Interest Continued To Grow In Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club

Second Annual Kinder Krusher Competition Was Held Sept. 23

Despite unsavory weather conditions, an array of disc golf players completed in the second annual Kinder Krusher disc golf tournament on Sunday, September 23.

Players of professional and amateur status competed through two rounds of 18 holes at Kinder Farm Park as they attempted to throw their rain-dampened discs into metal baskets.

In just three years, the Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club has grown to more than 100 members. “There’s a lot of growth in Maryland itself,” said Shawn Johnson, the Kinder Krusher tournament director. “I’ve been playing personally for over 10 years now.”

Johnson and the other members of the Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club are part of a larger group: the Professional Disc Golfers Association (PDGA). Highlights from top PDGA competitors can be seen on television, appearing on channels like ESPN.

With many similarities to “ball” golf, which is played with a ball and clubs, Johnson considers learning disc golf to be easier in comparison to its better-known counterpart.

“Learning the fundamental skills are a lot easier,” he said. “I think that’s the biggest appeal of the sport.”

Former Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club president Neil Thompson believes that appeal is only getting stronger. “Disc golf is the fastest-growing sport that no one knows about,” said Thompson, who now serves as the club’s director of facilities.

The PDGA now boasts more than 100,000 registered members. That rise in participation has allowed Kinder Farm Park to host the first disc golf course in Anne Arundel County.

At the Kinder Krusher tournament, the club had its first sold-out tournament. In the Open Division, veteran disc golfer Kevin Gleason defeated Johnson in a seven-hole playoff.

Local sandwich shop Park Deli, located on Benfield Road, supplied food for the Kinder Krusher participants. Meanwhile, online disc golf retailer Daddy’s Disc Golf supplied player packs and awards for the tournament.

“There’s a lot of good courses in Maryland and just above in Northern Virginia and Delaware,” added Johnson, who cited southern Maryland, Salisbury, Seneca Creek in Gaithersburg and Scarboro Hills in Harford County for their quality courses and disc golf clubs.

In an effort to improve the course at Kinder Farm Park, which is maintained entirely by volunteers, the Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club is in the midst of raising money to purchase 36 new concrete tee pads.

“It would significantly improve the course to have real concrete tee pads,” Johnson said.

The project will require about $21,000. So far, the club has raised more than $11,000 through corporate and independent sponsorships, special fundraising tournaments and disc golf merchandise.

“Once we get these tees pads installed, it’s going to change the game completely at Kinder Farm,” Thompson said. “A good tee pad is going to bring in the good players.”

Kinder Farm Disc Club will have a booth at the Kinder Farm Park Fall Harvest Festival on October 13.

“All we want to do is continue to grow the sport,” Thompson said. “Come out and visit us.”

For more information about the Kinder Farm Disc Golf Club or how to donate to the financing of the concrete tee pads, visit www.kfdgc.org.