Farragut Fling disc golf tourney attracts large crowd

BAYVIEW — A morning round of rain didn’t stop an inaugural disc golf tournament from attracting 40 participants at Farragut State Park.

“The tournament went great,” said tournament director Ben Squires, who won the Open pro division with a two-round score of -8. “I’m glad we got a lot of disc golfers that were new to tournaments. I’m really excited with the numbers we got.”

Squires said the Farragut Fling tournament series was intended to provide beginners an opportunity to participate at the tournament level, while letting pros prepare for the bigger tournaments. Squires travels to Missoula in two weeks to defend his title at the Zoo Town Open, one of the region’s largest disc golf tournaments.

“I’ve been practicing hard to prepare for it, and this was a good confidence booster going into defending that title in two weeks,” Squires said.

Though Squires won the tournament, he didn’t shoot the lowest round. Michael Leslie, who participated and won in the age-restricted Masters pro division reserved for golfers over the age of 40, finished at -10.

“Not bad for an old guy,” Leslie said.

The only other player to post a score was Rick Provost, who shot -3 in the Grandmasters pro division, which is reserved for golfers over the age of 50. In the amateur divisions, Mark Elmore won Advanced division with a +2, Mike Davis won Advanced Grandmasters with +39, Patrick McLaughlin won Intermediate with +18, Dani Peterson won Intermediate Women with +35 and Page Jenkins won Recreational with +32.

The Farragut Fling series continues June 17 at Farragut State Park with two rounds at Wreckreator. Players can register at pdga.com or the day of the event.