Mason City is in the center of the bull’s eye this weekend as the nation’s third-largest archery competition is getting underway. Don Chipman is helping run the Iowa State Pro-Am Archery Tournament at the North Iowa Fairgrounds. He says the tourney is drawing archers from all across the U.S., Canada and even Australia.
With the new venue, he says participants can drop one shot outside the bull’s eye and still compete in the tournament and go on to win, whereas other tournaments in smaller venues would not allow for contestants to miss the mark even once. Chipman says the sizable cash prizes are also helping bring in more participants.
There is a 20-thousand-dollar guaranteed purse, with the top prize for an individual being potentially five or ten-thousand dollars — or more. Chipman says proceeds from the tournament will be used to help Iowa’s archery association pay for a new program to get kids interested in the sport.
He says the state’s Archery in the Schools program will introduce archery to all kids in Iowa public schools. The tournament will help pay for the equipment to make it happen. The competition will start tonight (Friday) at 6 P.M., run all day Saturday, and should conclude with the championship rounds about 2 P.M. on Sunday. For more information, see the tournament’s website at “www.isaaproam.com”.