More Than 60 Players On Hand for Inaugural Lake Sara Disc Golf Tourney

(HOW WOULD YOU LIKE TO TRY THIS SHOT?)

More than 60 players were on hand Saturday for the inaugural Lake Sara Disc Golf Tournament. 

The event drew experienced players as well as several who just wanted to try their hand at playing the increasingly popular sport. 

Ben Ruholl of EDGE (Effingham Disc Golf Evangelists) organized the event. The course is nearing completion and just needs a little more foot traffic. Saturday's event helped address that need. 

Disc Golf at its basic level involves throwing a disc into a basket. Once you play, you find there's a lot more to it than that. A player can use a few discs or an assortment of discs including drivers, mid range discs and putters, and depending on the discs, you can make them bank toward the basket, fly straight, or even roll toward the basket. 

Saturday's event, though, was introductory and those gathered, adults and children, appeared to have a blast. Ruholl had even secured free discs to give to beginning players, as well as mini-discs as souvenirs.

(TOURNAMENT MANAGER BEN RUHOLL WITH INTERMEDIATE DIVISION WINNER ERIC BUSH AND RECREATIONAL DIVISION WINNER BEN KELLER)

Roughly, the turnout included 36 regular players and 27 beginners. The winners, by division, were:

ADVANCED--Alex Schimmelpfenning -7

INTERMEDIATE--Eric Bush -10

RECREATIONAL--Ben Keller -8

There were even two aces (baskets-in-one) by Schimmelpfenning on Hole 3 and by Zeb Berry on Hole 1. 

Greg Sapp spoke with Ben Ruholl about the tournament, the course, and Disc Golf in general. The "Gary" to whom he refers is Gary Welton who did much of the design work on the course. Welton is an avid disc golfer and is a member of EDGE...

All-in-all, a fun way to spend Saturday morning and to let more people see the early work on the Lake Sara Forever project to develop the Pearson Peninsula at the lake as an attraction.

(LAKE SARA FOREVER PARKS AND RECREATION COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN TOM RYAN)

Tom Ryan, who chairs the Parks and Recreation Committee for Lake Sara Forever, hopes the first phase of the Pearson Peninsula project should be dedicated in July, sometime after the 4th of July holiday.