Carving out a sports niche
Orlando, Clermont among sites for 2020 amateur disc golf championships
Hundreds of disc golf competitors from more than 20 countries will flock to Central Florida next year for an invitation-only event that local organizers expect to carve out a niche in the thriving sports tourism industry.
The Professional Disc Golf Association recently announced the 2020 amateur world championships — a five-day competition — will be held at nine courses in Orlando, Clermont and DeBary.
Landing the event is a payoff for investments Orange and Lake counties and other jurisdictions have made to add tournament-caliber courses in parks used for the increasingly popular sport, in which Frisbee-like discs are flung into chain-link baskets.
One of the big appeals of setting up a disc-golf course is that only minor adjustments are needed to existing outdoor spaces.
A couple of years ago, Clermont put in a temporary course at Lake Hiawatha Preserve to gauge community interest, according to Parks and Recreation Director Scott Davidoff.
Public enthusiasm was immediate and the 18-hole course became a permanent fixture dubbed Champions Pointe.
“As soon as we started breaking ground and putting the first basket in, we had people in the park seeing what it was and wanting to play that very same day,” Davidoff said.
Champions Pointe is part of the Lake County Disc Golf Trail — six courses with locations in Mount Dora and upcoming sites in Eustis, Umatilla and Leesburg.
Lake County commissioners approved $155,000 for the project and the county is footing a portion of the construction cost for the courses, with the remainder paid by the local governments.
Orlando Disc Golf organized the bid with local officials and is hosting the international championship event — a feat that has been in the works for over a decade, according to president Mark Janssen.
The nonprofit organization regularly hosts regional and local tournaments and advocates for course improvements. “We’ve been building for years, with the intent of going after this,” Janssen said. “People around the world will now be aware of the thriving disc-golf scene and quality courses available here in the vacation capital of the world.”
The other event sites — Bill Frederick Park at Turkey Lake in Orlando and River City Nature Park in DeBary — will be spruced up in time before the estimated 800 amateur players arrive for the tournaments.
Another site will include disc-golf courses at Orange County’s Gordon Barnett Park in Pine Hills. The courses are temporarily closed while they receive a $7,000 upgrade, which is due to be complete by the end of spring. The facelift was planned before the championship locations were selected, county officials said.
As with many high-profile sporting events, visiting disc golfers are expected to boost the local economy. For fast-growing Clermont, the tournament also provides an opportunity to attract people with a special interest in health and fitness.
“Being able to host a world championship, it certainly fits with the brand that we have here,” Davidoff said. “We’ve seen multiple times that people who come here for an event or training, end up purchasing real estate here and becoming residents.”