A chance perusal of a local Facebook group revealed a band of Cairn students’ dedication to a fun community sport: disc golf. When avid disc golfers Andrew Gordon ’16 and Andrew Allers ’15/G’20 scanned a list of names volunteering to adopt a hole at Tyler State Park’s 36-hole course, they discovered the group “Cairn University Men’s Disc Golf” signed up for hole 13.
Considering that the University did not have a disc golf team, Gordon and Allers were surprised to find an organized group of current Cairn students and alumni. After some research, they discovered the group’s leader, Cameron Cronk ’23. Speaking to why the group decided to adopt the hole, Cronk said he wanted the community “to know the interest Cairn had in disc golf as well as help with the cleanup and upkeep at Tyler.”
Over the years, this sport has garnered particular interest as a favored community pastime at Cairn. There are 16 Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) registered courses under 30 miles from campus, including the highly ranked Tyler State Park course. But rather than having to take a drive to play the game, these Cairn students dreamed of having the community sport on campus. The “Cairn University Men’s Disc Golf” group became an official club and collaborated with several University staff members to make their dream of an on-campus course into a reality. After a year of organizing, the team was able to utilize available University funds for their project and installed nine holes in the woods on campus over the course of four spring and summer work days in 2021. They hope the course will gain enough popularity to warrant an expansion into a full 18- or 27-hole course in the future.
With an on-campus course, many communities in and outside of Cairn will be able to use disc golf as a means of furthering fellowship. The course is open to the public, and the club aims to have weekly tournaments on Saturdays that will be open to all.
Club President Cameron Cronk expressed enthusiasm over the opportunity to expand community on campus: “Because we now have a course on campus, we have an amazing opportunity for diverse community building and more activities to participate in on weekends . . . It excites me greatly to have something on campus all students can go outside and enjoy during their downtime that advocates for community!”