The country’s best will be letting fly in Waimate next year after the township was named the host for the 48th NZ National Disc Golf Championships.
The week-long, top-tier tournament will be held at Knottingley Park in March 2026 and will be hosted by the Waimate Disc Golf Club, in collaboration with the Timaru Disc Golf Club and Wānaka Disc Golf.
Waimate Disc Golf Club president Dylan Murray said the club was ecstatic to have had their proposal to host the tournament accepted.
‘‘It’s still a long way away but word is already getting around town and excitement is building. The tournament is capped at 280 players which is double the amount we normally have for our annual Knottingley Giants tournament.
‘‘We always dreamed of [hosting] it. We weren’t sure when we’d be able to make it happen, but the opportunity came up and we got our heads together with the other two clubs and Martin [Galley] from Vortica Disc Golf and we’ve made it happen.
‘‘New Zealand Disc Golf has given us the nod, which is really exciting, because they know the quality of the course we have.’’
He said due to the magnitude of the tournament they would be adding another 18 holes to the park.
‘‘It’s pretty exciting whenever a new course springs up. It’ll only be temporary but it’ll be a blueprint perhaps for expanding to a permanent 36 holes at Knottingley in the future.
‘‘We’ve started planning [for the tournament] now. There’s a significant amount of work in co-ordinating the three clubs, it’ll be a challenge but we’ve done pretty well so far and things are under way.
‘‘As well as the temporary course there is a lot of work like gathering sponsorship and working with PDGA, which is the world governing body for disc golf. We’ve got to meet their standards and make sure everything is the right level for a national tournament.’’
Murray said the sport was going from strength to strength.
‘‘It’s growing, that’s for sure, there’s a lot of people that just play casually, and it’s not just growing here in Waimate but all around the place. There’s a lot of people going and playing for clubs but there’s a bigger number that just play for their own enjoyment.
‘‘New Zealand has two people over at the world champs in Finland at the moment, Francis Orange from Dunedin and Michele Simpson from Christchurch and we’ve had two girls, Sarah Wadsworth and Alison Tweedie, play in the junior world championships in America, and they are both world champions.
‘‘Hopefully we’ll be able to get them all to play at nationals along with the other best players in New Zealand and we’ll definitely have so local representation there as well.’’
