FAIRHOPE, Alabama - It may have started as just a fling, but Fairhopers Pat Searle and her husband Rock seriously flung themselves to world-wide prominence in the sport of disc golf after meeting in 1975 and marrying in 1978.

That included a Pro-Am World title for Pat in 2000 while Rock became the first competitor to ace back-to-back holes in a world-championship that same year. And both won individual and team competitions on the European circuit and German championship titles in Berlin in 1989 while serving with the U.S. Air Force before retiring to Fairhope.

Pat also became a top competitor in the newly evolving game of ultimate frisbee before a knee injury sidelined her. “Ultimate,” which is a combination of football, basketball and soccer is now an NCAA sanctioned sport.

For the Detroit-area Michigan natives who had traveled all over Europe and much of the U.S., the Fairhope Single Tax Colony and its bay-side neighborhoods turned out to be, “Just a great place to learn how to be civilians again,” Pat said.

“My husband’s parents discovered Fairhope on their way to Florida one year,” she said. “They pretty much decided to retire here on the spot. Then Rock and I fell in love with Fairhope too after we visited here.”

After their son Matt graduated from Fairhope High, Searle and her husband started competing seriously again in disc golf tournaments at local, state and regional levels which eventually qualified them for national pro-am events. In the mid 1990s they helped build the Fairways of Fairhope course at Fairhope Municipal Park. Rock helped design the course. The course now encircles much of the Volanta Avenue Park’s recreational area.

“In the late 90’s we got back into it and just had a lot of fun with it, but we also had a lot of success winning a lot in our divisions. But then in 1999 I had my best year to that point and we both had accumulated enough points to qualify for the world championships in 2000. That year the worlds were in Michigan in Ann Arbor not too far from where both of us grew up, so that was pretty cool.”

But Searle said she got off to a bad start falling as many as 13 strokes behind the leader in the third round of a six- round final, but rallied over the next two days to win the 2000 advanced womens 50-and-up world crown by five strokes. A major comeback charge made even more dramatic because she had never played the course before. “It really felt amazing,” she said.

After that, she decided to turn pro, but found the demands of traveling and competing for a living more difficult and less fun than she had hoped.

“So I decided to put up the cleats as a pro competitor. Now I really enjoy promoting and teaching the sport. And also helping out with these tournaments we have and turning people on to the sport,” she said during a weekly local competition which sometimes charges a small entry fee to help provide extra maintenance and improvements to the course such as the recently placed tee-boxes for each hole.

“If I meet someone who is getting started and really interested in it, I’ll donate plastic (golf discs) and give some pointers. We have some really good players in the Mobile and Baldwin area. So we’re always happy to get the word out about this sport. It’s a lot of fun recreationally but it offers a lot for people with a real competitive side, too.”

That night she autographed and donated a disc to a female newcomer who showed up with a disc too heavy for her.

The Searles also work and play with Steven Street who manages Mile North Disc Golf which sells disc sports equipment and accessories. Street also organizes and directs games—referred to as ‘rounds’— for casual to serious players. A tournament usually consists of multiple rounds. The sport is often called frisbee golf after the popular flying toy unofficially named after the Frisbee Pie Company’s tins. In fact, disc golf discs vary by weight and come in different sizes and shapes compared to the general-purpose version. The optimum disc for a particular throw may depend on player preference and the type of shot to be taken, much like different clubs are used in golf.

“This is a great course and we try to promote it for use as much as possible,” Street said. “We want people to enjoy the course as well as the sport itself and we encourage everybody to be respectful and mindful of others. It’s a great sport for families of all ages to enjoy together and it’s really inexpensive, especially compared to regular or traditional golf. And summer when kids are out of school or on the weekends— great times to come out. We do have tournaments and regular, what we call casual, rounds.”

As the name Mile North Disc Golf states, the shop is about a mile north of the Hwy. 98 entrance to Fairhope Municipal Park at Parker Road and Hwy. 98. For information contact info@milenorthdiscgolf.com

Searle also said the sport is a good way to bring people together.

“I recommend it for all ages,” she said. “You can never be too young or too old to get started and it’s a fun activity for the whole family, or couples, or even by yourself. It can be kind of relaxing— and a lot less frustrating than regular golf. And a lot less expensive, too.”

Street said one of the more popular casual rounds to play for experienced or novice players is held most Saturday mornings with an 8 a.m., start.