It was a whimsical and colourful end to a very successful disc golf season in Campbell River on Saturday.
Hack’s Sporting Goods hosted the first annual Halloween Disc Howl tournament on a sunny late-October Saturday. Costumed disc golf players were everywhere in the woods around the Campbell River Sportsplex enjoying the sunny weather and the sport.
The day began with two rounds of singles, and then ended with one round of doubles where the top scorer from the singles rounds was teamed up with the bottom scorer, and so on until all players were matched up.
“The whole point of this is to try and raise some money for the local community,” said Austen Hack, manager of Hack’s Sporting Goods before the tournament. “We’re going to give a third to the Campbell River Food Bank, a third to the CR Disc Golf Club, and then a third to Hack’s Sporting Goods to go towards giving out a bunch of prizes. We’re going to be doing a prize for best dressed.”
The $15 entry fee was split between the three recipients.
This is the fourth tournament held by the store this year. They want to continue next year as well, hoping to put on one tournament per month in the non-rainy season. Hopefully, Hack said, that will help grow the sport in Campbell River.
“Over half of the entries are people who have not played in any of our tournaments yet this year,” he said. “We’re seeing people join that we haven’t played with before. It’s always good to see new people out playing. That’s what we’ve been doing at Hacks, we have people come in and get advice on starting out, buying their first discs. We’re seeing a really big improvement for the Campbell River disc golf community, which is really good.”
Over the past year, the Campbell River Disc Golf club has seen membership go from about 40 to over 200. Hack says the pandemic is partly the reason for the increase, and that disc golf is a great way to stay active, while staying socially distant.
“It was what got me through, personally,” he said. “I’m a huge sports guy, hockey and bowling are big in my life, so I was kind of doing disc golf. I turned to it more and more and now it’s just as big as my bowling. It definitely helped.”
“We never know in this world what can happen… so it’s been one thing that lets people not take their time for granted and go out and experience things,” he said.
Awards were given out on Saturday evening, including one to the best dressed player.
Top three for best dressed:
1: Austen Hack as Joker
2: Alicia Tan as Cat Woman
3: Darren Scott as Baseball Player
Congratulations to following three in each
Red division
1: Jadon Grant -18
2: (tied) Austen Hack -17
2: (tied) Wade Walker -17
Blue division
1: Ryan Humphreys. -17
2: Darren Scott. -9
3: David Boewers-4
Senior division
1: Dan Walker -19
Highest rounds
1st round red -10 Austen Hack
1st round blue -9 Ryan Humphreys
2nd round red Jadon Grant and Zak Toews. Both at -11
2nd round blue -8 Ryan Humphreys
Doubles top three
-19 Paul Miller’s team
-18 David Boewers’ team
-18 Darren Scott’s team
Notable mention
Austen Hack and Alicia Tan doubles 5th
This was Alicia’s first time in tourney and fifth ever time playing. She shot a impressive +3 for beginner.
RELATED: Disc golf returns to competitive play
Course improvements drawing more to Campbell River disc golf course
marc.kitteringham@campbellrivermirror.com
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