It would come down to a four-hole playoff to secure the K-State Disc Golf Club’s early DI bid to the College Disc Golf National Championships in October 2025.
Six months later, the group, along with the team’s DII and DIII qualifiers, would pile into their vehicles to make the 1,000-mile trek to the National Championships in Rock Hills, South Carolina.
“We were definitely the underdog, KSUDGC vice president Owen Fitzgerald said. “We really weren’t supposed to walk out of there with a bid, and all four of us had some incredible shots and just played our hearts out and snagged it at the last second.”
Despite the team’s recent success, they haven’t always been Nationals-bound. They had struggled to roster enough players to compete on the College Disc Golf circuit.
“My freshman year, the club kinda died off, and there wasn’t much of a passing of the torch,” senior club president Tyler Price said.
Since the club is student-led, it relied on hardworking athletes, determined to continue in their sport, to grow and revitalize the program. This came with hours of course time and continued community involvement.
“We actually didn’t compete at all my freshman year,” Price said. “Then we completely rebuilt it my sophomore year, and since then we’ve been to Nationals the last three years, which has been really fun.”
Since then, the team has steadily retained players and interest. Over 30 disc golfers tried out for the team this year, and the full 12-player National Championships roster was filled for the second consecutive season.
“We have weekly leagues on Fridays at Fairmont Park, and the same group of people, even the people who aren’t on the team, who just aren’t interested in that aspect of disc golf still go to those leagues and it’s really good bonding, especially after a long week of classes it’s just a cool time to relax and play some disc golf,” said Fitzgerald.
The club has become a community — one that feels like family to many of its members.
“Me and a couple of others were kinda thinking, ‘Man, I don’t know how long this team’s gonna last,’ and then we got people like Owen and a generation under,” Price said. “Just how quickly these guys have been able to become part of this disc golf family has been really cool to see from my view.”
The club contributes to the Manhattan and Kansas disc golf communities by hosting events to involve supporters and raise awareness of the club.
“We host tournaments, that’s another good way that we kinda give back to the K-State community, is by running those tournaments,” said Price. “We make money from that, and also we can use that as advertising for our sponsors.”
As they continue to grow, the club hopes to host more events that engage with its supporters and the Manhattan community.
“Before the club kinda died off, they’d do more fundraiser-style tournaments,” Price said. “It’d be fun to kinda bring that back, that’s something we’ve always talked about.”
Representing the university on the local and national stage is something the players don’t take for granted.
“Wearing the Kansas State colors and logos is really cool too, just knowing that we’re representatives of the school,” Fitzgerald said. “We’ve invested a lot of time and energy into just getting to where we are, to represent this school and try to put the best product forward.”
The club’s DI and DII teams battled their way to Top 25 finishes in their divisions at this year’s National Championships, April 8-11. The connections they have made as a group outweigh the top finishes from their spring season.
“Pretty much if you make the team, you’ve stayed on the team, which is really cool because like I’ve been with Tyler since my freshman year,” Fitzgerald said. “It’s just cool growing as people, and the friendships forever growing.”
