty, players had to contend with trees and park visitors to reach the holes.

In the pro division, Bobby Cowperthwait finished in first place with a 101, 18 under par. In the pro master division, Kraig Steffen came in first with a 127, eight over par. Dave Johnson finished on top in the grandmaster division with a 121, two over par.

It was a tough course to walk, and some of the young amateurs bested the older pros.

At the most advanced amateur level, Adam Dodge topped both masters winners with two-under-par 117. John Fissel, playing in the division for amateurs age 40 and older, was right behind him, finishing one back at 118.

At the intermediate level, Derek Brazonskas finished with a 129. A man known by his nickname, “Scovy”, finished first among recreational players with a 140.

Amanda Hopkins clinched her division by being the only woman to participate in the event. She had a 161.

“I’m pretty new to the sport,” said Hopkins, whose brothers also played in the tournament with their father watching from the sidelines. “My brothers gave me their discs and said I should give it a whirl.”

That’s exactly what Tim Smith hoped would come out of the Waveny Open.

The, “tournament shows that the sport is growing and that people are interested as many families stopped by to watch a hole or two,” Smith said. “This sport is all about having fun and hopefully, more will take it up.”

At first, however, the town of New Canaan was not exactly enamored with the idea of having a disc golf course at Waveny Park.

“It took the town a while to accept the idea because they didn’t know what it would do the environment or if it would disrupt the park’s flow,” Smith said.

The Park and Recreation Commission eventually gave it’s blessing after walking the course and trying it out with Smith.

“We have had nothing but positive feedback,” Smith said. “The course continues to grow in town and we hope it will stay that way.”