Despite the rain, more than 50 competitors entered the first-ever campus disc golf tournament Sunday which raised approximately $800 for a program geared toward getting elementary school students excited about college.
Proceeds from Duck Chuck, a Community Internship Program, will go to Building Blocks, which allows fifth-graders to visit the University campus.
The tournament featured a total of 12 holes spread throughout campus, with trees and buildings acting as obstacles. Each hole was a par 3.
Chris Sprague led all competitors with a total of 61 after two rounds.
Everyone who played was awarded prize packages donated by local sponsors. Top players also received compensation for winning.
In past years, the fundraising effort took place as a five-kilometer run, but this year it was changed to a disc golf tournament thanks to the efforts of CIP Marketing Director David Feldberg and Public Relations coordinator Avery Jenkins. Because of its success, they now plan on holding the event every term.
“I’d love to get a lot more of the dorm kids (to play). There’s a bunch of kids right now sitting inside when they could be out here playing,” Jenkins said.
Both Feldberg and Jenkins are professional disc golf players who have had a great deal of success in their respective careers.  
Jenkins has been playing disc golf for 20 years, since he was a youth in Ohio, and has been competing professionally since 2000. His greatest accomplishment as a player occurred when he won the Japan Open in 2004, a tournament that is considered to be the third-most prestigious in the world. Jenkins also happens to be the current record distance-holder in the US Open as he unleashed a throw that sailed 640 feet.
Feldberg has been playing disc golf for eight years. He started as a college student in Michigan and decided to start playing professionally soon afterward.
“We had a good time playing in college, for fun, and truthfully I was better than my friends so I started playing in tournaments,” Feldberg said.
So good, it turned out, that Feldberg has become a disc golf national champion; he won the United States Disc Golf Championship in October 2005, winning $11,000.
Before arriving at the University, Jenkins, Feldberg and another friend of theirs traveled together in a motorhome for two years, competing in tournaments on a weekly basis.
Currently both Jenkins and Feldberg are full-time students and try to practice as much as they can before they head off to tournaments.
“During the spring and summer, I play every weekend. My schedule’s either flying somewhere every weekend, or I’m in our motorhome driving,” Feldberg said.
“We make a living off it right now and support ourselves just fine,” Jenkins added.
Jenkins and Feldberg also gave a demonstration on proper form and techniques during a break between rounds. In nearly every city they have played in they have given these exhibitions to further the playing ability of all who come to listen and put their techniques to good use.
Feldberg admits that he just wants to help develop the sport into something bigger than it already is. He believes he is capable of doing it by spreading the proper techniques that he has learned and developed through his experience with the game.
“Our techniques aren’t the ones that have been taught for the past 20 years, and over the past five years people in general have thrown farther because of the techniques that we and other sponsor players are teaching,” Feldberg said. “I know it seems weird to give everyone my secrets so they can beat me, but I feel if you can beat me, come on out.”
Jenkins and Feldberg are now looking to expand disc golf into the student community through the Club Sports program. Anyone interested in joining the club can contact Jenkins through e-mail at [email protected], or stop by the CIP room on the bottom floor of the EMU.