Women's Global Event
The PDGA continues to encourage more women across the world to get out to the disc golf course! Women’s disc golf events are run around the world, round scores are collected and player ratings calculated to create the “PDGA Women’s Global Event”. This is a virtual way to produce the largest women’s tournament in the world. Held every two years, this event continues to grow in popularity and its numbers prove that it’s a successful way to get ladies out playing disc golf!
Our inaugural event in 2012 was set the base with almost 600 women participating in 41 events across 24 states and 4 countries. The second Women’s Global Event in 2014, shattered those numbers by nearly doubling them with 1,060 female competitors playing in 60 events across 6 countries. We continued to see steady growth in 2016 as the event hosted 1,437 female competitors across 26 states and 10 countries. Our goal for 2018 is to reach 2,000 players, 89 events, 39 states, and 15 countries! We know we can do it; we just need your help to continue to spread the word!
The 2018 WGE
The PDGA Women's Committee held the fourth edition of the PDGA Women's Global Event on May 12th, 2018. This event is a biennial event played by women all around the world. In 2018, the Disc Golf Foundation partnered with the Women's Global event and Throw Pink. The funds collected from the WGEs went towards funding eligible Girl Scout and Brownies activities such as providing instructional disc golf clinics and equipment and supporting troop disc golf outings.
How the WGE works:
Women from all around the world will play two rounds of disc golf during their local global event. The scores for the two rounds will be submitted and rated by the PDGA. The round ratings will be added to determine the player's "Global Score." For the rounds to qualify the event must include two rounds on the same course/layout and also have three players rated 700+ (male or female) to keep the ratings consistent across the competition. The Global Scores will be updated and ranked throughout the day to find our overall Women’s Global Event Champions. The overall Global winner in each division will receive a memorable trophy.
Ice Bowl
The first Ice Bowl was the product of a good idea, born out of yearning for the winter of 1987 to be over and for the disc golf season to begin again. While the course in Albert-Oakland Park was always there in Columbia, Missouri, and it was certainly possible to get a buddy or three to go out for a round, it was always more fun to get as many people as possible together for a couple of rounds. Rick Rothstein dreamed up the event and decided that the Sunday before the Super Bowl would be the perfect time, since no one would have to miss any football playoff games on TV, and maybe he could entice some local media to check out the disc golfers playing in the winter weather. Little did anyone know that the Ice Bowl would become a traditional, annual event that would eventually raise over $3 million in charitable contributions, specifically targeted to fight hunger and feed the hungry.
The Disc Golf Foundation and the Ice Bowl partnered in 2017 with the hopes of soliciting larger corporate donations by utilizing the DGF’s 501(c)(3) status as a passthrough. The Disc Golf Foundation retains a very small percentage and passes the donation of to the food bank of choice for the local Tournament Director of that Ice Bowl. There is a ton of possibilities for this partnership, but this was a logical easy first step towards creating a lasting relationship between two great organizations. It helps both grow the sport of Disc Golf and help fight hunger in local communities. Look for amazing things in the future!