Touring Pros, Youth & Community
Touring Pros, Youth & Community
Disc golf blossoms in Puerto Rico

Arriving in Puerto Rico, it’s a drive of less than 60 km from the capital city San Juan to the south-east corner of the island. There in the sun washed seaside town of Yabucoa you’ll discover an 18-hole course with baskets donated by Dynamic Discs and managed by Travelling Chains Puerto Rico.
Traveling Chains is led by Patrick O'Neill #197347 and Brittany Hertle #273090. Their dream of building disc golf on the Isla de Encanto began in early 2023 when they traveled the island in search of the right spot for establishing a course. Along their way they held numerous clinics, met key individuals and found a dream spot at Playa Lucia.
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As the game has grown it has benefited from a local support network that includes the families of kids and young adults who have become frequent users of the course. Key institutional support from the mayor's office of Yabucoa. Several Masters aged expats have also settled nearby. Together this network has helped not only to build and maintain the course but also to promote Disc Golf inside different schools and communities. The results have been substantial: parents give testimonies about the positive impact of the sport, local youth have found a productive use for their free time, and the game has even integrated some folk with social dysfunctions.
The climax of the local calendar is the Playa Lucia Open B-Tier, which was held December 15-16, and attracted touring pros Luke Humphries, Kevin Jones, Cale Leiviska, Paul Oman and James Conrad. They contested the top five positions in a tight bunch, with Luke emerging victorious in a playoff over KJ USA. The 17-player strong MPO division also featured three Puerto Ricans, amongst whom Idris Garcia finished highest in 10th place. The MA40 division included four local aficionados with Wilfred Rivera tying for second. 15 more Puertoriquenos competed in other divisions from a total field of 82.
Señores Humphries, Jones and Oman have in fact become frequent visitors to top events in Latin America,; they all competed in Mexico’s first ever A-Tier last January. Señor Leiviska has also visited Puerto Rico many times on holiday and expressed his pleasure that Disc Golf has now truly arrived there.
On Sunday afternoon, Traveling Chains presented a separate event just for the kids. The C-Tier Playa Lucia Juniors Championship was the closing event of the 3-Stop Youth Tour in Puerto Rico. A total of 16 juniors athletes participated; only one of whom was not Puerto Rican. After their round a special award ceremony took place where these youngsters experienced the same protocol and awards presentation that the Pros and Ams had been treated to a few hours earlier. The awards included trophies for all junior divisions, CTPs and also a cool disc swap fed by donations from the many holidaying Americans in attendance.
Overall the two days provided a great experience for the athletes. Having the course, the beach and the Caribbean Sea right across the street from the event hotel is a unique attraction. The weather befitted the occasion, with only a couple of short showers, and gentle seaside breezes that assisted the players in navigating the many palm trees. In short, Playa Lucia is rapidly becoming an ideal holiday competition destination right before the Christmas festivities that will attract many more disc golf tourists in the year ahead. Gracias Traveling Chains!
(Luis Rodriguez #228806 is the PDGA Latin America Coordinator)
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