THE popularity of disc golf continues to propel its way across the Blue Lake city and there is now a new face at the head of the local association.
Mathew Weyers was recently handed the reins as president of the Mount Gambier Disc Golf Club from Ryan Nicholson, who has stepped down to the vice president role after a successful three years as the driving force behind the sport’s growth in the region.
Now Weyers hopes to continue the movement and after a successful start to the 2020-21 season last month there have already been strong numbers within the club.
“Things are looking really good for us as a club,” Weyers said.
“We have got a good growing membership base locally, but we also have a lot of guys from Adelaide who have improved their membership significantly in the last six months.
“They are very eager to come down and join in our competitions because we have a strong field of players at our monthly events.”
This Sunday will be the second round of the local season, which is expected to boast another bumper crowd – weather permitting.
“At this stage we were hoping for around 40 players on Sunday, but I think the weather might squash that a little bit,” Weyers said.
Since the iconic Crater Lakes Disc Golf Park hosted the nation championship last year, word of the unique venue has found its way across the nation.
Weyers hopes that will help maintain the growth of the sport in the Limestone Coast.
“The overall feedback we had from the national event last year was incredible, from players all over Australia,” he said.
“It has created a unique destination for people within the sport to want to visit and tick off their list of courses they have played throughout Australia.
“With low barriers to entry in terms of cost and skill level, it is definitely a sport anyone can take up.”
As part of the original committee which helped form the Mount Gambier Disc Golf Club, Weyers has been with the club since its inception.
Now back on the committee as president, he has plenty of ideas he believes could continue the growth of disc golf in the community.
“We have a pretty good committee and moving forward I think we can continue to raise the membership base,” Weyers said.
“We really want to see a growth in our junior members.
“One of the key things that Ryan has done is have a good gathering of people with both junior and female player numbers – which I think are some of the best in Australia.
“We have got a real good base there to begin with and we are really hoping to grow that over the next couple of years.”
On the list of ideas to spread awareness of the blossoming sport is to bring pop-up events to towns and communities within the South East.
Those would involve temporary basket set ups to provide an introduction to the game and help attract interest from players outside of Mount Gambier.
This Sunday’s league day will kick off at approximately 9.15am with players registration from 8.30am.
All are welcome and those interested can find registration details on club’s Facebook page or at www.mgdg.com.au.
