While most Athenians will be recovering from a sugary Halloween hangover or involved in the big Georgia-Florida game in Jacksonville next weekend, over 70 disc golfers – including U.S. and World Champions - will descend on 73 acres of county-owned property off Nowhere Road for two days of slinging plastic on a grueling temporary course aptly named, "The Crucible."

Disc golf – where players use a specific style of Frisbee to reach their next basket with as few throws as possible – is currently the fastest growing sport, and for nearly 10 years, Athens hosted tournaments at The Crucible that featured the top players in the world. After a 5-year hiatus, this year's return with the Prodigy Disc Presents the 2014 Flying Eye Open at The Crucible tournament is so popular, general registration sold out in less than 3 minutes. First place for the Open division is $2000, but that's not what draws the players – it's all about the course. Three-time and current U.S. Champion Will Schusterick and 2014 Women's World Champion Catrina Allen headline a group of top-rated Pros excited to take the challenge.

"The Crucible is going to challenge all players, no matter the skill level," says Schusterick, who counts The Crucible as one of his favorite courses (and placed 3rd in 2008 when he was only 16 years old). "With the elevation changes, tight gaps, and long holes, it's going to be tough to navigate 18 holes without any trouble." "That course was ahead of its time. It's one of my favorite courses of all time," says 2009 Masters World Champion Phil Arthur, who's won the tournament twice before. "[Athens local] Doug Porter did a phenomenal job of designing that course."

"The land is spectacular," says Porter, who is also the officiating tournament director. "There are at least 8 holes out there that would be the signature hole on most courses. It's just a really special place for me and, I've been pleased to learn, for a lot of other people as well." Porter also co-designed the disc golf course at Sandy Creek Park with fellow Athenian Rob McMaken, and co-designed with Planet Earth Designs' co-founder Ryan Harris the Alexander Park course, considered one of the most played courses in Atlanta. But The Crucible is all Porter's design, and in disc golf terms, it's praised for its design that punishes the bad and rewards the good.

"It's a perfect name for the course, because it will flat hang you up on a tree if you don't play within your game," says Arthur, who loves The Crucible so much, Prodigy Disc. the company he founded and is part owner of, is the title sponsor of the tournament.

"You have to play golf, literally, instead of just throwing toward a target and putting and moving on," he says. "Or, one of my frustrations, playing where there's not a legitimate fairway. When we play and travel and it's for money - and if you don't play well, you don't make money - it's frustrating when you play a course and you do play well and you hit random trees and kick off into the trash or whatever, and somebody has a worse shot than you and gets lucky."