The 2021 KC Ice Bowl Raises Close to $15K

Despite the pandemic or maybe because of it, Kansas City disc golfers generously supported the 2021 Kansas City Ice Bowl with a record donation of $14,895 shared by our two charities—the Bishop Sullivan Center and the Mission Project. This smashed the previous best of $11,500 in 2018.

Unable to hold the traditional Ice Bowl Sunday celebration/reunion with its chili, beer, rum balls, fundraising games, and other merriment, we had to adapt. Scott Reek engineered a very complex online registration at Disc Golf Scene that let people register at the six satellite events, purchase mulligans and Ice Bowl merchandise, and to make additional donations. A cool innovation was the global option, which allowed people to register and play at a course and a group of their choosing or not to play at all but still be part of the charitable giving. Another innovation was at flat entry fee of $10 that was not tied to merchandise.

Rick Rothstein reprised the Frosty 50, aiming for $5,000 via 50 $100 donations. This raised $4,395 with 26 giving at least $100 and several who donated less. Special mention goes to those who donated more than a C-note: Joshua Jarvis ($1,000), Kristie Svejda ($500), Kelly Babbit ($250), Katherine Delmond ($200), and Josh Query and Jack Lowe ($150). Others donating $100 were Michael Bellacio, Elizabeth Borg-Bowman, John Chapman, Scott Conner, Rhonda & Ben Crosby, Chris Davis, Jarrett Johnson, Ted Keith, Chris Kirk, Natalie Kraft, Michael Kreuger, Kevin Montgomery, John Meyers, Landon Quigley, Rick Rothstein, Don Sears, Rich Smith, Duane Steiner, Chris Timko, and Enrique Thomas.

Chris Timko initiated an online auction with donated merchandise that netted $1,670 including Dynamic Discs KC ($475), Grip EQ ($405), Timkotronics ($150), and Millennium ($110). Chris also donated $150 from selling a rare Discmania disc. 

Other money came from $3,310 in online entry fees, $2,089 mulligans sold, and $552 donated via registration, notably $200 from John Theiss. Dave Huber and John Owen each donated $100. The law firm of Long and Robinson law firm donated $350, as did Scott Reek, who sold course commemorative discs.

While the KC Ice Bowl emphasizes charity, fun, and participation, there was some good competition as well. The 2021 KC Ice Bowl Champion is Jose Ossa, who was also the 2019 champ. His 27-hole total of 58 was three better than Phil Schmeltz, and four clear of third-place finishers defending champion Curtis Cooper and CD Steiner. 

All told there were 321 eighteen-hole rounds played by 263 players. Alex Mense played in all six of the satellite events and was the medalist at Swope (46). Two people played in four events, nine played in three, and 46 played in two. Other event winners were Cooper and Schmeltz at Bad Rock (37), Ossa at Wilbur Young (36), James Riley at Prairie Center (44), Christian Alsman and Eric Eastwood at Lakeshore (46), and Harold Berciunas at Rosedale (39). 

Worth noting are these Ice Bowl aces: Marcus Hellig #4, Zach Garza #5, Josh “Kujo” Kujawa #12, and Bobby Dorsel #12 at Bad Rock; Cody Barker #4 at Wilbur Young; and Scott Lawson #3 at Rosedale. Go here for all the results. Thanks to Kujo (BRC), Keith Glendenning (WY), Cade Garrelts (PC), Brandon Young (LS), Steph Oleson (RD), Jerry Patterson (RD final 9), and Tina Patterson (SW Final 9) for their administrative assistance at each course.

The 2022 Kansas City Ice Bowl hopes to benefit from the innovations from this year as well as once again holding the celebrated Ice Bowl Sunday, complete with close talking, hugging, and a more robust final 9.