Hey... Todd here with the poop on U.S. Open. As many of you may have heard, Ken Climo won the 1999 inaugural U.S. Disc Golf Championships in South Carolina. Al Schack came in second to Ken in a field of the best players ever assembled.

Here's some stuff you didn't know:

• Al Schack also has received full sponsorship from Innova. This includes tournament fees paid for in Supertour events, Bonuses for playing well, free discs, discounted discs, team apparel and other perks. Way to go Al. Dr. Rick Voakes, and Aaron Weild were also added to the Innova team. Rumors are that their sponsorship is 'limited.'
• I’m now in negotiations with Gateway Disc Sports of St. Louis, Missouri concerning a sponsorship deal.
• Dave Feldberg has been sponsored by Dead Eye Discs, based in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
• Al, Todd, and Dave will be touring extensively in 2000. The Winnebago will be overhauled and remodeled.

A quick summary of the course:
18 holes that were listed as a par 64. Scores on the web and on an electronic billboard at the event reflected a +/- based on par 54. The course was tough. Out of bounds areas loomed everywhere. Pretend lakes were created in the middle of fairways. OB left, right and long was common. Some holes had island greens. Miss the island and you have to re-tee with an OB penalty. It was tough. Scores reflected the difficulty of the course. Most of the best players had at least one round over 60.

While the course was hard it was equally as beautiful. Ball golf lawn mowers were out on the day before we started sculpting fairways and second cuts. The grass was green and plentiful. Hard work had created terraced greens and clearly defined OB lines (lot's of 'em). The professionalism of a dress code was inspiring. Perfect weather for three of four days. Day four was played in a downpour but it rained equally hard on all players. Tee times and 18 holes per day made for plenty of time off. Al spent a lot of time on the Winthrop ball golf course with Climo. I spent a lot of time playing hacky-sack and working on distance or just messing around with the other players.

Overall it was a big success. We all loved it.

-Todd

October 14, Carrolton, TX

Here we are back in Texas, just a little north of Dallas.

Yesterday we played Greenbelt park course. It's a short course with a winding river that comes into play on almost every hole. Some places you can get your disc back easily and some places it's lost unless you go swimming. Looks like it will be an interesting course for the Mr. Jim's B-tier tournament this weekend.

Sue Stephens joined us once again. She rented a car and met us at Dave McCormack’s house in St. Louis. She brought Blue, her German Shepherd/Mix dog. Hyzer, in a demonstration of coolness, hasn't put up any complaints to having another dog around. All three humans and three animals are getting along fine. The Winnebago on the other hand is acting up. The front brakes have been pretty noisy for a couple hundred miles. It looks like we'll have to hit a repair shop after this weekend’s tournament. Luckily, Sue has a bunch of money in the bank so I can borrow the funds from her until I sell my car back home.

Some other interesting news:
Harold Hampton (of Cali-boys fame) will be starting a new disc golf publication. He already has financial backing and a printer lined up. I will be writing some snippets at a few tournaments for use in the publication. I don't know if it will be a magazine or newspaper style, or how many issues per year he plans to put out yet. I'll keep everyone informed.

I had already mentioned that the U.S. Open (USDGC) was awesome. If forgot to say that event organizer Johnathan Poole stated that next year’s event will blow 99 away. He was talking about making the entry fee somewhere between $200-$500. This will raise the purse considerably. It's a high entry fee, but if we know that it will be expensive well in advance, then golfers can start saving now. I can hardly wait.

Tour plans for the rest of the year: After this weekend in Carrolton, TX we plan to head to the SoCal championships at LaMirada, CA. From there we stop in at the Las Vegas Halloween tournament on our way back to Texas for the Veterans Park Open. After the VPO we will stop back into St. Louis to say hello to Dave McCormack and then head on to Virginia for a couple of B-tiers in November. Then it's back home to Michigan for a couple months to play locally.

Over the winter Dave Feldberg and I will be doing some work on the Winnebago. I plan to remodel the inside a bit by getting rid of a few appliances that we don't use and creating more storage space. I will also be designing and ordering some custom discs for us to use and sell on tour next year. I also need to find a small trailer to use for added storage and a pro shop. Big plans for next year. I think that we just might have a future in this sport.

-Todd

October 20 1999, Phoenix, AZ

Hello! Last report was on a Thursday and we were getting ready to play the Mr. Jim's Open in Carrolton! Well I got around to giving the noisy brake an examination and discovered that it wasn't the brake at all. A couple of nuts had backed off on the left front rim. I got around to tightening the nuts and broke a couple studs off! Uh-oh. I tightened things down as well as I could and we headed over to Jimmy Porter park to practice for the next days tournament. Along the way the wheel got worse. We had to stop and wrench on the rim twice along the way. I decided to drop off Sue and Al and head for a repair place.

After being turned down at two garages I finally found a place willing to work on the Winnebago's ancient 'split rim' design. It turns out that the type of rims on the Winnie are a bit dangerous to work with. It took about 4 hours but I finally got 8 new studs for the hub and had the spare tire and rim put on the left front. All in all $200, but we were back at 100 percent ok on the Winnie. I drove back to the park and picked up Sue and Al. We all drove back over to Greenbelt and got signed up for the tournament just as the bring-your-partner doubles was wrapping up (we sure would have liked to get in on that... oh well). We got signed up and also pre-registered for the VPO two weeks later in Arlington.

Next morning we woke up and got ready for the tournament. Just before leaving I noticed that our spare on the left front had gone totally flat. I mean totally. The rim was all the way to the ground. Not a bit of air. We walked up to the campground headquarters looking for help, but the owner had already headed to Dallas for some business. We were going to miss the tournament.

Several hours later we had gotten air back into the tire. It was a slow leak so we were able to drive to the course. When we pulled in the TD had already set our entry check aside and returned it to us. Thank goodness. We drove around in search of a tire place that would work on the Winnie. Of course nobody would work on the split rims again. I ended up ordering a couple new rims for the front and new rubber too. The tires would be in on Monday at noon. We hung out at the campground for the rest of Saturday and all day Sunday. Monday we got to the tire place at noon and it only took another 5 hours to get our new tires put on! The new rubber didn't show up until about 4pm.

Al and I took turns driving for the next 24 hours. Along the way to Los Angeles we had to pass through the southern part of the Rocky Mountains. We reached an elevation of 9000 feet at about 4am. Man was it cold. We arrived in Phoenix on Tuesday night and decided to spend the night at a campground.

It's Wednesday morning now. All the tires are still inflated. We are getting ready to move out toward La Mirada in a couple hours.

-Todd