KANSAS CITY, KAN. ----- The Professional Disc Golf Association and the Kansas City Flying Disc Club are pleased to announce that the 2014 Kansas City Wide Open will be held from June 20-22 at five different disc golf courses around the Kansas City area.
The courses used will be Blue Valley Park, Swope Park, Rosedale, Water Works Park and Wyandotte County Park. The tournament is sanctioned by the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) as one of eight premier events in the 2014 PDGA National Tour Elite Series.
The PDGA is the international governing body for the sport of disc golf, and sanctions well over 1,900 tournaments in 49 states and 25 countries each year for professional and amateur disc golfers.
Sixty Professional disc golfers, both men and women, will compete in the tournament for an estimated total cash purse of $20,000 and NT Elite Series points which are accumulated for end of year awards and cash bonuses. An additional 130 competitors will compete in a concurrent SuperTour event at the same locations.
The tournament format will have competitors playing 1 round of 18 holes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. The Pro lead group will begin final round play on Sunday, June 22 at 3:30 at Swope Park in Kansas City. Admission is free.
“The PDGA is very pleased to return to the Kansas City area for KC Wide Open," said
PDGA Executive Director Brian Graham. "The KC Flying Disc Club has consistently hosted one of the top events on the PDGA Tour each year and we are pleased to have the KC Wide Open as part of the 2014 National Tour Elite Series.”
A disc golf clinic will be conducted from 5 p.m. -6 p.m. at the Swope Park Disc Golf Course near the pro shop by some of the PDGA Tour’s top professional competitors. The clinic is sponsored by the Professional Disc Golf Association and is free to anyone interested in receiving instruction or learning about the exciting sport of disc golf.
Disc Golf, or Frisbee™ Golf as it is more commonly known, is one of the fastest growing sports in the United States with over 3,500 courses in existence and many more being installed each year.
The sport is played using the same general rules, terminology and etiquette as traditional golf, but instead of using a club to hit a ball into a hole in the ground, the player throws a high-tech flying disc into a standardized target. Most courses are comprised of 18 par rated holes with diverse terrain and natural obstacles and the object, just as in traditional golf, is to play in as few throws of the disc as possible.
Serious competitors carry a bag of approximately 10-15 discs, each one having a different flight characteristic, but the sport can be played with only one disc. Golf discs are very different in design from the Frisbee™ you play catch with and can be skillfully thrown by the sports top professional players as far as 500’ with amazing pinpoint accuracy.
For additional information, contact tournament director, Dick Parker at (816) 471-3472.
