What a year! 2008 has gone down as my most successful disc golf season to date. I played in 28 PDGA Tournaments with 20 top 5’s and 9 wins (32% Winning Percentage), including 2 National Tour Wins at The Greater Tulsa Open and The Vibram Open and 5 Supertour Wins including an A-Tier Trifecta to finish off the year down South at the Corpus Christi Open, Oklahoma Open and Veterans Park Open. I kept my cash streak alive cashing in every tournament I played in 2008.
I have played more tournaments in one full season (46 tournaments in 2002), but this year I traveled more tour miles than any other year, accruing 80,000+ travel miles throughout the 2008 disc golf season (trust me it took some time to add up all of those miles). The distance I traveled is comparable to circling the planet 3.2 times with an average of 216 miles a day for the entire year. And that statistic doesn’t even take into account all the miles I walked on the golf course week in and week out. I calculated that I flew 60K by plane including some huge trips to Japanese and European Majors. The other 20K consisted of ground miles that I collected from driving the Tioga back and forth across the country including multiple trips with various friends to many tournaments throughout the year. I have never heard of travel miles throughout a disc golf season that compare to those numbers, please let me know if you have ever heard of anything comparable. For my efforts I led the PDGA Tour Points for the 2008 season.
I set my personal longest recorded throw at 695 feet (212 Meters) at the Big D in the Desert in Primm, NV this past April. I later tied my personal distance record of 695 feet at the World Disc Games Overall Event at the field of UCSC in Santa Cruz, CA this past July. I got to see my sister, Valarie, set the Women’s World Distance Record at 485 feet (148 Meters) – it was an amazing throw in the hot California desert. I also threw my longest non-official distance throw of 840+ feet in practice the afternoon before the actual Distance Competition the following day. With that throw and with many throws since, I now feel that I have a legitimate shot at breaking the World Distance Record at Big D in the Desert in 2010.
As far as other stats, I shot 6 Course Records including some huge rounds during my biggest tournaments of the year. I shot some scorching 2nd rounds at both The United States Disc Golf Championship and The Vibram Open to post 1085 rated rounds. I continue to get closer and closer to winning the prestigious USDGC, and I am confident that it will soon be mine. My highest rated round was my final round at the 2007 Memorial with a 1090 round rating to finish the tournament, which is still my highest rated round in my career to date.
I finished the year winning one-third of my events played and claiming $32,345 (2nd in PDGA Cash) in earnings. I played tournaments worldwide and claimed my first 2008 PDGA Points Title with 20,573 points. I remain to be currently ranked 4th in the World with a 1030 Player Rating which ranks at 10th in PDGA Ratings as I enter in to the 2009 disc golf season.
Full 2008 Tour Stats: Click Here
I got to witness my Sister, Valarie, and my best friend, Dave Feldberg, win World Titles this year in Kalamazoo, MI this past August. I also witnessed first–hand as my other best friend Nate Doss, held me off to claim his first USDGC Title. It was great to be a part of it all and very inspirational to see drive and hard work finally pay off. It makes my desire and passion to fulfill my biggest goals increase as I now see it as being very possible as year after year I have gotten closer to winning another Big PDGA Major. Now I want a Worlds and USDGC title more than ever.
Thanks to all my friends, family and travel companions throughout the year that have made my world travels possible and my disc golf dreams a reality. Here’s to an amazing 2009 season!