Rounds with disc golf legends?

[elForrestdeGump]

A couple of weeks ago I was playing doubles at Kit Carson Park in San Diego. It wasn't until after the round was over and I went home that I realized I was playing with Shane from Voodoo Disc Golf and disc golf legend John Kirkland (I'm fairly knew to the disc golf scene).

I was wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else before and who you played with or met?

 

[chainedwraith]

I've met John but haven't played a round with him personally. One time I took a buddy of mine to doubles league for the first time. I had just introduced him to the game a few months prior and he was just starting to get really hooked and prepare for his first tournament later that month at that same course.

He drew John Kirkland as his doubles partner and played against Gregg Hosfeld and another local on the card. I told him to 'take notes' and that he was playing with legends. He said he had a great time and they taught him so much... and of course he cashed in his first league.

Being an Orlando local, Hosfeld (Grandmaster, not quite legend-age, but a frisbee legend for sure) is easy to find out on a course and I've played many a round with him over the years. He witnessed an ace of mine one day a few yrs back and signed it. It was a proto star champion roc3 that I sadly lost at a tournament during pre-round warm-ups about a year later. :wall:

 

[biscoe]

Hall of Famers played with:
Barry Schultz
Chuck Kennedy
Carlton Howard
Stan McDaniel
Tim Selinske
Gregg Hosfeld
Dr Rick Voakes
Harold Duvall
Alan Beaver

Have met shloads of notables. Virtually all are very nice off the course. A few have some issues on it.

 

[Drew]

I used to live in in south west florida and got a chanew to play with Hosfeld and McCray, both were great guys to be around.

 

[brutalbrutus]

Does Jdub count?

 

[grodney]

Biscoe I find it hard to believe Juliana isn't on that list.

 

[grodney]

I've play a round or 3 with John Houck. I think that is pretty rare.

 

[magictenor1]

I played with our own Donavan who once held the most holes played in a day record. Does that count?

 

[THUGNIFICENT763]

Back in summer of 2003 I got to tag along for a couple of rounds with Timmy Gill. Much of what I know about throwing discs, I learned from watching him do his thing that day.

 

[SonicGuy]

Back in summer of 2003 I got to tag along for a couple of rounds with Timmy Gill. Much of what I know about throwing discs, I learned from watching him do his thing that day.

His blackballing by the PDGA sure was legendary

 

[ChrisWoj]

A couple of weeks ago I was playing doubles at Kit Carson Park in San Diego. It wasn't until after the round was over and I went home that I realized I was playing with Shane from Voodoo Disc Golf and disc golf legend John Kirkland (I'm fairly knew to the disc golf scene).

I was wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else before and who you played with or met?

In 2009 I got a job in Georgia working outside of Atlanta. I drove down with a friend approximately 2 months prior to starting work to live with the lil sister and help care for my niece down near Jacksonville (my friend was already an employee and was able to start work right off, so I just continued on south).

I had no courses anywhere nearby living in Saint Marys, Georgia. So about 2-3 weeks into my stay when my sister went in to Jacksonville for a day of shopping at the mall I begged and pleaded my way into getting dropped off at Ed Austin Park for the day. I started warming up and preparing but I didn't know the course too well. So I'm waiting around to see if any locals that are okay shots would show up so I could hitch onto a group.

This guy arrives a few minutes after me and starts warming up. He's got a cooler and about 3-4 discs. Might have been an XL or something like that, a Comet, and a Magnet (I'm 90% certain on the Magnet, coulda been APX... I do not remember). He starts banging 20 footers out of the car, one after another. Unorthodox form but very very accurate, and clearly confident. That automatic look you see in someone that's great at something. Not at all impressed, taking just enough time to settle into a stance, and then just popping them home.

So I ask him and his buddy: hey do you guys mind showing me around the course? I'm Chris. He introduces himself... and as soon as he introduces himself the thought pops into my head. "Ron." Unorthodox putter, Jacksonville, named Ron... Took me a few holes to just ask him straight up: "Are you #9999? Ron Russell?"

Sure enough.

We get to talking through the round, he finds out this is my only chance to golf all month and maybe my only chance for another month. So what does Ron Russell, the 2009 PDGA World Champion, say? He says "Well hey, if you want to crash I've got spare bedrooms and a big place to hang out and I can drive you halfway back tomorrow afternoon."

Long story short: Absolutely INCREDIBLE host. The dude's bachelor pad is sick. For all the 3 discs he carries he has a garage full of bins of his favorite molds. Big backyard, rec room above a big garage, sand volleyball pit dug out to a foot, outdoor bar with big screen TVs (not to mention the big screen panels in just about every room, and this is in 2009 not now). Could not have met a more gracious giving host.

