Nashville held its first PDGA Music City Open

Disc Golf has not been around as long as golf but it still gains a large fan base for starting over 200 years after golf did. During the Easter Weekend, Nashville held its first PDGA Music City Open. It was a huge success for it being over the Easter weekend, there was a good turnout of fans. How did disc golf begin?

Brief History

Disc Golf is a sport that is under 75 years old. “Steady” Ed  Sappenfield is known as the founder of Disc golf with his creation of the Professional Disc Golf Association, the first course and the idea for the chained hole in 1975. The first course was created in Pasadena, California with Dave Dunipace designing the first disc golf disc five years later. Since then Disc Golf has blossomed into a well-known sport with players coming from all over the world such as Simon Lizotte who is from Germany, Paul McBeth who is from the United States, and Kristin Tattar who is from Estonia.

Music City Open

Over the Easter Weekend, Nashville held its first PDGA Music City Open at Mill Ridge Park in Antioch, Tennessee. This is not the first Music City Open, but this is the first one at the professional level. Before this year, it was a silver tournament, while most the PDGA tournaments are all gold level. Herd Media attended the first-ever professional disc golf tournament that Good Friday, and it was so awesome getting to see some of the greats of the sport compete in the sport.

Simon Lizotte, from Germany, took home first place in the Male Tournament with a masterful final score of -23. Simon ended up moving up four spots to take home the gold in the final round of the Music City Open. Simon Lizotte received $8,000 for his win in the Music City Open. Here are some of his highlights: 

Kristin Tattar from Estonia took home first place in the Female tournament with a final score of -7. Kirstin ended up moving up one spot to win the Music City Open in the final round. Kristin received $8,000 for her win in the tournament. Here are some of her highlights:

The majority of the stars struggled through the tournament like two-time PDGA World Tour Winner Paul McBeth who tied for 25th with a score of -11 while the same was said for the female five time World Tour Champ, Paige Pierce who tied for 27th place with an ugly score of +15.

The weather was not kind to the stars and was a major factor especially in the first round of both the womens and mens tournament, It was a raw, overcast day with lots of wind and occasional rain. In the first round of the women’s round only four of the 50 women had a par or under, with Kirstin leading the way with -4. In the men’s first round only 55 of the 115 men had a -1 or under with Kansas Native Luke Humphries leading the pack with -7. In the next two days the weather was much nicer to the stars as they had sunny skies with a few clouds and some occasional wind.

The Music City Open has taken place before but this is the first time it is a golf course, which means it’s now a professional PDGA course. The Music City Open has taken place since 2010. Before, it was just a basic course where anyone could join, now you need to sign up and be one of the best to take part in this tournament. I found out from a bystander that I watched a few holes with “This course is actually not a real course that anyone could come and play after the tournament, following the end of the Music City Open, the holes are packed up and taken away.” Cool thing was that when I was interacting with the bystander and his friend the friend told me “I went to school with Raven Newsom and actually played a few tournaments here in Nashville with him.” Disc Golf tournaments are an easy way to meet the stars, get autographs and see your favorite players crush it.

What does this mean for the Music City?

Jacob Landgraf who is a freshman here at Lipscomb from Westminster, Colorado is a fellow disc golfer and he gives his take on what this means for Nashville, “I think that it’s great that Nashville hosted the Music City Open. It brings more attention to professional disc golf as a whole, and in such as beautiful setting as well.” He also believes that Nashville should continue to hold the Music City Open

What is next for the PDGA?

Paul McBeth, Eagle McMahon, Paige Pierce, Simon Lizotte finish out their Play It Again Sports Jonesboro Open in Jonesboro, AR tomorrow. After 2 days of the tournament, Virginia native James Conrad and Colorado Native Eagle McMahon lead the men’s tournament with a score of -26. While in the women’s tournament Arkansas native Kat Mertsch leads the pack with a score of -17. Following the completion of the tournament tomorrow, the PDGA will have a few weeks off before they begin the OTB Open in Stockton, California on May 12th. The PDGA Music City Open will become an annual tradition for years to come.