Discs replaced balls and clubs at DeLaveaga golf course Sunday for the first time in the history of the course, an important step towards bringing together two sports which are wildly different in spite of the fact that they are almost identical.

Aside from their shared goal of maneuvering a small and cumbersome object to a distant but precise location, ball golfers and disc golfer often reside on opposite sides of a vast cultural chasm. In many ways the sports are like opposites: Ball golf is expensive, but disc golf is free. Ball golf is played on vast manicured lawns, and disc golf involves wading through a sea of poison oak. Ball golfers are known for being dignified and well dressed, while disc golfers do not necessarily have that reputation.

But if disc golf is ball golf's hillbilly cousin, then Sundays family reunion went over pretty darn smooth. For the first time the DeLaveaga Golf Club opened it's back nine holes to nearly 100 disc golfers for the 'Good Neighbor Open,' a Disc Golf Association sanctioned competition.

Sunday's competition was a dream come true for Chris Edwards. "I have dreamed of just letting them rip on these long grassy fairways for all the years I have driven through on the way to DeLa, (the disc golf course further up the road)," said Edwards. "I'm kinda giddy right now."

The green fairways were kind to Mark Rose, 33, a farmer from Watsonville, who ended the round in a three-way tie for 1st place in men's open division, at 6-under par.

"You definitely can't beat this, " said Rose,. "This course definitely suits my game. I play a lot at Pinto Lake, which is mostly wide open shots, so this was actually a kind of similar experience."

Rose shared the win, his first, with Shasta Criss and Myles Harding. The wide open greens came as a welcome change to many players who have grown used to the brambles and thickets of the area disc golf courses.