LIHUE — Buckeye Bottoms has been playing disc golf for the past seven years. After relocating to Kauai from Maui, Bottoms had an opportunity to reunite with disc golfer friends from Maui Monday afternoon at the Puakea Golf Course. “They
LIHUE — Buckeye Bottoms has been playing disc golf for the past seven years.
After relocating to Kauai from Maui, Bottoms had an opportunity to reunite with disc golfer friends from Maui Monday afternoon at the Puakea Golf Course.
“They wanted to come from Maui to see if this is for real,” said Phil Worwa, the island’s disc golf ambassador. “Buckeye moved here and has been coming out for our sessions. Now that he’s set up, they came to see if this is for real. They’re even talking about tournaments.”
Worwa said Puakea sets aside tee times from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. on Mondays and Saturdays for Kauai disc golf enthusiasts.
“They’ve been really good with this,” Worwa said. “The ball golfers are really nice, too. Sometimes, when we have a slow group, we’ll let them pass. On Mondays, we do the front nine, twice. Saturdays, we are allowed to the full 18 holes.”
Worwa said disc golfers have “adopted” Weliwili Park in Koloa where they set up a minicourse for people starting at about 12:30 p.m. on Sundays.
“This is a full weekend for disc golfers,” Worwa said. “There aren’t that many places where you can play disc golf on golf courses. But Glenn Tamagawa has been really good about letting us do this. We set up the baskets away from the greens and not in the way of ball golfers, and when we’re done, the disc golfers are really good where the last group takes apart the baskets and get them ready for pick up.”
Leroy Kaiwi of Waiehu, Maui, said disc golf is going strong on Maui, and they had to come and see how the Kauai program is doing.
“We have about 80 people coming out, solid,” Kaiwi said, presenting Worwa with a specially-designed 967DG shirt for Maui players. “And it’s growing.”
Worwa said the Kauai disc golfers average eight to a dozen each time they meet.
