LEICESTER – Kyle Moriarty is a golfer. In fact, he’s one of the best in the world, but you probably haven’t heard of him. You won’t see him playing the Masters Tournament at Augusta or watch him on the PGA tour. He is not a golfer in the traditional sense. Moriarty is a disc golfer.

Instead of a golf ball, disc golf is a sport in which players throw a disc at a target. Like traditional golf, disc golf is played on a course with nine or 18 holes. Players complete a hole by throwing a plastic disc toward a target, known as a basket. Each subsequent throw is taken where the prior throw landed until the basket is reached. Similar to regular golf, the number of throws a player uses to reach each basket is tallied in relation to par. The goal is to complete each hole in the lowest number of total throws.

On Labor Day weekend, Moriarty, a Worcester native and a teacher in an elementary school in Auburn, competed against 144 of the top disc golfers in the world at the Maple Hill Disc Golf Course in Leicester at the recent MVP Open event.  The event brings together 144 of the top men and 48 of the top women disc golfers in the country.

Moriarty has been playing disc golf for 11 years, picking it up as a student at Springfield College, where he studied to be a physical education teacher. “I was in a class led by one of disc golf’s pioneers, Davis Johnson, who was the first player credited with throwing his Frisbee over 400 feet,” Moriarty said. “After that I fell in love with the sport and played a lot.”

Soon after, he started playing local and regional tournaments. Moriarty was “the most nervous I’ve ever been in my life teeing off at my first tournament down the road at the Pyramids Disc Golf Course (in Leicester).”

Moriarty’s love for the sport is fueled by the fact it is so accessible.  “Just about anyone can pick it up and find enjoyment,” he said. “No matter your age or athletic ability.” He said the best way to get into the sport is to buy, or borrow, a frisbee and head out to a local course. “Don’t worry about being good, just go have some fun,” he said.

Moriarty is now one of the top players in New England. He usually gets invited to play in the professional tour events, such as the MVP Open, but he maintains his day job as a teacher.  “I feel like I have the potential to be successful if I ever went out to [all the] pro tour events, but unfortunately the prize money isn’t there yet for someone like me who has a great job with benefits doing something else I love – teaching … And that takes a lot of the pressure off me at tournaments, since I’m really playing just for pride.”

Moriarty said disc golf professionals, both locally and nationally, tend to be very sociable and friendly. He truly enjoys the comradery from the other golfers. “It’s like a giant family,” he said. “Players often travel together from tournament to tournament to cut down on expenses, and go out after playing their rounds.”

The game’s elite players are generally in their late 20’s and early 30’s, but he sees “a lot of good young players coming into the sport who are between 18 and mid-20’s.”

Moriarty has two sponsor partners that he credits with helping him improve his game. They are Good Sports Disc Golf, a disc golf retailer located at goodsportsdiscgolf.com. Good Sports was started by a fellow teacher which donates proceeds to help organizations that serve adults with autism. His second sponsor, Disc Golf Brah, is “a fun and energetic group of disc golfers” on Youtube and other social media platforms.

Moriarty is still looking to grow as a player and he said the most challenging part of his game is putting.  “For some reason, it’s the last piece of the puzzle to consistently come together for me.  I feel like I can play with anyone when my putting is on.”

Moriarty said he enjoys competing at Maple Hill, which ranked the best disc golf course in the country by UDisc, the world’s largest disc golf phone app. When he’s not teaching, he may be found there playing multiple rounds almost every day.

This year’s tournament winner was Wisconsin’s Adam Hammes who scored a minus-22. The top woman finisher was Catrina Allen from Minnesota, who scored a minus-four. Moriarty held his own against this stiff competition. He competed shot-for-shot with the game’s elite players. He entered the back nine of the final-round at minus-8, flirting with a top ten finish. However, he struggled on the last two holes which hurt him. He was still able to finish at minus-6, tied for 29th. He did place ahead of some of the sport’s biggest stars in the world, such as 6th ranked Kyle Klein and 9th ranked Kevin Jones.  Moriarty also finished as the best player from the Northeast region.

“Yeah, I kind of lost my concentration for a moment,” he said after the final round. “And that’s all it takes here.”