{"id":839375,"date":"2026-09-07T10:16:15","date_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:16:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839375\/"},"modified":"2026-09-07T10:16:15","modified_gmt":"2026-09-07T10:16:15","slug":"fairbanks-hosts-alaska-state-disc-golf-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/839375\/","title":{"rendered":"Fairbanks hosts Alaska State Disc Golf Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU\/KTVF) – Nearly 100 players are competing this weekend at the Alaska State Disc Golf Championships<\/a> in Fairbanks. <\/p>\n

The three-day event takes place at the Birch Hill and Tanana Lakes courses. <\/p>\n

Outside competitors raise the stakes<\/p>\n

Fairbanks player Patrick Evans feels bringing in talent from outside the Interior raises the level of play for everyone on the course.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s really good competition, especially when you get people outside of Fairbanks too, and it just kind of ramps it up and hopefully elevates everyone,\u201d Evans said. <\/p>\n

But reaching the competitive level is a process.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt takes a lot of time. Like you got to get used to the discs that you have and there\u2019s so many different courses out here that have different types of shots,\u201d Evans said. \u201cSo it takes a good amount of practice and a lot of effort and a lot of winter practice as well because we don\u2019t get as much time for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Defending champion competes in Fairbanks for the first time<\/p>\n

Anchorage\u2019s Jared O\u2019Brien is the defending state champion. He\u2019s playing in Fairbanks for the first time. <\/p>\n

\u201cI am the last two-time winner of the state championship, so coming to Fairbanks, hopefully, to defend my title,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

This is his sixth in-state tournament. This year he has also made tour stops in the lower 48. <\/p>\n

\u201c[I] haven\u2019t performed the way I\u2019d like to, but it\u2019s been one amazing learning experience, so hopefully I can translate that to this tournament,\u201d he said. <\/p>\n

Despite less than ideal weather, O\u2019Brien spoke highly of the courses in Fairbanks. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo far I\u2019m loving it. It\u2019s definitely technical, tight wooded lines, you know, that very Alaskan feel,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a few things that could be changed to make it phenomenal, but I\u2019m really impressed and really happy with the way that the Fairbanks community put [the Tanana Lakes] course together.\u201d <\/p>\n

Women\u2019s participation grows<\/p>\n

Organizers say the sport is growing in Alaska among women too. Fairbanks Disc Golf Association board member Kate Morrison said there are still far more men playing, but the ladies\u2019 numbers are rising. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have eight women participating. We have two coming up out of Wasilla area and two coming up out of Homer and the rest are local Fairbanksans. So that\u2019s pretty great for us in a field of 98,\u201d Morrison said. <\/p>\n

Morrison said the tournament marks the largest turnout the club has seen. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see that our percentages are a little low for the females, but still, we\u2019ve never had this many people participate in a tournament up here before, and it\u2019s really exciting,\u201d Morrison said. <\/p>\n

Rain moves in during day two<\/p>\n

Conditions turned wet as the tournament progressed Saturday. Morrison said the rain made equipment harder to manage.<\/p>\n

\u201cEverything takes a little bit longer, drying off discs, trying to keep your hands dry. It makes your grip on the disc a little bit more unpredictable,\u201d Morrison said. \u201cWe definitely had a few shanks into the woods and trees the last few holes. But luckily the wind did stay down because if you got the wind and the rain, that\u2019s even worse.\u201d <\/p>\n

Players are hoping for better conditions on the tournament\u2019s final day. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe managed okay, going to go change into some dry socks and shoes for the next round. And hopefully tomorrow the weather calms down,\u201d Morrison said. <\/p>\n

Why they play<\/p>\n

O\u2019Brien said competing is only part of why he keeps coming back. <\/p>\n

\u201cI want to compete and play well and win, but hanging out with these guys, having a good time \u2014 there\u2019s no other way I\u2019d want to spend my weekend,\u201d O\u2019Brien said. <\/p>\n

Evans said the sport offers a chance to be outdoors and meet people. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just a great environment and it\u2019s super fun to be out here and competing and just enjoying everybody around,\u201d Evans said. \u201cIt\u2019s a great way to get outside and play and to meet new people.\u201d <\/p>\n

The tournament wraps Sunday at Birch Hill. <\/p>\n

See a spelling or grammar error? Report it to web@ktuu.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 KTUU. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FAIRBANKS, Alaska (KTUU\/KTVF) – Nearly 100 players are competing this weekend at the Alaska State Disc Golf Championships…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":839376,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[3292,14891,355469,2234,82027,42115,355473,427,355471,355472,355468,24338,99,355470],"class_list":["post-839375","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-alaska","tag-anchorage","tag-birch-hill","tag-championship","tag-disc-golf","tag-fairbanks","tag-fairbanks-disc-golf-association","tag-golf","tag-jared-obrien","tag-kate-morrison","tag-patrick-evans","tag-rain","tag-sports","tag-tanana-lakes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839375","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839375"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839375\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/839376"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839375"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839375"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839375"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}