CEDAR LAKE | When Barrett White made the transition to disc golf from ultimate Frisbee -- or make that "ultimate" as the sport is now called to avoid trademark infraction -- you would think she'd adopted a less stressful endeavor.
Though ultimate is classified as a non-contact sport, it's essentially football with a Frisbee ... or rather a flying disc. And as a "handler" for her Michigan State University club team, White sustained a variety of injuries, including a separated shoulder, wrenched ankles and several concussions.
"My body just took too much of beating," said White, a Forest Park resident, who played on men's, women's and coed ultimate teams.
"But the thing that makes disc golf so hard for me compared to ultimate is that when you make a bad throw in ultimate, you can immediately make up for it on defense. When you make a bad throw in disc golf, you've got a wait about 10 minutes for your next chance."
At the Matt Lovakso "Homie" Memorial Disc Golf Tournament held Oct. 5-6 at Lemon Lake County Park, White won the Women's Pro Open division with a 36-hole score of 118 ahead of Sarah Demar (122) and Colleen Thompson (126).
"I've played better, but I love playing here, especially this time of the year when everything is so pretty," said White, who has a special affinity toward Lemon Lake.
In 2010 when Lemon Lake hosted the Pro Disc Golf Association World Championships, White won the Women's Masters division. Next year, Lemon Lake will host the 2013 PDGA World Championships.
"Oh, I'll be there," said White, who even had her wedding reception amid the Lemon Lake links. "Hopefully, there will be more women. Right now, we represent about seven percent of disc golf players. We're shooting for 10 percent by next year."
After the first round that Sunday, Al Hermosillo, of Blue Island, shot a nine-under 49 on Lemon Lake's silver course and was leading Tony Ganger, of Goshen, by one shot in his quest to defend his Men's Pro Open title.
"It was back and fourth from there," Hermosillo said of subsequent round on the blue course. "It was a good battle, but at hole 15, (Ganger) took over."
Ganger shot a 47 the second round to Hermosillo's 50 and, thus, won by two shots.
"I managed to hit some long putts," Ganger said. "I've been playing some pretty good golf this year. I've won several other tourneys.
"I've been playing for seven years, but in the last two I've really improved my game. I'm much more consistent and don't shank my shots as much."
The 11th-annual tournament is held in memory of Munster resident Matt Lovasko, who was one of the top amateur players in the nation before he died in an apartment fire in September of 2001.
"It's kind of strange; you see Andy Griffith on the Andy Griffith Show and you refer to him as always being that age in your mind," said tournament director Jay Svitko, who was a friend of Lovasko's. "Matt would have been 33 years old today, but he'll always be that 21-year-old joyful kid to us. Sometimes I wonder what he would look like ... what his kids would have looked like if he were alive today.
"This tournament feels like an extra holiday for me. It's a good way to keep Matt's spirit alive. Whenever he played, Matt always tried to show people that you can really enjoy the game if you don't take it so seriously all the time."
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