Disc golf team growing steadily in numbers, lowering scores across the board

One positive effect of the pandemic was a surge in interest in outdoor sports that allow social distancing, such as disc golf, and Liberty University's men's and women's teams have been beneficiaries of that boom.

"The last few years since COVID, it's been an amazing turnout from people wanting to be a part of it," Flames and Lady Flames Head Coach Steve Bowman said.

"We are expecting about 1,000 players at (College Disc Golf (CDG)) nationals this year, so seeing our numbers reflect that growth, too, is empowering, especially on the women's side," added graduate Julia DiMartino, who also serves as an academic mentoring assistant to Club Sports student-athletes. "We love having new girls this season, teaching them how to play in general and how to play on a competitive level."

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Outside of Liberty, DiMartino has played in 13 tournaments since turning professional in 2021, winning six of them. She is not in it for the money, however, but to use the sport as a platform to share her faith.

"Having the understanding that everything we do is for the glory of God, we want to do it in excellence," DiMartino said. "Thankfully, we have that skill and those talents that God blesses us with so we can perform well, but at the end of the day, there is that ultimate mission of just reaching people, and thankfully, we get to do it at a high level."

The weekend after qualifying its Division II men's team and its top women's tandem of DiMartino and senior Maggie Presley for the April 3-6 CDG National Championships in Rock Hill, S.C., at the Oct. 21-22 Pennsylvania Regional Championship, Liberty entered 15 players into the Battle For Bedford Professional Disc Golf Tournament on Oct. 27-29.

That event, featuring players from around the country, was played on the New London Disc Golf Course and the back nine of the Ivy Hill Golf Club in Forest, two of the courses that will be utilized for both the March 16-17 Flamethrower Regional and the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) World Championships, to be held for the first time in Virginia from Aug. 21-25.

Senior Clayton Lewis finished tied for 12th in the professional division of the Battle for Bedford with sophomore Jonah Burdick tied for 18th and graduate Tim Schmidt tied for 48th.

"Coach Bowman does a great job when it comes to making sure that we're practicing and putting the work in," Burdick said, primarily referring to preparing for collegiate tournaments. "That hard work and that work ethic has really helped us especially at the DI, DII, DIII, and the women's levels to stay at the top when it comes to the rankings."

Bowman said the team continues to raise its expectations as it looks to challenge for national championships at the highest levels of the collegiate game.

"Our goals are always in front of us and we have that ideal of where we want to be," Bowman said. "We have a game plan leading into tournaments we're going to be playing in the fall … to see what we can do to develop as a team early on this year."

"The fall is just really about figuring out what exactly we are doing wrong and what we need to work on more," Flames graduate Andrew Sherwood added. "We want to be able to iron out those kinks and … see what we can carry into the spring and kind of focus on nationals in the spring and some of our other (national) qualifier events like Flamethrower, to do be able to do well at those tournaments."

By Ted Allen/Staff Writer; Video by Kylee Lilge/Club Sports Video & Media Coordinator

Disc golf team growing steadily in numbers, lowering scores across the board

Players Mentioned

Jonah Burdick

Clayton Lewis

Maggie Presley

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