Strathmore residents may notice a few more people out in the green spaces around town this weekend as the largest disc golf event in Canada is set to take place. Strathmore is host to the Alberta Disc Golf Provincial Championships this year and over 140 disc golfers will be in town to take part, the group will have the players split into smaller groups over two days to ensure safety and proper social distancing guidelines are met.

Todd Kennedy, Strathmore Disc Golf Club Director and Tournament Director for the Championships, explained what this weekend will look like, “So we will have 146 disc golfers from all over Alberta and some from B.C. and even Saskatchewan coming to complete and play a lot of disc golf right here in Strathmore.”

When asked how Strathmore got the opportunity to host Provincials Kennedy said, “Strathmore has a really good history of doing a great job of hosting disc golf events. Every year we’ve hosted at least one or two or sometimes six different events that people from all over the province visit.” Since the town has been such a gracious host before, they were asked to host this year’s Provincials to which the club responded with a resounding yes.

The course has grown a lot in popularity over the years and Kennedy said that people have been on the course all week practicing for the upcoming tournament. He said people have been out on the course until dark practicing with people driving in from out of town to practice as well.

Kennedy said they are very excited to be able to host the championships on their own course because it brings in a lot of people and shows them what the Strathmore course has to offer. Kennedy said the club has been working hard to make the course fun and engaging for the tournament.

“A couple of our people from the Strathmore Disc Golf Club have made some pretty big and substantial changes to the course over the last week. As people come and play they discover that this course is even more different than the last time they played and much more fun so we are going to have a riot,” he said.

Strathmore will be well represented in the tournament as about 20 to 30 of the players are local says Kennedy. The tournament will be broken up into two days with around 70 advanced to pro players playing on Saturday and around the same number of amateurs and other groups will play on Sunday.

According to Kennedy, Strathmore is home to a large group of really good players. “Strathmore has a bunch of really good players. Typically the Strathmore players place in the top five, sometimes top three and even win various divisions throughout the province,” said Kennedy.

Kennedy invites residents in the area to come out and watch some of the players this weekend, “There’s plenty of great places to watch where there’s plenty of social distancing but also comfortable spots to sit at a picnic table or a bench and watch just some incredible throws.”

Last year at least half of the division winners in the province were from Strathmore explained Kennedy.

Lastly, Kennedy wants to thank the community for all the support the club has received this year through sponsorships and members of the club itself stepping up to make the course better.