FOUR Perth men will play the world’s longest round of disc golf as they head to the national championships this weekend.
Joondalup resident John McQuade will join his son Heath, Brad Curran and Jake Stone for his first tournament, the 2019 Australian Disc Golf Championships, in South Australia next week Nov 1-3.
The group, members of the Golden Frolfin Turkeys, decided to make it a road trip in John’s converted camper van ‘Dream Time Journey’ and play along the 1365km Nullarbor Links golf course as they drove.
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READ NOW“We are going to play that disc golf-style,” Heath said.
“We are going to bring a basket.”
Disc golf players throw a disc at a target, using rules similar to golf on a course of nine or 18 holes.
John, who will turn 70 next year and was believed to be the oldest player in Perth, said his daughter-in-law suggested they use the trip to raise funds for charity.
The retiree said they chose Heartkids because his daughter Kate was born with a rare heart defect.
He said she was “a battler”, had heart surgery when she was nine years old and was now in her mid-30s with three children of her own.
John said the trip would also honour his other son Luke and wife Jillian’s stillborn baby boy, who had heart complications.
“We have been touched twice now in the family with Heartkids,” he said.
John said they would raise funds for Solaris Cancer Care as well, as he has volunteered with it for 15 years doing reiki with cancer patients in hospital.
“If we are going to do the journey, we thought we might as well raise some money – it’s more money to those charities as well,” Heath said.
The Edgewater resident picked up disc golf about three years ago and his 21-year-old son also plays, making them one of the first three-generational families involved in the sport in Perth.
The teacher’s aide said Perth’s first course had been in Greenwood’s Rob Hancock Park for about three decades, and the sport was becoming more popular after several other courses started popping up in recent years.
Like traditional golf, he said every course was different, with some located in public parks and others on private land.
John said the November tournament would be on a course in the crater of an extinct volcano in Mount Gambier.
As one of a few disc golf groups in Perth, the Golden Frolfin Turkeys meet at different courses every Saturday to compete, and will gather in Mundaring on October 26 for a game before cheering the travellers off.
They plan to upload photos and videos from the four-day journey on their Facebook page, Turkeys across the Nullarbor.
In the northern suburbs, disc golf courses can be found at Chichester Park in Woodvale and at Alexander Heights Park.
“It’s an amazing sport; it’s organised chaos,” Heath said.
“Once you have your disc, it’s free.
“A lot of courses are set up in parks; a lot are free.”
He said if there were dog walkers in the parks, players let them have right of way and his discs had never hit anyone.