The Professional Disc Golf Association’s (PDGA) first professional major of the 2023 calendar year tees off on Thursday, April 20, 2023, at the International Disc Golf Center (IDGC) located within Wildwood Park in Columbia County in Appling, Ga. This will be the second running of The PDGA Champions Cup Presented by Bushnell, a four-round, stroke-play disc golf tournament. Defending champions Paige Pierce and Chris Dickerson will attempt to repeat their titles against an international field featuring disc golf’s top talent.
The inaugural 2022 edition of The Champions Cup, also hosted at the IDGC, proved so successful that initial plans to rotate the location of the major championship were altered in favor of revisiting the same venue. Spectators will again witness disc golf’s top professionals navigating through the Georgia pines on the lengthy, 18-hole W.R. Jackson course, which has received several upgrades to both the hole-by-hole layout and spectator areas and amenities.
Veteran Tournament Director Nate Heinold is overseeing the event.
“The inaugural Champions Cup was fantastic to watch on the exciting Jackson course,” said Heinold, who also serves as president of the PDGA Board of Directors. “The 2023 event will push the event forward when it comes to the spectator experience. The player experience will continue to be top of mind but pushing the event forward will mean giving the spectators an even better experience.”
For Heinold, who has run some of disc golf’s largest events, including 2019 PDGA Pro Worlds, as well as perennial pro tour stops, the challenge of organizing a premier event from across state lines is a familiar one.
“This event would be impossible to run without the great support of our partners in Columbia County at Wildwood Park, as well as the IDGC staff, who will have the Jackson course in amazing shape,” Heinold said. “If our team had to focus on the course and run the event from afar, it would be impossible. But so much of the work to run large-scale events now happens behind the scenes from a conference room or an office.”