National competition flying into town

A NATIONAL tournament is set to take place at Ballarat’s new disc golf course at Victoria Park on 31 January.

Matt Hill is a member of the Geelong Disc Golf Club, the Ballarat Ultimate Club and organiser of the Golden City Classic disc golf event.

He said participants of the sport from around the country are excited to play at Victoria’s first, and currently only, public 18-hole course.

“It will be quite a big competition with players coming from Adelaide, Brisbane and then some Ballarat locals that have recently taken up the sport and a lot from Geelong and Melbourne,” Hill said.

“The men’s and women’s national reigning champions will both be playing at the tournament, also a current world champion in the amateur division is coming down from Brisbane, so some of Australia’s best players are travelling to Ballarat for the event.

“The tournament is partnered with the Golden City Classic Ultimate Frisbee Tournament which usually happens that same weekend, but this year, Saturday there’s Ultimate and Sunday there’s disc golf.”

Having only picked up the sport himself in the last six months, Hill said participations rates around the state significantly increased throughout 2020.

“I’m an Ultimate player and I’ve just got into disc golf,” he said.

“Most tournaments we had to cancel last year, so this year is exciting because numbers in disc golf grew substantially during COVID because it is an individual sport that you can play outdoors.

“It’s really good for all those people who started playing last year to actually get along to some tournaments this year.”

Although registrations for the tournament have closed, Hill said for residents who enjoy playing the sport, there’s possibility of a Ballarat-based disc golf club in the horizon.

“The Ballarat Ultimate club who currently run the Golden City Classic Ultimate Frisbee Tournament are looking into it to becoming more of a holistic Frisbee club to offer Disc Golf,” he said.