A 16-year-old Lethbridge disc golfer is taking on international competition, as he continues to climb the ranks as one of the best young players in the sport.
Noah Higgins has been playing disc golf for about five years, and he came across the sport by chance.
His mother, Rebecca Johnson, says that she knew nothing about the sport before Noah got involved.
“I actually had never heard of disc golf, and I’m sure that’s true for a lot of people in this area,” said Johnson.
“He took up disc golf on his own and then started taking me out to the park and teaching me how to play. Normally kids get into sports with adults teaching them, and basically it worked the other way around for us.”
Johnson says that while she’s picked up the sport, there isn’t a lot of competition between her and her son.
“He’s far better than I am,” said Johnson. “I think I might have beat him once when he was 12 and it hasn’t happened since.”
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But he’s not lacking in competition elsewhere, as he and his mother have travelled all over so he can play in tournaments. This summer, there will be no shortage of opportunities to show his stuff.
“It’s such a cool experience for both of us,” said Johnson. “It’s certainly not something that I envisioned when he told me he wanted to go to the park and play disc golf when he was a kid.”
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“For him to be traveling now to the ‘States multiple times a year — and this year we’re getting to go to Europe — it’s just a real honour for both of us,” said Johnson.
“I’m super proud of him.”
Higgins is wrapping up final exams as he finishes off grade 10, but his summer vacation is already a jam-packed schedule.
“This year I’m going to all the Alberta Tour events on the Alberta Disc Golf Tour, I’m going to the World Championships in a few weeks in Emporia, Kansas — the Junior World Championships — and then I’m also going to Estonia in August for the Team World Championships, to represent Team Canada,” said Higgins.
“For a normal event it’s three rounds: two on Saturday and one on Sunday, and it’s just your total combined score and whoever has the lowest score at the end wins.”
The rules of disc golf are almost identical to traditional golf, but the game isn’t familiar to many people in the Lethbridge area.
“It’s very popular in the ‘States and also over in Europe. Mainly in the U.S., though — it’s really big there. Pretty much everyone knows what it is there,” said Higgins.
“It’s really starting to take off here; it’s popular in B.C. already, but it’s starting to take off a lot in Alberta and it’s just getting popular everywhere in Canada now, too.”
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Higgins says that he routinely shocks people when they discover how difficult the sport really is.
“People think, ‘oh you’re just out here throwing a frisbee, it’s easy,’ but it’s really not. It takes years of learning and experience to get it down perfect,” said Higgins.
Already sponsored, the next — and ultimate — goal is to one day play disc golf for a living.
“The end goal is just to become a professional touring disc golfer,” said Higgins. “To get to tour the world and get all these crazy experiences and see all these cool things… just play disc golf.
“Sounds like a pretty good time to me.”
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