10th Annual Ice Bowl Disc Golf Charity Tournament
The Tenth Annual Ice Bowl Disc Golf Charity Tournament will be held on Saturday, February 24th, 2018 at Ferry Park Disc Golf Course. Walker's Ace Hardware in partnership with the City of Fort Walton Beach Recreation Department and Mango Disc Golf Club host the event which will begin and 8:00 a.m. at the pavilions in the park. Play will start at 10:00 a.m. and the tournament will be played in two rounds.
For those who’ve been thinking about checking out disc golf, the Ice Bowl is good place to start because the emphasis is on fun and charity rather than on pure competition. All proceeds will benefit the Emerald Coast Children's Advocacy Center and Catholic Charities Food Pantry. Please join in support of two worthy charities, come eat Eric's Famous Chili, buy some mulligans, throw some discs, and have a ton of fun! For more information, please contact Eric Walker at (850)862-3169 or at eric.racetrack@yahoo.com.
The Ice Bowl will feature lots of donated items to be raffled in support of our charities as well as prizes for first second and third place finishers in each division, prizes for Ring of Fire, and a free chili lunch for all participants. The cost of the tournament is $25 and five non-perishable food items. Each player will receive a player's pack containing this year's Ice Bowl disc and mini marker disc. Mulligans will be for sale and we will convene an Ace Pot for those who wish to participate.
In the ten years of Emerald Coast Ice Bowl our community has raised more than $10,000 and several tons of food. This year our goals are to raise $2,500 (the approximate cost of treating one child at ECCAC) and 1,000 pounds of food.
History of Disc Golf: The first Disc Golf Ice Bowl was held in Columbia, Missouri in 1987. It was subsequently promoted as a day of disc golf solidarity in the gloom of winter by Disc Golf World, a disc golf sales and promotion company that is located in Kansas City. Official Ice Bowls are played at courses all over the United States, and in Canada and Europe in a corridor that runs this year from January 3 - March 1. Each event finds a charity to support. The Ice Bowl charitable fund raising goal for 2018 is $375,000 worldwide. In 2017, over $320,000 was raised at 225 Ice Bowls.
Rules of the Game: The basic rules of the Ice Bowl are simple:
- Under no circumstances can an Ice Bowl be postponed or cancelled;
- No wimps or whiners are allowed;
- There are no excuses for not attending. (Either be there or be a wimp!)
Disc golf is similar to golf (disc golfers often call it "ball" or "stick" or "traditional" golf) in procedure, pace, and psychology. Instead of clubs and balls, disc golfers used golf discs (smaller, heavier, and aerodynamically superior to the Frisbees used for playing catch). Instead of a cup, disc golfers "hole out" in a disc golf basket or target. Usually made of steel, it features a basket that is attached to a pole about two feet above the ground and has chain assemblies above the basket. The chains act as a backboard that stops the disc’s forward motion, causing it to drop into the basket. Disc golfers play the throw from where it lies, and count each throw until the disc lands in the basket or chains. Disc golf is a lot of fun, quite challenging and relatively inexpensive to play.
Emerald Coast Children's Advocacy Center has been serving child victims of sexual and physical abuse and their families in Okaloosa and Walton Counties for close to two decades. ECCAC provides safe haven for victims and their families while facilitating medical needs and aiding the police, Sheriff's and prosecutors of our counties in their cases against abusers. Their work has greatly increased the successful prosecution of those that would harm the most vulnerable members of our community. All monetary proceeds from Emerald Coast Ice Bowl will go directly to ECCAC to aid in their mission to help and protect every child of abuse in our county.
Catholic Charities Food Pantry provides meals on a daily basis to our area's homeless population as well as bags of groceries to needy families. Their work to combat hunger in our community has been ongoing for many years. All donations of food are directly delivered to and utilized by our local food pantry in Fort Walton Beach.
