By Tom Peters
Ben Smith has been spinning discs for many years, but not on a turntable.
The Halifax resident is a professional disc golfer and after several years competing, has turned to designing disc golf courses and promoting the sport throughout Atlantic Canada. The goal is to host a world championship in Nova Scotia, hopefully around 2030 or 2032.
Disc golf is played with round discs, similar to a Frisbee, but of various sizes. Players stand on a tee area and throw the disc toward an elevated, metal chain basket. The goal is to get the disc into the basket in the fewest throws possible.
In 2007, when Ben returned to Nova Scotia, he realized there were no disc golf courses. In 2008, he built a nine-hole course on family farmland near Amherst. He then spent the next eight years advocating to various stakeholders around the benefits of building disc golf courses locally.
Ben’s persistence has led to the design and construction of several dozen courses and the hosting of many events including a number of Canadian championships.
“Some of my designs have been lot more ambitious these days,” he says, noting that a number of them would be classified as championship calibre.
Two of Ben’s latest designs, the Red Mountain Course and the Blue Mountain Course, have been built at Ski Wentworth with the Red being more beginner friendly and the Blue approaching a championship layout.
“They are really a masterpiece,” he says. “At Wentworth we were given the ability to utilize their 500 acres.” This allowed the incorporation of some of the alpine ski trails, cross-country trails plus other areas of the property including the peak.
As part of the Wentworth project, Ben brought in Simon Lizotte, a world famous disc golfer, to help design a gold layout at the top of the Blue course.
“That layout is meant to challenge the top three per cent of the players in the world and that is what I will be implementing this spring with an opening date of July 19,” says Ben.
At the high school level, some teams have been formed and Ben has built courses at Northumberland Regional High School in Alma, Pictou County and at South Colchester Academy (SCA) in Brookfield, Colchester County.
Joel Goswell, a SCA teacher and a long-time player, felt if he could get funding it would be worthwhile to get some baskets. The endeavor proved to be positive.
“We have 25 to 30 players that are diehards and probably another 50 that play once a week or once every two weeks. I was hoping for a handful of kids. I never expected this many,” says Joel, who gets coaching assistance from teacher Anthony Cormier.
Joel received funding through the Inclusive Sport in Schools Pilot Grant Program, administered by Sport Nova Scotia. The program has supported the continuation of initiatives that address the Mass Casualty Commission Recommendation C.13, Reversing the Course: Addressing the Public Health Emergency in Colchester, Cumberland and Hants Counties.
While Joel hopes to develop a course at the elementary school next to SCA, Ben, who will continue promoting his sport throughout the Atlantic region, has plans to build school participation with more events planned and a major high school event in June.
