Tag Archive for: #flinggolf

Kerr Lake Country Club

SportsTalk: Kerr Lake FlingGolf Open Coming June 5-7

/by

FlingGolf is taking over the links at Kerr Lake Country Club this weekend for a three-day pro-am tournament.

The Kerr Lake Open begins Friday with a doubles match at 1 p.m. The individual tournament days are Saturday and Sunday. And whether you’re a ranked player in the national league or just wondered what the heck FlingGolf is all about, there’s a place for you this weekend, said David Norton and Sam Scannell (rhymes with flannel).

“You can be brand new to the sport – never picked up a FlingStick – and still come out and play,”

Scannell, currently ranked #2 in World League FlingGolf, said he wants to make Kerr Lake Country Club the Southeast hub for this curious young sport that basically involves playing golf with something akin to a lacrosse stick.

Norton joined the FlingGolf community a few years ago, but Scannell has been onboard since its inception back in 2012.

Players use the same FlingStick to hurl golf balls from the tee to the fairway, from the fairway to the green and then putt into the cup. There’s no need to know a wedge from a driver or a putter from a wood – players just use one stick, Norton explained.

This weekend’s tournament will bring top players from all over to the local club, Norton said. There are close to a dozen teams signed up, and he expects more to register. They hope to have 40 or so participants.

If you’re curious about how the game is played, come on out to Kerr Lake Country Club this weekend and see firsthand what it’s all about.

Following the tournament, the two hope to be able to host some clinics at KLCC to help spread the word about FlingGolf and help anybody who wants to learn to play.

They’d like to eventually get a team together that will travel to tournaments across the nation.

Norton said, “Accolades and the wins are fine, but it’s more about the growth of the sport at this point, which is cool.”

Register for the Kerr Lake Open at the country club’s website https://www.kerrlakecountryclub.com/ or call 252.492.1895.

 

CLICK PLAY!

TownTalk: World FlingGolf Tournament Coming to Kerr Lake Country Club

/by

FlingGolf is a “thing,” and it’s coming to Henderson this weekend.

Exactly what, you may ask, is this thing called fling?

Well, picture, if you will, a lacrosse stick – you know, it’s a long stick with a little basket or cup on one end of it.

Now picture a group of folks, those modified lacrosse sticks in hand, on a golf course. And instead of teeing up the ball in the tee box, the golf ball is nestled in that little cup and gets flung instead of whacked with a driver down the fairway.

Sound interesting? That’s what Johnathan Norton thought when he first started reading about FlingGolf five or so years ago.

It’s been around for a decade or more, but it’s just been in the past few years that the word’s gotten out about this novel sport. And now Henderson has landed the first stop on a national fling golf tour.

Johnathan and his father David Norton were guests on Monday’s TownTalk to talk about the North Carolina Open set for Mar. 29 and 30 at Kerr Lake Country Club. There’s an 8:30 a.m. shotgun start both days, and spectators are welcome. So far, more than 40 people have registered for the tournament, which kicks off the 2025 New Swarm Tour, a 10-tournament series that takes players up and down the East Coast, as well as West Virginia, Missouri and California.

“A lot of the top players will be here,” Johnathan said, including one who lives in Durham, who Johnathan said is the world’s longest flinger with flings of 240 or 250 yards.

According to David, one of the advantages to playing FlingGolf is that no alterations to the golf course are necessary. “You play it just like golf. You just play it like that and have fun with it,” he said.

And players don’t need much equipment, Johnathan said. “One fling stick, one golf ball and you’re good to go.”

Tournament rules state that players have to use the same stick all the way from the tee “fling” to the hole for the entire round; everyday players can choose from among different sticks if they’d like, more like traditional golfers do during a round.

The strategy is quite similar to traditional golf, too, the local FlingGolfers agree. And just like golf clubs, fling sticks are made of different composite materials to accommodate players’ skills and needs.

So when golfers need to “fling” around a dog leg right, they can put a little English on that fling stick and send that ball, hopefully, in the right direction. Ditto with sandtraps and other hazards, same as regular golf.

“There are some people on the tour who are really good at it – I’m still learning,” he said, but “it’s definitely possible…shot-shaping definitely comes into play.”

Visit https://flinggolf.com/pages/wlf to register for the tournament.

Click Play!