As Ron Rice was out and about on Wednesday he saw a class of Hays middle school students throwing discs around the nine-hole Rolling Hills Park Disc Golf Course at 41st Street and Autumn Lane.
“It’s nice to see,” Rice said. “The P.E. teacher is teaching them disc golf.”
Rice has been playing the sport — what old-timers refer to as Frisbee golf — since he was in college at Fort Hays State University in the late 1970s. A lot has changed since those early days.
He is one of 132 disc golf players registered so far for the 34th Annual Frontier Open at the Flying Bison Disc Golf Course in Frontier Park. And hopefully it won’t just be golfers on the course.
“They really like it when people come out to watch,” Rice said.
The three-day tournament is set for Sept. 7, 8 and 9, at a course that is considerably more challenging than Rolling Hills. The Flying Bison course has 21 permanent holes sprinkled throughout the 75-acre city park.
Attendance at the tourney this year is likely to break the 2016 record of 136 golfers, said Brett Straight, Hays, tournament director for a number of years.
“It looks like we’ll be setting another record,” said Straight. “We have room for 180 and I’m really hoping we’ll get 150 or 160.”
(Read more: News – The Hays Daily News)