Well, four years of touring are finally finished. I'm back home in Michigan enjoying the white winter, Avery is in Ohio getting ready for the Buckeyes to play Miami for a National Championship, and Dave has flown out to Tahoe to spend a couple weeks with his girlfriend Jamie and to play in the NorCal/SoCal team championships. The last time I wrote a piece for Disclife was 4 months ago... to the day. A lot has happened since then. I'll see how much of it I can remember... it was awhile ago.

As of my last writing we were at Larry Kruse's house in Houston for the Pro Worlds. We had traveled in Cam Rauenhorst's Tioga since the Winnie was under repair for two wrecked rims. You might already know that Dave had a great Worlds. He started out well and then was the only one to keep pace with Kenny's scores coming down to the end. Dave inched his way up into 4th place at the end of regulation and made it into the showcase final nine along with Russell, Schultz, and Climo. It was a dream come true. I carried his bag and did my best to keep him from getting too nervous. A couple bad breaks kept him from catching Russell and he finished in 4th place. Pretty darned good. Avery finished in the top 20 and I was in the top 30 after a horrid 1st round and a pretty bad last round. Ah well.... there will be many more World Championships for all of us.

Pro Worlds was a huge success. Dave "Nez" Nesbit ran the show without a flaw... that I could see. He remained calm and delegated authority like he had been running this event his whole life. Team Houston took the job of running worlds on short notice and did a wonderful job. The weather was hot but there was fresh cold drinking water everywhere. The big story at the 2002 Worlds was Ken Climo capturing his 11th title in 13 years. I guess the guy is pretty good. The other big story was our buddy Brad Hammock winning his first World title in the Masters division. Brad's return as a top notch golfer is completed. Congratulations to both of you.

Worlds completed, Dave decided to fly out to Tahoe to see Jamie and Avery, Cameron, and I drove back to Wisconsin to rescue the Winnie and play in the Rumbletown Open in Milwaukee. Along the way we stopped off in southern Missouri at Cameron's Aunt and Uncle's house. They live out in what most of us would call 'the boonies'. They have a couple dogs, a goat, and some birds. It was a peaceful time and we saw alot of natural beauties. My trusted mechanic, Tom, turned out to be quite a disappointment. He couldn't track down the rims we needed... even after having two weeks to look for them. I called my dad and he found a pair within 24 hours and had them shipped to Tom. The whole deal ended up costing us about $900. Good 'ole Tom charged us for like 8 hours of labor (which he claimed to have reduced from 12 hours) and gouged Avery and I for everything we had... Great. I mean all the guy really did was change two tires.

The Rumbletown Open kicked butt. I love playing at Dretzka park... It's so much nicer in the summer than during the cold and snow of the 'Real Ice Bowl'. I finished in 5th place, one stroke behind Dave. There was a skins match for the top four finishers. Last year the skins match featured the top four men teamed up with the top four women. This year there was a new twist... the top four men would draw from a raffle to obtain their partners. Tickets were purchased by tournament players and the money went toward the skins. It was great fun and the crowd went wild as one by one Cam, Barry, Ron, and Dave drew their partners name out of a hat for the skins. The teams were pretty even as everyone drew a local player as their partner. I really enjoyed this format and hope to see more of it. Dave and his partner didn't win any skins.

For our next stop on the tour we returned home to the Lumberjack Open in Kalamazoo. 2002 would be the last time that the Lumberjack would be offered as a Supertour level tournament. Larry LaBond says it's just too much work for him and I believe he has been a little bit disappointed at the turnout for his tournament. I know that I've brought the entire tour home for this tournament every year but that just still isn't enough players. Dave made the finals again and I just missed them again. The weather was good and the hard work of the tournament organizers was evident. The technical course at Coldbrook tried the players nerves and in the end Ron Russell came out on top.

That catches us up a little bit for now. I'll write some more next week when I'll tell you about the Eric Yetter Memorial and our big trip to Japan, California, and our drive from the West coast to the East coast in just 49 hours. Lots of pictures next week. Hope you enjoy....

-Todd and Crew

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