Maricopa Meadows disc golf tournament ‘tees off’ (video)

The Maricopa Meadows Disc Golf Club kicked off its third annual Maricopa Meadows Open at Maricopa Meadows Park Saturday morning.

The tournament featured some of the best players in the world, as well as a mixture of 135 professional and amateur players. The 54-hole tournament was split up into two days featuring 27 holes each.

The open is an ‘A Tier’ on the professional disc golf schedule, professional disc golfer David Feldberg said. “The first year was a first-year kickoff. I had about 70 or 80 [participants], last year I had 100. This year I have 135, and I could have 235. I just don’t have the property,” he said.

Feldberg was instrumental in bringing the open to Maricopa. Since it began in 2014, the tournament has consistently grown to become one of the largest in the country. If the Maricopa Meadows Disc Golf Club is able to get more space down the road, the open could become a national event.

“Previous events were ‘B Tiers,’ so this is the largest you can have besides a national event,” Feldberg said. “If people in Maricopa wanted to give me another piece of land where I can design a professional course, then we can have this be one of the largest events in the United States with over 200 players.”

The tournament began Saturday morning when Maricopa Mayor Christian Price threw out the first disc. Tournament participants then “teed off” at 10:45 a.m. to start competitive play.

Disc golfers from around the world came to Maricopa to participate in the two-day event. The open marks the first “Tier A” Professional Disc Golf Association tournament of the year and serves as a warmup for many competitors.

“The disc golf community is worldwide,” Brenner said. “We don’t have a large number of supporters in Maricopa yet, but we expect 135 people from around the globe to come participate.”

The tournament continues today.