DISCRAFT GREAT LAKES OPEN 2025 PRESENTED BY Gerrit J. Verburg

The 2025 Discraft Great Lakes Open! This was such a dream photographing this event for the presenting sponsor, Gerrit J. Verburg Co. on so many different levels. I have been dreaming of seeing the prestigious Kensington Toboggan Course in Milford, MI, for years! The icing on the cake for this event was that Gerrit J. Verburg Co., hired me to photograph this event for them.

If you don’t know who, or what Gerrit J. Verburg Co. is, they are a candy company with a longstanding historical reputation. Beeman’s Gum, one of their namesake products was originally formulated and sold in 1890, and was popular with early aviators as a good luck charm before flight. But that is just one of their products.

The Gerritt J. Verburg Co. that we know today, was founded in 1979, just one year after Discraft was founded, both companies are Michigan-based. Their products range from chewing gum, sweet sugary gummies, a variety of licorice — to my childhood favorite wafer discs filled with sprinkles.

They had a few branded shots in mind for this project. But for me, I wanted to take this to a different level. It is not everyday that you get to photograph a disc golf tournament for a non-disc golf company (that also might as well be Willy-Wonka himself), so I knew I had to pull out some different ‘stops’ that would lead more to the imagination. Slightly out of my mind and comfort zone on some of these, which is exactly where I wanted to be, and they sure were fun to create!

These are just the digital images… I am still waiting to see how the 35mm photos turned out (they are currently being developed).