Jason Samuel, associate professor of communication at Goshen College and general manager of 91.1 the Globe, spent his summer at Ox Bow County Park, overseeing the installation of a new disc golf course that is professional enough to host the world championships.
In April, The Record covered the announcement of renovations coming to the disc golf course in Ox Bow Park being overseen by Samuel, followed by a grand reopening weekend full of live music, food trucks, vendors and, of course, disc golf. From Friday to Sunday, over the third week in August, new and old fans of the sport spent their weekend throwing discs on the new and expanded course.“Originally I was planning on 72 people for Friday, 96 people on Saturday and 96 people on Sunday,” Samuel said. “In the end, we had 301 people play over the weekend … On Friday I had to let a lot more people in over the original capacity; I was planning on 72 but we ended up letting in 104.”
Renovation plans began as early as January 2023, but the first fundraising event was a March 2023 disc golf tournament in Ox Bow. By the time all the fundraisers finished, Samuel and the team raised over $19,000 for the project. Some additions included all-new tee pads, baskets and placements, short pad placements, signage, an auxiliary parking lot, bathrooms, a putting green, an information kiosk and six additional holes.
The Elkhart County Parks Department expressed appreciation for the renovations. Krista Daniels, an interpretive naturalist in the department and a disc golf enthusiast, acknowledged a benefit for the park as a whole.
“The new tee pads have been needed for a while, and the signage is amazing now,” Daniels said. “A bonus benefit of the renovations is it got rid of a bunch of invasive species.”
Elkhart County parks director, led the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the newly expanded course, with approximately 75 people in attendance.
“One of the greatest highlights of the event and renovations was honoring the hard work and leadership of volunteer Jason Samuel with a lifetime disc golf pass,” Declaire said. “Jason has spent hundreds of hours at Ox Bow Park leading tournaments, leagues and fundraising for the renovations. His hard work, passion and dedication were much appreciated, and the reward is seeing the smiles on the many faces of the folks who play the game.”
In August 1996, Ox Bow was the location of the Professional Disc Golf World Championships. Declaire believes that the days of the PDGWC being hosted at Ox Bow may not return despite the changes.
“This is most likely not possible,” DeCaire said. “There are different regulations these days for world tournaments.”
Meanwhile, back in Goshen Samuel arranged a campus-wide disc golf tournament in May for any GC students or faculty to participate in, with the event ending so successfully that he made sure to arrange a second tournament earlier this year in September.
“If I was a college student I would love if somebody were to put this on,” Samuel said. “That’s why I’ve done it, because it’s fun.”
After speaking with Chad Coleman, head of GC’s Intramural Sports, Samuel learned that it would take around 25 students participating for it to be a yearly event. For it to be a twice-a-year event it would have to have around 50. During the first event in May, there were 60 participants followed by 59 earlier this month.
Samuel believes it wasn’t just the participation that exceeded expectations, but the students’ engagement and attitudes of the events when they were said and done. He speculates that a large part of why the events at GC were so popular is because they expanded throughout the entire campus, familiar grounds to all players who participated.
“It was an awesome success and the feedback was tremendous,” he said. “Who wouldn’t love to play disc golf all around the campus and around the Broken Shield? I mean that’s part of the fun. It’s not set up to be some world championship course and it never would be.
“It’s supposed to be fun… Even me standing by the Union Building and throwing a disc all the way across the yard to the Administration Building is awesome. You can’t beat it. I’m throwing a disc right across the heart of campus.”
Both tournaments were split into four divisions all playing on the same course. Zachary Shields, a peace, justice and conflict studies major and conflict transformation minor, participated in the ladder tourney competing in the men’s beginner division.
“Disc golf was really fun,” Shields said. “I am excited and expecting great things from future disc golf events, thrilled even.”
Samuel claims he isn’t finished with spreading his love of the sport in Goshen nor GC’s campus, and has big plans for new events as early as October.
“These two events have been so successful that I’m trying to pull off a glow-in-the-dark tournament . . . in October on campus,” Samuel said. “Maybe sometime after dinner and in a more confined area. I don’t know; we’ll see.”
