When Australian Disc Golf sent a team to Vancouver in August 2016, they were entering uncharted territory. The PDGA and WFDF had joined forces to create something that had never existed before: a national team world championship. Six nations answered the call. Australia was one of them.

The course played across the ski slopes of Grouse Mountain and through Queen Elizabeth Park in downtown Vancouver, dramatic settings for a historic occasion. In a field of six, Australia finished fifth, ahead of Brazil. But the scoreline was beside the point. The team had worn the green and gold, stood at a start line alongside teams from Canada, New Zealand, Japan and the USA, and shown that Australian disc golf belonged on the world stage.

The ADG produced fundraiser shirts in green and gold and navy and gold to help get the team make the journey. Kingsley Flett, who has photographed and written about Australian disc golf for decades, competed in the Masters division. David Bandy would later become ADG president. Patrick Robinson, making his international debut here, would go on to co-captain the team to a silver medal eight years later in Perth.

The largest team Australia had ever assembled for international disc golf made the long journey to remote Ida-Virumaa, Estonia, to compete in a 17-nation field. For many it was their first experience of international team competition under a national flag. The format of country-versus-country match play was one rarely played in Australia, adding a layer of tactical complexity to an already challenging environment.

Before leaving, the team had resourcefully sought out the one Australian who knew match play at the highest level: Chris Himing, ADG Hall of Famer and 1993 World Team Champion. Himing had competed in the very first World Team Championships in Hitachi, Japan, where his team of four (two Americans, a Japanese player, and himself) famously defeated the favourites, a team featuring 12-time world champion Ken Climo. He shared that knowledge generously with the 2019 squad. “The feeling of standing on the podium with your team-mates, being crowned World Team Champions, was an honour, privilege and true thrill,” he told the team.

Co-captains Jonathan Jonas and Ken Summers handled rostering, tactics, and coordination throughout the event. On Day 2, the squad welcomed a replacement player: Natalie Jones stepped in using the spare registration spot left by Ken-Kristjan Toomjoe, who had registered but was unable to travel. She partnered with Ken Summers in the FPO/Masters doubles on Day 2 — and they won.

Kairi Koobakene opened the campaign with Australia’s first win, defeating Spain’s FPO player in six holes. By the end of the Russia match on Day 2, the team had collected four wins: JJ and Andre in MPO doubles, Archer Shaw in the junior singles, and Ken and Natalie in the Masters/FPO doubles. Jacob Stanley’s singles match went down to the wire, with the Russian player sealing it with an ace on the final hole.

The scoreline (16th of 17) doesn’t tell the real story. This campaign established the team’s identity and a culture that would fuel the dramatic improvement seen three years later in Croatia. The seeds planted in Estonia grew into a silver medal.

Twenty-six nations. Two hundred and fifty-four athletes. Four hundred and fifty-six rounds of match play. The largest World Teams Disc Golf Championship ever held, played on two courses on the banks of the River Drava in Varaždin, Croatia — and Australia, seeded 11th, went and finished 5th.

They lost to Canada in a heartbreaking quarter-final. Canada went on to win bronze. Australia regrouped, won a tense 5th-place playoff against Germany, and then received an award no scoreline can capture — the Spirit Award, voted for by every other nation at the event. It was a powerful endorsement of the culture the team had built.

The first WFDF Asia-Oceania Teams Disc Golf Championship was organised at relatively short notice, and Australia’s team of nine was assembled quickly — some players barely knowing each other before they arrived in Taipei. Captain Aaron Moreton made it his mission from day one to turn near-strangers into a unit, instilling a sense of national pride in the jersey from the opening team meeting.

It worked. Australia matched and beat higher-ranked opposition throughout the event, coming within two holes of the gold medal match. The bronze they came home with was hard-fought, and for many players in the squad, the experience lit a fire that wouldn’t go out.

Australia hosted the fifth edition of the WFDF World Teams Disc Golf Championship — the first ever held in the southern hemisphere — at Mundaring Disc Golf Venue in the Perth Hills. Then they went and reached the gold medal final.

Seeded 8th, the Sugar Gliders powered through the draw to face back-to-back world champions Estonia in the final. They pushed hard. Estonia held on, finishing the tournament with a record of 30 wins, 3 draws and 1 loss across the entire event. The silver medal Australia took home was the best result in the history of Australian team disc golf — and it earned them a place at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu.

Behind the numbers was one of the campaign’s defining stories. Co-captain Cassie Sweetten broke her ankle during practice the day before competition began. She couldn’t play a single competitive round. Instead, in a moonboot, she spent the week as co-captain, selector, caddy, motivator and mentor — trekking over 35km through Australian bushland across the full campaign.

Disc golf returned to The World Games for the first time in 24 years, and Australia earned their place at the table. Blake Houston and Cassie Sweetten — one of the youngest and one of the most experienced players in Australian disc golf — represented the country in a mixed doubles alternate-shot format against 15 other nations at Guixi Ecological Park in Chengdu.

Competing against the world’s best pairings, including world number ones Gannon Buhr and Missy Gannon for the USA, Australia drew with Lithuania before losing to Norway and Canada. Most rounds were shortened from 18 to 12 holes due to significant Chengdu summer heat. Australia finished 14th of 16 nations and did not advance past pool play.

The campaign mattered beyond the scoreline. Australia qualified for this event on the back of their silver medal in Perth, and being in the room — competing at a multi-sport world games alongside the sport’s best nations — is a marker of how far Australian disc golf has come since six teams gathered on a ski mountain in Vancouver in 2016.

The sixth edition of the WFDF World Teams Disc Golf Championship takes place at Pūčkorių Disc Golf Park in Vilnius, Lithuania. For the first time in the event’s history, Australia will field two separate teams: an Open team (MPO and FPO) and a Masters team (MP40, FP40, MP50). It’s the largest Australian disc golf campaign ever assembled for a single international event.