Sand Springs disc golfers hold River City Send-Off
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For the first time since the Ray Brown era, Sand Springs hosted a disc golf mini tournament Saturday. Local golfers Dwight Griffis and Taylor Dutto organized the event as a send-off for the River City course at Case Community Park, which will soon be removed and replaced with a new layout.
The existing 18-hole course is the third disc golf course in Sand Springs history. It opened in 2017 as part of a $6 million park renovation and was designed in collaboration with local Tulsa Disc Sports Association (TDSA) members. It will soon be replaced with a new professional design by 2009 World Champion Avery Jenkins.
Although local players are excited for the upcoming redesign, many are also nostalgic to see the existing layout come to an end. Dozens of players participated in the River City Send-Off on Saturday, which marked the first competitive event in Sand Springs since before the Ray Brown Park nine-hole course was removed in 2012.
22 players participated in a “flip-dubs” event in the morning, where players of all skill levels are randomly matched in teams of two. Zachary Schumacher and Andrew Rock won that event with a score of 42, twelve strokes under par.
From 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. 24 golfers played singles rounds in two divisions. Tommy Agent won the Open division with a score of 43 to lead a field of 13 pro players. Pete Shipley won the amateur division with a score of 48 in a field of eleven players. The event added out-of-bounds penalties to many holes, preventing players from throwing across sidewalks. That, combined with winds gusting as high as 40 m.p.h. made the course much tougher than usual.
The event organizers plan to make the mini tournaments a weekly occurrence once the new course is installed, though those events likely won’t begin till the Spring due to the limited amount of daylight in wintertime. Both the Pro and Am divisions paid cash to the winners on Saturday, but amateurs will most likely be playing for discs at future events. No aces were thrown on Saturday, and that $230 ace pot will carry over to the next event. If attendance increases at future events, more amateur divisions may be added to separate intermediate and advanced players from novices. The minis will also serve as a fundraiser for future course improvements and maintenance.
The new course is nearing completion and the Parks Department has been hard at work this week planting new trees to both increase difficulty on some holes, and to help protect sidewalks from errant throws. Benches and trash cans were also added. New concrete tee pads have been poured, and turf will be added to them in the next week. The new course will feature all new baskets and signage, and will play in new areas along the river and under the Highway 97 bridge. The existing course won’t be removed until the new one is fully installed.
