A local disc golfer was part of Canada’s gold-medal-winning team at the World Team Disc Golf Championships.
Sixteen-year-old Squamish resident Erik Wendland helped his team throw, lob and toss discs to victory in the tournament late in August against Finland.
For those unfamiliar with the sport, think of golf, but played with discs.
Players heave discs across courses that can sometimes be filled with obstacles such as wooded areas and water hazards until they strike the final target – the basket, which is outfitted with chains to absorb the shock of the discs.
Currently, there are approxmiately 35,600 active members of the Professional Disc Golf Association worldwide and the game is played in 40 countries.
The sport originated in the 1900s and the first ever game was played in Saskatchewan in 1926, according to a disc golf association.
For Wendland, who started playing when he was 11 years old, perhaps the biggest key to success in the sport is mental toughness.
Like in traditional golf, physical strength is a big asset when hurling the discs, but it is often the minute calculations to navigate a course that will determine victory or defeat.
For example, one big obstacle that Wendland had to face during the competition was throwing the disc over a body of water.
Adding to the difficulty was the fact that it was framed by willow trees and other vegetation.
Wendland had to throw it at just the right angle to avoid hitting the obstacles, while also taking care to calculate the exact distance to get it past the small lake.
If the disc falls into the water hazard, it invokes the same stroke penalties that would occur in traditional golf.
“Mentally preparing for the course – it can get rough out there,” said Wendland. “If you don’t play that well on the course, you’re going to break.”
“I kind of kept it cool the whole way,” he said. “I didn’t really have any peaks.”
A lot of preparation goes into having a successful performance. Wendland wound up doing the course ahead of time so that he could scout out the challenges before tackling the competition.
That kind of self-starting initiative is part of what draws him to the sport.
He said he enjoys disc golf because for the most part, it’s a solo affair.
“It’s something I can look at still as an individual sport where I can rely on my shots just as golf,” said Wendland. “It’s unique, it’s new and competitive.”
“It’s the excitement you get out of it,” he added.
