Pete May is determined to make Augusta into a golf town.

Well, a disc golf town.

First, the Professional Disc Golf Association was lured into moving its headquarters to Columbia County from Toronto last year. Now May, a disc golf enthusiast - currently the world's second-ranked over-60 player - has won a bid to bring next year's world championships to Augusta.

He has a year to make the most of it. And he plans to.

Sometime in the months leading up to the 2006 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships here Aug. 8-13, every man, woman and child in the CSRA should know something about the sport that's taking flight.

Meanwhile, there are plans for four new disc golf courses near the PDGA headquarters in Columbia County's Wildwood Park - developed courtesy of the PDGA.

Those courses won't be ready by next August. Instead, the nearly 300 professional disc golfers who land in Augusta will play two existing courses and one specially-built one: the courses now at Lake Olmstead in Augusta and Riverview Park in North Augusta, and a specially designed championship-length course May is already plotting out at the Hippodrome in North Augusta.

In the year leading up to the world championships, May hopes to engage the media, the corporate world and families in learning about the joys of disc golf - which is played similarly to golf, only using flying discs and an elevated basket rather than a hole in the ground.

It's a sport that features many of the rewards of golf - competition for all ages and experience levels, outdoor time and beautiful scenery - without some of the barriers that might keep some from regular golf: expensive equipment, greens fees and extreme eye-hand coordination.

Sometime in the mid-20th century, Augusta became the cradle of golf. Pete May hopes the same phenomenon is happening now with regard to disc golf.

Here's thinking we've got a shot at it.

(To learn more, visit the Web site www.pdga.org.)