Ice Bowl
Players gather at EL?park for disc golf competitionBy MICHAEL D. McELWAIN (mmcelwain@reviewonline.com
Article Photos
Fact Box
About Disc Golf
According to the Professional Disc Golf Association:
- Disc golf is played much like traditional golf.
- Instead of a ball and clubs, however, players use a flying disc, or Frisbee.
- The sport was formalized in the 1970s, and shares with "ball golf" the object of completing each hole in the fewest number of strokes (or, in the case of disc golf, fewest number of throws).
- A golf disc is thrown from a tee area to a target which is the "hole."
- The hole can be one of a number of disc golf targets, and the most common is called a Pole Hole or an elevated metal basket.
- As a player progresses down the fairway, he or she must make each consecutive shot from the spot where the previous throw has landed.
- The trees, shrubs, and terrain changes located in and around the fairways provide challenging obstacles for the golfer.
- Finally, the "putt" lands in the basket and the hole is completed.
By MICHAEL D. McELWAIN
EAST LIVERPOOL - Like last year, the local "Ice Bowl" lived up to its name Sunday.
Some 36 players gathered at Thompson Park at around 9:30 a.m. and took on the frozen tundra in one of the fastest growing sports in the country - disc golf.
The local Ice Bowl, part of a national event, is now in its sixth year.
Despite the history-making snowstorms of late, everything went off without a hitch.
"The park's superintendent, Robb Kenny, shoveled snow off the tee pads, and I shoveled a circle around the baskets," event organizer Kelsey Hedrick said while walking around and checking on participants Sunday. "As for everything in between the tee pad and the hole? They're on their own," he added with a grin.
Players had to break through a top sheet of frozen snow and trudge through the softer snow beneath to find their disc.
The top sheet of frozen snow ended up helping players.
"If it was all fluffy snow, the disc disappears in the snow, but this crust surface means the disc often stays atop all the snow," Hedrick said. "It's not sinking in as deep."
Bill Rohrey, a Steubenville resident who made his way to the Thompson Park competition, agreed that Sunday's playing conditions in East Liverpool were better than at a similar tournament in Steubenville last week.
"The discs were going under every time," Rohrey said. "We had to have a lot of spotters along the course."
On Sunday, one weather-related change was made, however. Due to the danger, the back nine holes were not used, and players went through the top nine course twice.
The local event was part of a national effort to let people know about disc golf and to support local charities. In January of 1987, the first disc golf Ice Bowl took place at Albert-Oakland Park in Columbia, Mo.
After the competition in the park, the group retreated to American Legion Post 374 on Park Way for food and to enter the prize drawings.
"It's all about having a good time and helping out others," Hedrick said.
(Note: More information on the Ice Bowl, including additional photos and a list of the winners, will appear in this Sunday's Riverstyle.)
