BRUCEVILLE, Ind. (WTWO/WAWV)– Austin Sievers and Tyler Sanders are close friends– and avid disc golf players.
The duo wanted more courses around where they live in Knox County, and Sievers said last year, they finally took the initiative into their own hands
“I’ve been coming to Camp Arthur my whole life and always knew it could be a destination course in the area. Tyler and I reached out to the board of directors,” he said. “Just brought the idea to them as an initial income stream by running tournaments.”
The sport is very similar to traditional golf, as players try to make it in the “hole,” in this case a basket, in the least amount of shots.
Chadwick McKenzie has been playing for over a decade. He said the sport has showed enormous growth in the past few years.
“When I started, there were 40-50 players in tournaments,” he said. “Now, we have wait lists that many people long for tournaments that have 140, 150 players in them.”
The idea for the course at Camp Arthur gained traction– and eventually, the two spent the second half of 2022 working on establishing a temporary course at the park. In December, they hosted just over two dozen players from around Indiana in a tournament, mainly to get feedback on the course.
“The feedback was overwhelming, in a positive way,” Sievers said. “ This was the first tournament in Knox County history, so just to be a small part in that is awesome. Tyler and I put a lot of work into this, and to already see the benefits, it’s great.”
The positive response led the board to approving a permanent course on the property. Sievers said they began fundraising for permanent basket and concrete tee boxes about a week ago– and are already halfway to their $10,000 goal.
“We’ve been reaching out to local businesses, and businesses have been reaching out to me and Tyler. We’ve gotten five whole sponsors so far, and we got a company that they’d be donating all the concrete materials, so we’re on the way right track,” Sievers said.
He hopes to open the permanent course sometime in the spring, and soon after, start a local league and get tournaments going. It would be similar to Crossroads Disc Golf– a group that has been going for years in Terre Haute.
McKenzie, the marketing director for the group, said they hosted a tournament this weekend that brought in 100 players, helping raise money for local charities.
“We’re still doing the final calculations and everything, but it will be well over $1,000 for 14th and Chestnut, so we’re really happy about that,” he said. “We just eclipsed over $300,000 for charities and local food banks since 2013.”
Sievers said he can’t wait to work alongside Sanders as they start hosting bigger tournaments like the one in Terre Haute– all apart of their goal to grow the sport in the area.
“Just seeing the community involvement, how many people want to get into the sport, it’s been awesome,” he said. “We definitely weren’t expecting this overwhelming feedback.”
