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Personal Best: Event welcomes 70 players from across Canada
Published Nov 13, 2025 • Last updated 21 hours ago • 4 minute read
Alicia Hums, far left, Colleen McInnes, and Alexandra Poletto, analyze their next hole at the Nickel City Open Disc Golf Tournament in Coniston, Ont. on Nov. 8, 2025. Photo by Laura E. Young /For The Sudbury StarArticle content
And, so.
You tell everyone you’re building a championship-level disc golf course in Sudbury. We’re going to have a tournament in November.
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All the people you play with all summer promise to come.
But do they?
Such is the disc golf community that in the case of the first-ever Nickel City Open, the answer was a resounding yes, even though the Nov. 7-9 weekend weather alternated between wet, then bright, windy and cold.
At the new course over at the Twin Stacks Golf Course in Coniston, the Nickel City Disc Golf Club welcomed 70 players from across Canada. Competing across 10 divisions, players ranged in age from young adults to players in their 70s.
Professional players and local teachers, Alicia and Thomas Hums, helped design the course with Thomas Gilbert. Gilbert is a Laurentian University student and two-time national champion.
“We wanted to grow the community. We thought, why not have another course? Why am I going out of town every weekend when I can have multiple options around here?” Alicia said Saturday as she walked between holes, en route to finishing second in the women’s pro open division.
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“It’s exciting to have people here for a tournament. It’s fun to see all the people we always drive down to see come up and visit us. It’s an absolute blast.”
They wanted to make this tournament different, she added.
“We wanted people to walk away from here (saying) ‘I’m a real winner.’ Lots of prize money, lots of swag to walk away with.”
As for the course itself, they wanted variety in the holes. The 18-hole course runs parallel to the ball-and-hole course, using trees, bushes and other natural barriers to add to the challenge.
“We didn’t want the same shot on every hole. We wanted to challenge you every step of the way. We figured that’s a good way to get better at disc golf. Make a course that’s fun but asks a lot of the players.”
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Colleen McInnes winds up to deliver at the Nickel City Open Disc Golf Tournament in Coniston, Ont. on Nov. 8, 2025. The Burlington school teacher won the women’s pro division. Photo by Laura E. Young /For The Sudbury Star
“We come up every year for another tournament. We’re always playing tournaments all over Ontario,” said Colleen McInnes, winner of the women’s pro open and a teacher in Burlington.
“Thomas and Alicia are some of the biggest tournament goers. So, we wanted to show our support. It’s always a good time coming to Sudbury. We knew it would be well run.”
For Alexandra Poletto, fourth in the women’s pro, the trees and other obstacles added to the challenge.
“It forces you into some uncomfortable positions; it’s not just a free-for-all all. You have to be very technical. They’ve done a really good job varying the types of shots. Almost every hole is slightly different in shot shape, which makes it that you have to be good at everything. You can’t have just one speciality (shot).”
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Poletto also came to see the new course.
“We heard really good things. They put in a lot of hard work over the summer. So far so good.”
November in Sudbury? Definitely.
Then there was the matter of the November tournament date.
“You want to attract people in November. It’s chilly and yesterday was horrible,” Dan Gamsby said of the weather on Nov. 7. “But the course was full in that rain, with people practising. It was packed. Because of cash.”
“It’s the purse of this tournament. And a lot of people know Tom and Alicia Hums. They’re both touring professionals in Ontario and they have a lot of respect from the community. A lot of people wanted to come up and support them as well.”
Competing for over $3,000, the winner of each division receives a cut of the pie.
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Alicia Hums had a hand in designing the third disc golf course in Sudbury. Here she lines up her shot at the Nickel City Open Disc Golf Tournament in Coniston, Ont. on Nov. 8, 2025. She finished second in the women’s pro division. Photo by Laura E. Young /For The Sudbury Star
The club formed in 2025 to help grow the sport across the city and give players more options to play, said Dan Gamsby, a board director with Nickel City DG.
They broke ground at Twin Stacks last spring. The course is off the main golf course, said Gamsby.
“We use all the woods around the golf course. We go across a couple of the fairways. We integrate with the natural environment.”
They wanted to host a tournament even though it’s their first year as a club. Disc golfers want a good course and a good challenge, he said.
If they know it’s going to be that way, they will come, he added.
“A disc golf course can be a tourism destination. If your course is ranked one of the higher courses in Ontario, which we are. That word gets out.”
Tournament results can be found at www.pdga.com/tour/event/91318.
The tournament was held at Twin Stacks in Coniston, just east of Sudbury. There are two other local courses: a six-hole at Kivi Park and a 22-hole course in the Donovan run by the Lions Club of Sudbury.
Laura E. Young’s Personal Best column appears regularly in The Sudbury Star. Follow Laura on Instagram: @leywriter.
Rocks and trees were half the challenge for this half of the women’s pro division at the Nickel City Open Disc Golf Tournament in Coniston, Ont. on Nov. 8, 2025. Pictured are Colleen McInnes, left, of Burlington, Alexandra Poletto of Toronto and Alicia Hums of Sudbury. Photo by Laura E. Young /For The Sudbury Star
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