Central Oregon disc golf club hosts first amateur championship in Bend

The Central Oregon Disc Golf Club turned Pine Nursery Park into a championship stage over the June 20 weekend, staging its first-ever amateur title event in Bend as a PDGA-sanctioned Amateur B-tier with two rounds and 62 players entered from 80 available slots. Sharon Jenkins served as tournament director, and the turnout gave the club something bigger than a one-off event: a clear sign that Bend’s disc golf scene has moved beyond casual rounds and into a structured competitive calendar.

That mattered because Pine Nursery is not just another stop on the map. The 159-acre park in northeast Bend has a newly updated 18-hole disc golf course that Bend Park and Recreation District says is open to both novice and seasoned players, a setup that fits the club’s long push to grow the sport from the ground up. CODGC says it has served Central Oregon since 2001, building and maintaining courses, offering clinics, organizing public events, and promoting friendly competition. A club-run amateur championship at one of the city’s premier courses is the natural next step in that work.

The event listing underscored how intentionally the weekend was built for amateurs. All amateur divisions were welcome, and players were promised a commemorative player pack, lunch, trophies and bragging rights. The tournament also came with a Friday-night players party at Bevel Craft Brewing, with music from The High Desert Howlers, giving the championship a social scene that matched the competitive one.

For Bend, the larger story is infrastructure catching up to appetite. CODGC’s 2026 bag-tag page shows Tuesday Night Tags at Pine Nursery are PDGA-sanctioned, another sign that the park has become a regular competitive hub rather than an occasional gathering spot. The club lists 2026 membership at $15 and tags at $10, with dues helping fund events, equipment, merchandise, course maintenance and coordination with parks, schools and other organizations.

That matters in a city where course development has lagged behind some other Oregon markets, even as the club pushes new projects such as Skyline Disc Golf Course and secured a $15,000 Bend Sustainability Fund grant in 2026 for upgrades. The first amateur championship at Pine Nursery suggested Bend is no longer just a strong pickup-play community. It is building the kind of amateur pipeline that can support recurring tournaments, deeper fields and, eventually, a lasting destination status in Central Oregon disc golf.