STARKVILLE — Mississippi State’s Wise Center was a happening place to be on Saturday as nearly 100 disc golfers descended upon Starkville for the second annual Dawg Daze Open.
Organized by the Starkville Disc Golf Association, 88 registered players sweated through two rounds on a hot, late summer day.
SDGA founder Andy Hunt and current president Dustin West, who served as assistant tournament director and tournament director, respectively, helped solidify what was an unquestionable success of an event for those involved.
“It was great,” Hunt said. “No problems whatsoever. It was really good. Another good event… They get better each time.”
Beyond its reach in Starkville, the Golden Triangle, and North Mississippi, Dawg Daze has been a Pro Disc Golf Association-sanctioned tournament since the tournament’s inception in 2022.
Dawg Daze is currently considered a C-tier event by the PDGA, but West is hoping that with more notoriety and more interest, it can become a B-tier event with higher payouts that will hopefully attract more players to participate.
“I think we’ve cultivated a great relationship with our players that if they like or don’t like something, we’ll act on it,” West said. “I think that keeps people excited…Absolutely we would like it to be worth it for the pros to travel a bit further.”
Of the different levels of competition, the Mixed Pro Open division was what players, spectators and organizers had their eyes on.
It came down to a two-man race between Cody Munns of Horn Lake and Jacob Henson from Starkville, the lone two players in the pro division to shoot under 100 for the day.
Munns won, shooting 19-under over two rounds and an impressive 11-under in the final round. He beat out Henson by two strokes, but competition was fierce up-and-down the leaderboard.
“Everyone knows it’s been hot, but we still have people coming out, which I’m really thankful for,” West said. “A lot of people like the course. A lot of people like the tournaments that we’ve been putting on…You have to shoot well to win here. This isn’t some weekend warrior course.”
Hunt’s disc golf business in Starkville, Disc and That, will be sponsoring the next major disc golf event in the area in October at Lake Lowndes State Park in Columbus, and local interest in the organization seems to have grown.
That, plus a strong group of volunteers and local sponsors for Saturday’s event reaffirmed long-term confidence in the future of the organization.
Events like Saturday have also left many players eager to wonder what’s to come next.
“Just like with anything, if you approach it as a business, you need to provide a customer service to these people,” Hunt said. “They’re paying money to come here, so you have to look at it that way. Provide good customer service and they’ll keep coming back.”
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