Mad Tree Foundation backs free youth disc golf championship in Idaho
Free entry and $3,000 in added merchandise drew 140 junior players to Farragut State Park, turning Little Black Bear into a pipeline for Idaho disc golf.
Mad Tree Foundation’s backing of a free junior championship in Athol was bigger than a one-day trophy chase. By removing entry fees and adding $3,000 in merchandise, the Inland Northwest Juniors Disc Golf Championships gave boys and girls from ages 4 through 18 a real on-ramp into sanctioned play, not just another expensive stop on the tournament calendar.
The PDGA listed the event as an Amateur Junior C-Tier on May 30 at Farragut State Park, with Andy Parkison as tournament director and 140 total players in the field. The tournament was hosted by Juniors Disc Golf Club and run as a single round, with free entry across junior divisions from MJ06/FJ06 through MJ18/FJ18. That matters in a sport where travel, registration and gear can keep families out of the bracket entirely; here, the price tag was not the gatekeeper. The Mad Tree Foundation, a 501(c)(3) focused on building stronger communities through disc golf, put its name behind a model built to widen participation instead of narrowing it.
The setting fit the mission. Little Black Bear at Farragut State Park is an 18-hole permanent course established in 2006, and the PDGA describes it as very short and built for youngsters and beginners. Trees and slight topography shape the shot-making, which gives junior players a chance to learn controlled lines without being overwhelmed by distance. Farragut also offers other disc golf options, including Wreckreator and North Star, reinforcing the park’s status as one of Idaho’s top disc golf hubs and a place where a family can make a day of it. Local tourism materials already frame Little Black Bear as an inviting introduction to the sport, and the park’s disc golf culture gave the championship a natural home.
The leaderboard showed the event had real competitive weight. Gage Martin won MJ18, Aurora Lippard topped FJ18, Caleb Schurter claimed MJ15, Katherine Murphy won FJ15, and Koa Oucharek tied Sawyer Coulter in MJ12. Those results underscored the point of the sponsorship: this was not a symbolic clinic dressed up as a tournament. It was a sanctioned junior championship with enough depth to produce multiple age-group winners and enough access to invite a broader next generation into the game.
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