A Look Back on 2023

First of all, I'd like to say thank you to everyone that made 2023 an amazing year for disc golf on PEI and for the continued growth of Island Disc Golf Company! A big thank you to all that we've worked with and partnered with, the communities we were able to offer clinics in, our Team Members and as always my family!

It was a very busy year with everything disc golf but even more importantly it was a busy year for our family! We welcomed in to the world our 2nd child, a baby boy named Casey! We are beyond grateful for our little family!

I won't take up too much of your time but I would like to highlight a couple of our bigger and more fun events throughout 2023 including our Winter Putting Leagues, the Night Nine Glow Tournament and the Discmania Open!

Our Winter Putting Leagues were another amazing success with lots of participants! We partnered with Throw Your Own Way for the up west league in Ellerslie run by Julia and Craig Campbell and in Charlottetown we hooked up with the PEI Brewing Company to host league night. Up West we had consistently around 20 participants and in Charlottetown we had a whopping 40 people signed up and attending each week! These putting leagues are a great opportunity to get out during the cold winter months to practice some putting but also to socialize with those in the community! There are prizes given out every week and larger prize packs that go out to the winners of each division at the end! The best part about IDGC running these leagues is that we are able to stretch your dollar to allow for the most and best prizes possible. These are not money making leagues and every dollar that comes in we use towards prizes at a wholesale cost so that we break even. The feedback we get every from the participants is always strong and it makes it fun to run these year after year!

 The next event that I want to highlight is our annual Night Nine Glow Disc Golf Tournament that we held in Stratford for the 3rd straight year! What a blast it was once again with over 50 participants of all ages and skill levels that came out in costume. We lit up the night (and the fairways) with a TON of Jack O'Lanterns that everyone carved. There were a bunch of amazing prizes donated from a whole bunch of local businesses, prize packs for all the winners and I believe we had enough to make random draws so that about 40 of 50 people were able to win something! For the 2nd year in a row we even had custom discs made with a custom Night Nine stamp done by Dylan McQuaid Design. It was stamped on the Thought Space Athletics Aura Omen and the Ethereal Mantra!

The tournament each year is held at the course around the Town Hall and this year with the new, permanent baskets installed (by Wally and Jeff) it made a HUGE difference to that course and to our event! We add one extra hole to make it a 10 hole course and then everyone plays 3 rounds and you take your best 2 to determine your score. We had 4 different divisions this year with several Junior players and a bunch of beginners which is really great to see. Fun things like this are a great way to grow the fun side of the sport and to showcase it to those that haven't played before!

This is one event that I hope to continue to run for a long time and it would be fun to see it grow and find it's way in to other communities!