Rock hosts 2015 Professional Disc Golf World Championships

Thousands of disc golf fans from all over the country found their way onto the campus of Slippery Rock University on Saturday in order to watch the final round of the 2015 Professional Disc Golf World Championships. The event began Monday, August 3, and spanned across multiple disc golf courses in the Pittsburgh region, with the front nine holes at SRU determining a champion.

At the end of the day, Paul McBeth won the men’s division, claiming his fourth consecutive world championship. Paige Pierce was named the woman’s division world champion, her third title. Ken Climo was the champion of the Master’s division, his 15th world title.

The 18 hole course on campus at SRU was chosen to serve as the final location for the championships due to its accessibility and degree of difficulty. Event media manager Matt Gregoire said that in the process of picking a course, one must try to find disc golf courses that have big, open spaces so we can have a lot of people packed in and the SRU course is definitely the perfect spot for that.

“You’re doing these long, curvy roads and you get to see a lot of the countryside,” Gregoire said. “Then you get to what seems like a small little town but they have this big beautiful campus and we’re really excited to have the finals here.”

The first thing most people notice when they see Slippery Rock for the first time is how beautiful the campus is, tucked into the rolling hills of Eastern Pennsylvania. The competitors at the event had no shortage of praise to give to both SRU’s campus and its disc golf course. Eleven year pro and 2010 world champion Sarah Cunningham spoke very highly of both. “[The course] was real tough. It definitely favored the long throwers,” Cunningham said. “The campus was absolutely beautiful and such a nice town too. The course was well manicured, tee pads were great. Just a beautiful course.”

“I tell you what, I do a lot of work with universities and the course here is awesome, and the campus is even more impressive,” five time putting champion and four time doubles champion Jay “Yeti” Reading exclaimed. “I walked a round here and thought what a blessing that these students have with all these different activities they can do.”

As excited as the athletes were to compete at SRU, the university was just as excited to host them. Assistant director of athletic communication Tyler McIntosh said that he had not talked to anyone that was not completely impressed with Slippery Rock and its facilities.

“I haven’t talked to many people who haven’t just loved the scenery of the campus, the disc golf hole, the competition level. It’s been a success,” McIntosh said.