Dude is probably still waiting on that one big hurricane to hit northern Florida so he can make bank and cash out on his roofing business and retire to play disc. Never wishing for a hurricane, but hoping he finds that one last big job so he can return to the game. Couldn't have met a nicer guy. He wasn't even golfing the next day. Just dropped me and a buddy of his at the course, we golfed, he got me back to Saint Marys. He just wanted to help me get to golf for one more day.

 

[ChrisWoj]

Didn't golf with him - but I did also run into Dan "Stork" Roddick one time at an airport. It was a Sunday out in California and I was just starting another job (this is in 2011, same industry as the above post: Environmental Ed). I'm waiting at LAX for my buddy Andy to get off his flight so I can take him back up to the mountains and staff housing. So as I'm standing there waiting a guy pops through the door in an Innova polo. He walks right by me so I say "Nice shirt, I throw Innova too!" (this was before DD was making plastic) He looks at me, smiles, and he's like "Oh I work for them!"

I looked at him and got to say to him "Well did you hear the news?"

"What news?"

"My buddy Ricky won his first Major while you were on your flight."

Ricky Wysocki had just won the PDGA Championship at the IDGC while Stork had been up on the plane.

 

[sisyphus]

Played 65 holes with 3x World Champ Johnny Sias a couple years ago. He was playing that particular wooded, hilly course for the first time, and we played a lot of shorter holes. He's a true gentleman, ambassador for the sport, and still super talented in his 60's. I tell people to this day I only saw him touch a tree off the tee twice, and only when it was a blind, third tree trunk he hadn't seen.

 

[DavidSauls]

A couple of weeks ago I was playing doubles at Kit Carson Park in San Diego. It wasn't until after the round was over and I went home that I realized I was playing with Shane from Voodoo Disc Golf and disc golf legend John Kirkland (I'm fairly knew to the disc golf scene).

I was wondering if this has ever happened to anyone else before and who you played with or met?

Funny, my story is the opposite, involving the same legend.

John Kirkland called to play our private course. I'd never heard of him at the time, and couldn't meet him. But since he was in the area from far away, I arranged for our local Hall-of-Famer, Alan Beaver, to meet and guide him. Alan, who goes back to when discs weren't round, of course knew who he was, and was thrilled.

So John Kirkland played disc golf in my yard, but I never met him.

 

[corin_brown]

When I play tournaments, I like to warm up putting on a basket away from the one most folks are using to warm up on. Usually it's a basket just a couple of holes away from tournament central.

I was playing a C-Teir at La Mirada a few years ago and I was putting by myself on a basket on a remote hole around 20 minutes before the players meeting. Then Dave Dunipace showed up and started practice putting on my basket too. Dave's a staple on the SoCal series of PDGA events and I've seen his picture and his appearances on instructional videos and interviews so I recognized him instantly, as we shared a practice basket. I didn't introduce myself or show that I knew who he was - he always struck me as an extremely nice guy and laconic so I didn't want to risk embarrassing him or anything. Then, out of nowhere, he gave me a quick, unsolicited, polite 5-minute tutorial on his patented "hit" putting technique. Of course, I knew all about the "hit" (not well enough, obviously, to impress Dave to the point that he didn't think I needed any help) but I was stoked anyway to hear it again, this time first hand from the legend so I didn't let on that his lesson was redundant.

 

[BrotherDave]

I've played rounds with Connor Jones, Chain Addicted, and Frank Delicious. Yeah, I'm kind of a big deal.

 

[adamtheviking5]

Jim Oates runs the pro shop at my local course. I didn't know who he was when I first started playing and he was kinda a dick the first few times I asked him questions about discs and whatever. Never played with him though. Also I ran into Steve Rico at the course in sylmar, before I knew who he was. As we passed each other on the ramp to the pro shop he tried to make me flinch but hes so little I just chuckled at him and kept walking. Later my Buddy told me who he was. Douchebag.

 

[threevok]

Day one: "Jim, are Grooves good for forearm throws?"
Day two: "Jim, what's the best weight for a Groove if you throw over 100 ft?"
Day three: "Jim, are tie-dye Grooves more stable than regular Grooves?"
Day four: "Jim, did anyone turn in a tie-dye Groove to the shop?"
Day five: BESTIES!

 

[eegor]

I joined Paige Pierce and a friend of hers for a round about a month before she signed with Discraft. Technically, she wasn't a "disc golf legend" at the time, but she was great. I'm still humbled by how good she is. I learned a lot from that round.

I've also played with magictenor1 and aclay. Two disc golf legends of enthusiastic play. If aclay didn't have a family and a job, he'd eat, sleep and play disc golf...

 

[grodney]

One night at league in Des Moines this cat shows up wearing sandals and carrying like 3 discs. He shot LIGHTS OUT. So smooth. I don't recall if we realized before during or after the round that it was Mike Randolph. You have to be pretty old-school to have any idea who that is, but he was/is kind-of a legend.