Hello all! Fun, fun, fun out here on the road. The Pittsburgh Flying Disc Open was a real joy. What great bunch of people running things in the Pittsburgh area. Sure it was just a B-tier, but with only 33 Open players @ $55 each (entry fee) they still managed to put on a top notch event and even made a $1,000 first prize for the winner! Wow! Look for this event to possibly become an A-tier in the near future. It looked like tiring work for the staff. They had to run four flights of golfers per day for two days.... and climb one of the biggest hills I've ever seen a few times per day.

We stayed with our new friend Jerry Gotcher and his wife Mary-Anne for three days in their lovely home. They are old friends of Brian Mace and told us plenty of stories about his antics from the old days. It'll be fun ribbing him for awhile.

Cam Todd won the tournament. He's having quite a year. I managed to edge out Avery and Dave and finished in 8th. I finally passed the Shule Monkey off to Avery for the upcoming Patapsco Picnic. I hear that Julianna went to play in the points bonanza against the men on this weekend but haven't heard how she did. Al and Sue should show up this weekend to play. It'll be good to see them again.

Ever heard about how TDs have a thankless job? I learned last week that for many of the people who run tournaments a small part of their payoff is to read my reports of the happenings at their tournaments. This was the case at the Kansas City Wide Open this year. My last update was sort of a hurried attempt to get caught up with my writing and the KCWO sort of got short changed. My apologies to Pete Cashen, John Chapman, and the many others who helped continue the tradition of the KCWO being one of the best tournaments on tour year after year. They have some of the best courses on earth (I've always said that!), and the people doing the work have the best interests in mind for everyone involved. I guess that's the reason for the odd payout. While most tournaments pay top-heavy to the winner, the KCWO paid a little deeper and a little flatter. This works out well for me -- since I didn't finish near the top -- but is a bit of sour milk for touring players who win their first big (BIG…and I mean big) tournament against a huge field of the best pros on the planet but don't get the big payoff at the end. I suppose the staff of the KCWO also felt short changed on some of their payoff (being my story) and had no qualms about letting me know about it.

Of course, another thing I neglected to mention was Hal Baby's tremendous efforts of housing a dozen players over at his home for several days. As always it was a terrific time at Hal's. Lots of interesting people and Hal always takes it through the roof with his hospitality.

On to other things. After the PFDO we took a little trip to Sedgley Woods, home of Joe THE in Philadelphia. The people here were very excited to see us. I guess most of the traveling disc golfers don't make it to the inner city courses much. It's a tough drive in a Winnebago. Joe Mason was giving us a tour of the city on the way to the course which was a bit too involved.... we made several wrong turns and showed up a little later than planned for the doubles. It was a monstrous turn-out. A ton of fun loving disc golfers showed up and played well (if not loudly) on the beautiful little city course. The local club puts a lot of work in here and seem to be very proud of their course.... they should be. I even got a gift of some homemade sauce and meatballs from one of the local players. We all ate it that same night... delicious.

After the doubles we stayed another night with Joe THE' and explored South Street in downtown Philly. Hoppin' place to say the least.

Oh, forgot to mention that we got pulled over at 3am and searched by a couple of state troopers on our way to Pittsburgh. Once again the law was unable to bring the Winnicrew down, even after an extensive two hour search. We moved the license plate the recommended seven inches closer to a light to prevent further roadside delays.

More to come soon.
Only 47 more days till Worlds!

-Todd and Crew

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