A steady drizzle wasn’t enough to dampen St. Patricks’ spirits on Saturday with many events drawing crowds. Check inside for lots of photos of the fun.)
One of the largest turnouts came for the first annual Shamrock Shootout as 28 teams from across North Texas came out for the disc golf tournament.
“I thought we’d get about 15 teams,” said Greg Thompson “It was overwhelming for me as I’d never helped organize anything like that.” Thompson said the organizers are grateful to all the club members and volunteers who helped out as well as Dynamic Disc Carrollton, Alex Aguilar and DFW Disc Golf Center sponsoring the event.
“I was worried about the weather, but it didn’t deter anybody from showing up,” he added. Many of the players on the course said they preferred the cooler weather to the triple digit temperatures possible in late summer.
Thompson is one of the founding members of the Dublin Disc Golf Club, who sponsored Saturday’s event. Proceeds from the event are going towards upgrading the course at the city park from nine to 18 holes and getting tee pads and signage on how to play. They are working to get this done with the assistance of the city and Dublin EDC.
The club reportedly plans to make the Shamrock Shootout an annual event and hopes that the full course will be constructed by the 2022 tournament. (Temporary holes were placed around the park Saturday to make a complete course.
Thompson started playing in September of 2018 when Paul Francis took him to the course at the City Park and started showing him how to play.
“The rest is an addiction and history,” Thompson said.
Thompson said the beauty of disc golf is its simplicity.
“Most everybody has thrown a Frisbee, so everyone has a general idea of how to play,” he said.
Spectators on Saturday could notice that each player had a lot more than one disc in their bag. This is because each disc is played for different strengths and distances, much like clubs in traditional golf. Players play a disc for distance at the beginning of each hole and end up with the ‘putter’ if they’re throwing near the basket.
“Each one of those discs has different flight patterns,” Thompson explained. Even though multiple discs are required to fill out a set, Thompson said they are inexpensive enough that players can get a full bag for under $100.
Thompson has been playing locally since his introduction in 2018, but the Dublin Disc Golf group really started catching on in 2020. They meet each Wednesday at 5 p.m. at Dublin City Park, and Thompson said they average 12 players per week and get up to 18.
Those looking for more information can find it at ‘Dublin Disc Golf Club’ on Facebook.
Thompson encourages anyone interested in the sport to join the groups Wednesdays at the park at 5 p.m. or to just get a disc and go to the park to play.