The 11th annual Big Dawg Disc Golf tournament brought together Ferris students, alumni and community members last Sunday.
The competition takes place each year as way to get current students out into the community, to introduce them to alumni and prospective students, and ultimately decide who will be declared “The Big Dawg”.
This year’s competition saw business administration junior, and the Disc Golf Club President Benji Zorn take home the title of “The Big Dawg”.
“It’s something that I wanted, a lot of stress, a lot of pressure,” Zorn said. “You know, I lost it the first time I ever played it, I lost by one stroke, came down like the last hole. . So I really wanted to show up and win this event while I was a current student. So while it’s a course, I’ve played off every day, all the time, still was very nervous, felt a lot of pressure, especially coming down the stretch of it, because I was playing some local pros from Grand Rapids and kind of a Muskegon area, so it was stressful. But you know, you always got to trust in yourself. Know you can do it, kept a positive attitude and was able to prevail.”
While Zorn was happy with his win, he was also happy about the outcome of the event. Zorn believes that the participation is what makes Disc Golf what it is.
“All the alumni come up Leonard [Johnson] always is there. Makes the course look good, and it’s just a great time to see other Bulldogs playing disc golf, and to kind of rejoice in that,” Zorn said. “And sometimes we have a prospective students who are looking to join and they’re able to kind of see that culture and that excitement that we’re building. So, it’s really great for that too, and it just good times we’re slowly going to get into more of those regional events and the national events. It helps have us have a fun event at home, especially after the conference event, to just be like, this is what we are, and this is what we’re kind of going to grow to at the end of the year.”
There were a total of 54 participants at this year’s tournament with six men’s divisions and one woman’s division.
Participating in the women’s division was biochemistry senior Mikayla Ealy. Ealy ended up pacing second in a close match.
“My teammate Delaney Beckett is a super consistent player and I did my best to match her but fell short,” Ealy said. “Finishing hole 18, I was told that Delaney and I were tied and that we had to go into a playoff to see who wins. The nerves increased but I did my best to remain calm and happy no matter the outcome. “
Ealy found the competition to be a great way for the team and her to grow.
Head Coach Leonard Johnson was happy with the wins that the team was able to take away from this year’s tournament.
“It was to determine who was, you know, the main job was to determine who was the best player on all the all the fairest players. But the tournament is open to all players all around the state, and we typically have way more than half of the competitors that aren’t Ferris students,” Johnson said. “Happy to report that our men won the professional division, the first and one division, and the second amateur division, and also the women’s division.”
The competition helped bring in more prospective students and create a sense of community for all involved. The team plans to continue to practice and compete for a chance to make it to nationals when spring hits.