Cam Todd walked away with the crown this year, shooting an incredible -8 in the semi-final round at North Valley -- which put him five strokes over Steve Rico -- and then increased his lead to eight in the Final Nine. Climo had three putts roll away from the basket and carded a six at one point. Ken finished eighth, which as you might guess, surprised a lot of people.

Juliana Korver takes her fourth consecutive World Championship, finishing a solid seven strokes over Lesli Herndon. Lesli was playing tough through the end, hitting a bunch of long putts, but she couldn't catch up fast enough.

The Finals were pretty cool. There were about 2200 spectators on a beautiful day! The video crew had boom microphones right on the golfers, so you should be able to hear the grunts and player-caddy talk. The video shoot was the most invasive that I'd ever seen, but didn't hear anyone complain about it. Should make for a great video. This might be a great place to hold Worlds every year. There was room for a huge crowd to watch.

I'm a World Champion for the first time, taking the putting crown. It's a little hard to believe after the heat earlier in the week kept us away from the initial competition.

The putting qualifying rounds were held in the wind. About 70 people began, and out of those about 25 moved on to the semis. The finals included me, Dave, Avery, Arthur Haverkamp, Mike Newhouse and Kevin Stewart. We played a game of horse (we spelled putter instead) after the Men's finals on Saturday. It came down to me and Dave, and I still had four letters left, while he was down to one. I put him away.

76 out of 213 Open players cashed. There was a long delay while we waited for the awards to get organized, and Gregg Hosfeld did his best to keep everyone entertained, pulling out some great mini and juggling tricks. That guy is so amazing, just incredible. Then there was a guy doing yo-yo tricks when Hos got tired. It was around midnight by the time Cam Todd was able to deliver his speech, and only about 30 people were left to hear it. That was a shame, but overall it was an awesome event.

Another surprising announcement came this week when Ken Climo was accepting his Male Player of the Year award. He said he would take it home and cherish it, because it might be the last one he receives. He's not touring as much anymore and the level of competition is getting to the point where his champion days are nearly over. For the first time in many years, Climo's reach may not be long enough.

We immediately blasted out of town, but had about a three-hour breakdown on the way in Indiana today, where we were headed for the Indiana State Championships. Now we're going directly to Kalamazoo instead, where we'll spend a day goofing off on Gull Lake before I drive Linda back to St. Louis.

Hope you have enjoyed following the coverage of Worlds 2001! If so, your support of DiscLife.com and the Winnicrew is always greatly appreciated. Thanks for reading; we'll talk again soon, because the Adventures always continue…

-Todd

 
Selected results, final:

Men Open 1 Cameron Todd 2 Steve Rico 3 Eric Tracy 4 Barry Schultz 5 Scott Martin 6 Geoff Lissaman 6 Al Schack 8 Mike 'Worm' Young 8 Ken Climo 10 Shawn Sinclair 11 Mike Randolph 11 Harold Hampton 11 David Greenwell 14 Aaron Wield 14 Ken Jarvis 16 John McCray 16 Jesper Lundmark 18 Christian Sandstrom 19 Larry Leonard 20 Avery Jenkins 30 Todd Branch 35 David Feldberg Masters 1 Joe Mela 2 Joel Kelly 3 Stan McDaniel 4 Gregg Hosfeld 5 Javier Kowalski 5 Carlton Howard 7 Scot Riley 8 Michael Glass 9 Jim 'No Spin' Myers 9 Jeff Watson Legends 1 Ted Williams 2 Jack Ekstrom 3 'Steady' Ed Headrick

Women Open 1 Juliana Korver 2 Lesli Herndon 3 Elaine King 4 Birgitta Lagerholm 5 Deb Renner 5 Anni Kreml 7 Niloofar Mosavar Rahmani 8 Sue Stephens 9 Sheila Kirkham 10 Laura Smith Master Women 1 Tita Ugalde 2 Chieko Kakimoto 3 Laurie Cloyes 4 Suzette Helmick 5 Lisa Warner Grandmasters 1 Snapper Peirson 2 Tom Monroe 3 Glenn Triemstra 4 Steve Slasor 5 Bill Paulson 5 Bruce Sisson 8 Davis Johnson 9 Michael Conger 10 Marshall Scribner Senior Grandmasters 1 Peter Shive 2 Pete May 3 Donald Stephens 4 Jerry Robbins Sr. 5 Ragnar Overby

Final round-by-round results.