CRANBERRY TWP — The Butler County Disc Golf Classic was an “in-betweener.”

It was a success nonetheless.

The three-day Silver Series event on the Professional Disc Golf Tour — played on North Boundary Park’s course in Cranberry Township over the weekend — attracted 99 players representing six countries. Players were on hand from Canada, Estonia, Norway, Finland and Sweden as well as the United States. The event featured 78 male and 21 female players, including Kristin Tattar, the top-ranked women’s disc golfer in the world, from Estonia.

“She’s been the star here,” assistant tournament director Eric Nichols said Sunday. “Kristin probably spent a half-hour signing autographs after she came off the course on Saturday.”

Tattar won the women’s portion of the event by shooting 16-under-par. Jessica Weese of Grass Valley, Calif., finished second, eight strokes behind.

Joel Freeman of Loveland, Colo., won the men’s portion of the Classic by shooting 26-under-par. Runner-up was Chandler Kramer of Lorena, Texas. Freeman received $2,200 for winning while Tattar picked up $1,800.

But the real winner of the Butler County Disc Golf Classic was disc golf, itself.

“We originally had 140 players registered, but some dropped out because of the timing of the tournament,” Nichols said. “The world championships were last week in Kansas and the Tour playoffs begin next weekend in Vermont. Some players decided to take a break in between.

“The Silver Series is a step below the Tour’s Elite Series. A lot of the top pros still play, but you get a lot more regional players at Silver Series events. The end goal here is to get this (North Boundary) park to get an Elite Series tournament.”

Most of the participating players this weekend believe that may happen.

“It’s a challenging course, for sure,” Canadian disc golfer Martin Hendl said. “It’s got everything you would want in a disc golf course, minus the water, and that’s a good thing.

“There’s a lot of trees here, but the course is fairly new. Some of those trees will eventually die, some may be cut down. (Shooting) lines will be formed and the course will improve in quality. It’s pretty good right now.”

The course played $10,000 feet long for the men, 8,500 feet for the women.

“Players were out there for four hours,” Nichols said of a typical round at the County Classic. “It’s a good five miles of walking.”

Hendl said he plays in 20 to 25 pro tournaments a year. He was 7-over-par in the County Classic.

Knut Valen Haland is from Norway and was 4-over-par for the weekend.

Pittsburgh Penguins goaltender Casey DeSmith, an avid disc golfer, was 14-over-par. Local players included Butler’s Cody Winget (plus 26) and Cranberry Township’s Jeremiah Libby (plus 18).

“The course was difficult,” he said. “It is in the early stages for a disc golf course, though. I like the tee pads here. Most courses (in the U.S.) don’t have turf tee pads. We have those back home and they are easier to throw from.”

Valen Haland has played in 10 to 15 pro tournaments this year and has two or three more to go before he heads home.

“Disc golf is extremely popular in the Scandinavian countries,” Nichols said.

Its popularity is growing around here as well.

Cameron Weber ran the Camber Disc Golf tent — one of a number of vendor tents on site at the County Classic — and has been playing disc golf since 2014.

“Disc golf is exploding in this region now,” Weber said. “I remember going to play in tournaments when I got started. You could show up, pay cash, get right in and the tournament field still wouldn’t fill up. Now there’s a waiting list for every tournament. In about an hour on-line, a 144-golfer field is filled.

“Illinois is having a huge, 2,000-player tournament. The field was booked in an hour. It’s crazy.”

He estimated getting 300 visitors a day to his tent, Camber selling custom-made discs, regular discs, shirts and apparel as well.

Chains Or Dye Disc Golf, which operates on-line, had a vendor tent set up and Howie Kocher reported getting a similar number of visitors.

“A lot of players want certain artwork on their discs now,” he said. “It’s branching out. A driver disc may cost $18 to $25 these days, a putting disc as low as $12. They all range in expense, depending what the player is looking for.”

Pittsburgh Flying Disc, which helped the Butler County Tourism Bureau sponsor the tournament, has between 300 and 400 members. Pittsburgh Flying Disc advertises disc golf events in the region on its website, helping out more than 3,000 players each year.

The County Classic was the first pro disc golf event in the area since 2015, when Moraine State Park, Slippery Rick University, Deer Lakes and Knob Hill combined to host the world championships in 2015.

“Moraine State Park’s course is still ranked one of the top 20 in the world, Deer Lakes is in the top 50, North Boundary Park will soon be on that list,” Nichols said. “People have traveled from Oregon and other far-away states just to play disc golf around Pittsburgh.

“We don’t realize how fortunate we are here.”