Friday, August 10
I was almost wealthy. After the second round of divisional doubles, Innova's Harold Duvall and I were riding back to hotel. Now Harold had played in same shirt the entire sweltering day. It of course had become soaked in the first ten minutes of play, and he wore it the entire 8 hours. Assuming he was just as uncomfortable as I had been only moments before, I offered to lend him a shirt, and he said sure. He wore it and I forgot about it. Finally I realized that if I ever got it back, and it was covered in his sweat, talk about a collectable! I could probably sell it and buy a house. Did he give it back? Yes, but he was too smart of a guy. Harold not only washed it, it was thoroughly laundered, folded, wrapped, the whole deal. I was so close. Oh well.
Last night was the PDGA Awards banquet. If you ever want to get a feel for what the frisbee family is like at its core, go to a PDGA banquet and see the folks who have been there supporting the organization for decades. Some of these people have been around a long time. It's surprising how many people we have like that.
Awards were given out for the 2000 calendar year. Some of the awards were no surprises. Ken Climo is the Male Player of the Year for the ninth time; Juliana Korver took Female of the Year honors.
- The Male Rookie of the Year was a really tough battle. The Winnicrew boys - Dave Feldberg and Avery Jenkins -- were neck and neck, and Avery picks up the honor. That's one more cool thing for the Jenkins family mantle.
- Female Rookie of the Year: Nadine Larkin of Colorado, in a very tight contest with Laura Marie Smith from Ontario.
- Sportsman of the Year: Barry Schultz, who will be representing the United States at the World Games in Japan with Juliana Korver in a couple of weeks.
- Volunteer of the Year: Bill Fitler, who labored for years on the PDGA online course directory, a free service and highly beneficial to helping people find courses.
- The Brent Hambrick Award for Tournament Director of the Year: Dan and Sue Ginnely of Arizona for their work on the Bob West Memorial.
- The Senior Player of the Year was a shock to everyone including the recipient: David Greenwell. He said 'hey, I thought you had to be old to win this!' Dr. Rick Voakes recieved the award last year and he is old, he just doesn't look, act or play old in any way. Dave is a most deserving player.
- Inductees into the Disc Golf Hall of Fame: Stan McDaniel and Johnny Sias. Both are truly deserving not only for what they do, but how they do it. They are both beloved and respected.
The trophies given out are obelisks, really big, heavy marble things; it basically takes two hands to carry them. They're very cool.
At the banquet, there was also a meeting within a meeting. Sitting at one big round table were the Board of Directors of the new Disc Golf Foundation. The foundation is a very cool thing, essentially the charitable and educational arm of frisbee golf in cooperation with PDGA, but totally independent and separate. The job is of the DGF is charitable, promotional and educational. It has taken over the innovation grants program and PDGA matching baskets college program.
DGF Board members are: John Houck (president), Pat Govang, Pad Timmons, Tim Selinske, Duster Don Hoffman, J. Gary Dropcho, Elaine King and myself. While the banquet was going on we were voting on things and signed the incorporation documents. If you ever become wealthy, put us in your will and we'll name a wing of the disc golf mecca after you.
One final tale from the banquet: Most people show up dressed like they've just come of the course. Why? They've just come off the course. Most played their second round, changed into a fresh shirt, threw some on sandals and walked in. However, some people played early rounds and had a chance to go home, shower and get dressed up.
It was pretty clear that Todd Branch's gorgeous girlfriend Linda Smith was ready to dress up, and man did she look great. Todd couldn't be looking like a schlub next to her, so Todd got gussied up too. He's wearing dress shoes, dress pants and a bright, fresh, crisp Innova shirt. He doesn't look like a golfer; he looks like a real person! I've know Todd for years and had never seen him this dressed up, so I'm giving him grief. He finally confessed to me that he wasn't as dressed up as he would like, then lifts up his pant leg to reveal that he is wearing gortex socks. That's right: dress shoes, dress pants and gortex socks, which are the black waterproof socks that so many golfers wear over their regular socks to keep dry. The only other socks he had were white. So it only goes to show that if you look deep enough, you really can dress Todd Branch up, but you can't take him out.
