About a dozen disc golfers from Prince of Wales Island sent discs flying across the beach and muskeg during the island’s first-ever tournament on Aug. 9. It was also the official debut for Coffman Cove’s first course.
The sport has become more popular in Southeast Alaska over the past few years, as previously reported by KTOO and KHNS. The new addition marks the 11th disc golf course in Southeast Alaska.
“It’d be fun to have one in every community around here. There’s a lot of good area for it,” said player Corby Weyhmiller. “You can play pretty much year-round, and doesn’t take too much to get into it, [just a] few bucks for some discs.”
The tournament, called The Sodgrass Fling, was part of the annual Arts in the Cove: A Festival by the Sea. It got its name from one of the course’s builders, Gary Soderberg. He said he started playing disc golf about four years ago, traveling to the course in Craig, previously the only other course on Prince of Wales Island.
It was a long process to get the Coffman Cove course up and running. Soderberg had to get approval from the U.S. Forest Service and the city on his proposed course map before breaking ground. He then spent a few months installing the 10 baskets and connecting them all with trails.
“There’s still a lot to do, but he made it usable for today,” said Jean Soderberg, Gary’s wife.
The sport is played similarly to golf, but with raised metal baskets instead of holes in the ground. And of course, it’s played with discs instead of balls. The discs are a bit smaller than the typical frisbee tossed around in a park or in a game of ultimate frisbee. Like golf, there are different types for different distances.
The Coffman Cove course is a “disc-eating” course, meaning it’s easy to lose your disc in the dense foliage.
Par for the course is 31, or about three tosses per hole. The tournament day was a bit tricky, though, with most players finishing above par. Weyhmiller, the winner, was the only one to finish under, with a score of 29.
Soderberg announced him and the other top finishers onstage at Arts in the Cove later that day.
“It wouldn’t happen without him,” Weyhmiller said of Soderberg at the awards ceremony. “This guy has just been really making big things happen here on the island.”
