Men and women of all ages straggle up to a white-roofed pavilion in Akron's Roland Memorial Park.
Spencer Herrick of San Diego throws a disc in the U.S. Open Flying Disc Championships at Loyd Roland M
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Disc golfers take aim for the next basket on the Akron course.
Dan "Stork" Roddick prepares to throw a disc during the U.S. Open Flying Disc Championship in Akron We
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The official disc of the U.S. championships.
Each is awaiting a turn to throw a Frisbee or other flying disc into a metal basket.
It's part of disc golf. The rules are similar to traditional golf, except competitors use flying discs instead of golf balls and aim for metal baskets instead of holes in the ground.
Disc golf is one of seven events being held at this year's U.S. Open Flying Disc Championships, which a has drawn 50 competitors from around the nation to Lancaster County this week.
Flying disc competitionThe competition began Monday and run through Saturday. The competition's seven events alternate primarily between Cocalico High School, in Denver, and Roland Memorial Park.
The competition is something people have been looking to for a while.
"I kinda plan my summer around this week," said 59-year-old Paul Thompson, of Edina, Minn.
The last U.S. Open Flying Disc Championships were held in Dallas, Texas, 10 years ago. Local tournament director William Geibel said that, to his knowledge, this is the first time the tournament has been held in Lancaster County.
Geibel, of Lititz, said people are drawn to the tournament for many reasons.
"There's no doubt people want to win and compete," he said. "I've been doing disc golf for 16 to 17 years, and what's been important for me is the camaraderie. Back in the day, you'd go to an event to see people."
Many of the tournament's competitors, Geibel said, are men in their 40s to 60s who have been playing since the sport's inception.
The sport dates to 1964, when the late "Steady" Ed Headrick invented the Frisbee for WHAM-O toy company. WHAM-O owned the "Frisbee" name, and Headrick wanted to start a separate sport, so he invented "Disc Pole Hole," the basket now used for disc golf, according to newspaper records.
Skeeter Hoffman, a 55-year-old assistant tournament director from Exeter, said he first tried the sport more than 30 years ago and fell in love with it immediately.
"It was something that I was good at," he said. "I picked it up and threw it well the first time."
It didn't hurt that all you had to pay for was the flying disc, he added.
Hoffman invited the public to watch the remaining events. Friday's first event begins at 8 a.m. and its last one at 1:30 p.m. Both were tentatively scheduled to happen at Cocalico High School. Saturday's first event begins at 9 a.m. and the last one at 2 p.m. Both are tentatively set for Cocalico High School, South 4th Street, Denver.
Other events in the weeklong competition include self caught flight, which measures both how far contestants can throw the disc and how long the disc stays aloft; accuracy; distance; discathon, where participants throw their discs through an obstacle course; double disk court, in which pairs toss a disk back and forth; and freestyle, in which participants perform acrobatic tricks with their discs.
Staff writer Liz Navratil can be reached at lnavratil@LNPnews.com or 481-6014.
