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.

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