The 2023 Disc Golf World Championships are underway at a Vermont ski resort

It’s a big week at Smugglers’ Notch Ski Resort, with the return of the Disc Golf World Championships to the resort’s top-ranked disc golf courses. The resort just outside Burlington, Vermont, first hosted the championship in 2018.

Smugglers’ Brewster Ridge and Fox Run disc golf courses are ranked fourth and seventh in the world, respectively, according to Nick Hover, director of operations for the Smugglers’ Notch Disc Golf and Outdoor Center, who said 300 of the world’s best disc golfers will take on the resort’s elite courses.

“Players from as close as our neighbor to the north to as far as the land down under, are ready to bring their A-game as they battle to take home the title of World Champion,” Hover said.

Tournament Director Jeff Spring said there are men’s and women’s divisions for the championships, with 216 players in the former and 84 in the latter. Disc golfers are coming from 13 countries, including Japan and all the Scandinavian countries. Scandinavia is a “hotbed” of disc golf, according to Spring.

The championships started Wednesday, with one round daily through Sunday. After the first four rounds, the field will be cut to the top 40% of competitors for the final round on Sunday. Thanks to a sponsorship from L.L. Bean, the purse is the second largest ever for disc golf, at $275,000, according to Spring.

The winner of the men’s division will receive $32,000 and the winner of the women’s division will receive $16,000. All of the players who make the final round will be in the money, down to winnings of $500.

Spring said there are still some general admission tickets available for the tournament, although Sunday’s final round is close to sold out. Special VIP tickets for the week quickly sold out, he said. Smugglers’ is expecting about 3,000 people to show up for each of the final two rounds on the weekend, filling the resort’s winter lots and overflow lots.

“That’s more people than on the busiest ski day of the year,” Spring said.

The event is being livestreamed on YouTube on the Disc Golf Network. The first round on Wednesday can be viewed free, but the subsequent rounds, including the championships round, require a subscription to the network. Spring said post-production coverage of the tournament will be free on YouTube by searching for JomezPro.

“You can watch Sunday’s final round on Monday,” he said.

The weekend will also include the eighth annual Fall Fest with live music, sponsored by Fiddlehead Brewery. Spring said plenty of tickets are still available for the festival. On Friday, the doors will open at 6 p.m. for a concert featuring the opening band, SoulShine Revival, at 7 p.m., and headliner The Dead Tongues following. On Saturday, Al’s Pals will open the show at 7 p.m. followed by headliner Rubblebucket.

Contact Dan D’Ambrosio at 660-1841 or ddambrosi@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter @DanDambrosioVT. This coverage is only possible with support from our readers.