Last year our family went to our first professional disc golf tournament in Portland. We had such a great time that when we heard about the tour stopping closer to home in Shelton, WA, we quickly bought tickets.
The day was extremely wet at home but thankfully, the tournament happened to be in the rain shadow for the Olympic Mountains. The winds were very strong, but it was warm enough to make for a pleasant day outside. We arrived about an hour before the leaders teed off and stayed through the event.
One highlight for us was seeing Simon Lizotte who wasn’t at the previous tournament. Elijah was also very excited to see Niklas Anttila. Niklas was defending a tournament win at this course from last year but unfortunately wasn’t able to string together enough good holes to contend for the win this year.
When we arrived, we took a lap around the spectator areas getting a feel for the course and watching a few of Niklas’s holes. Then we made our back to the start of the course and watched the lead groups come through. This course looked fun to play but since it was mostly in the woods, it was much more difficult to watch as a spectator. There were way less people at this one which helped, but I think part of the lower attendance might be because there just weren’t many spots to get a really good view of the action.
Towards the end of the day, we parked ourselves at the end of the course and Elijah collected as many autographs as he could. He got a signature from Niklas on one of Niklas’s custom-stamped discs and then loaded up a second disc with signatures from most of the players in the last ~5 groups.
It was another good experience and the whole event was very family friendly, but next year I think I’ll eyeball the course a little more to see what the spectator experience is like. If it’s another wooded course, it might be worth paying for the VIP ticket which lets you follow behind the players on the course.
