I really decided I could make it to Bowling Green the wednesday before the tournament. Having never been their before I was anxious about getting up there in time to see at least two of the four courses we would be playing in the tournament. I was able to leave early Friday morning and had a chance to play Keriakes and Hobson Grove. I hit an ace in practice on hole 1 at Keriakes. This makes the 4th state that I have aced in the first time I have played there.

The first round didn't start according to plan. It was on Hobson Grove, a tight woods course that has plenty of opportunities to shoot low. I struggled to make the birdies I needed in the better than expected weather and finished with a 53. This left me with lots of work to do to work my way up the leaderboard. The next round was at the long and open Ephram White. I had the box on our first hole and stepped up and threw a Roc straight into the chains 300' away. I birdied the next hole to open -3 after 2 holes. I ended up giving up too many bogey strokes along with 4 OB strokes that cost me a hot score but I still finished with a 52, not bad considering I was playing blind and part of the round was rainy and windy.

I started a disc golf club at Western Washington University in Bellingham where I go to school. As of now we meet once a week (Thursday's) and go play a round at the local park in town. Today we had more new people than the previous two meetings and I have a feeling it is only getting bigger. Our group of about 12 had a great time and several of them showed interest in adding another day of practice where we meet on campus and practice field work/putting. This was very exciting for me (who practices almost daily here on campus) and I have a feeling this club is only going to expand. My wheels are turning thinking about video's to show, articles to read, a field trip South to play some Seattle golf, an end of the season student tournament, etc...

If everything goes to plan I will be hitting more PDGA events than ever before this year. Here's my schedule:

April 21-21 -- Ft. Steilacoom Spring Classic (Lakewood, WA)
May 5-6 -- White River Open (Auburn, WA)
May 25-27 -- Beaver State Fling (Estacada, OR)
June 2-3 -- Lilac City Open (Spokane, WA)
June 16-17 -- Riverside Open (Sumner, WA)
June 2-4 -- Kansas City Wide Open (Kansas City, MO)
June 30-July 1 -- McCellan Classic (Norman, OK)
July 7-8 -- Charlie Vettiner Strikes Back (Louisville, KY)
July 14-15 -- Mid America Open (Columbia, MO)
?August 11-12 -- Lava Launch (Bend, OR)
August 18-19 -- Jet Wash Open (Seatac, WA)
August 26 -- Inland Series Final @ Highbridge DGC (Spokane, WA)
?Septemeber 8-9 -- Eugene Celebration (Eugene, OR)
Septemeber 15-16 -- Lakewood Open (White Center, WA)
?September 29-30 -- Ft. Steliacoom Open (Lakewood, WA)
October 13-14 -- Willamette Open (Corvallis, OR)

Just played in Bowling Green, Kentucky this past weekend, and what a time!

Weather reports for the weekend expected cold temps with RAIN, RAIN, and more RAIN.. but nevertheless through rain, sun, snow, and wind.. (well prepared) Disc Golfers from all over the US came to play!

We drove through plenty of storms on Thursday to arrive in the sun in Bowling Green. The horrible weather even held off for us during our rounds on Saturday. But come Sunday the cold, rain and snow mix hit us.. Dressed for the weather we all managed to survive..

 I finished our last round at Keriakes Park in 4th place, 2 strokes back of 3rd.  We drove to Lovers Lane where the final 9 would be starting soon, and as everyone had said, the top 4 men, and top 3 women would be playing. Reading through the booklet we got in our players package they printed that the top 4 women would be featured in the showcase. I brought it up to the TD and WHAMO- I'm still playing for my place. So i stepped up to the tee following Des Reading, Angela Tshiggfrie, and Burl.

NT Bowling Green Kentucky - April 14/15

NT Hall of Fame Classic Augusta, GA - April 21/22 (my birthday 4/23/75!)

B-tier Walk the Plank Council Bluffs, IA - April 28th

Back home...

See ya out there!

Chris Sprague #16425

2006 PDGA National Points Champion

After lots of thought, I decided that I would like to be closer to family, and more central in the United States. Moving back to Des Moines was the best solution, and since I was already heading that way for the next leg of my tour, I rented a U-haul and packed it up! With no signs of foul weather in the forecast I set out for the midwest mid-day on Tuesday (which is actually a day earlier than my previous trip to the midwest).

My plan was to deliver the U-Haul Friday, and play the Peninsula Park Open in Iowa City on Saturday, followed by the Discraft Spring Open in Hastings, MN on Sunday.

So I arrived in Raleigh, North Carolina around 11:30 pm on Wednesday night after a 7 hour layover in Chicago due to some severe thunderstorms in the area. I was greeted and picked up at the airport by our good friend and tournament director for this weekend, Kirk Yoo. We stay at Kirk’s house every time we come to town for the tournament. He has an amazing house with lots of room to accommodate at least a couple dozen disc golfers and not to mention an $18,000 home entertainment system.

The first round of the tournament started out at Buckhorn, which is a super-tight, wooded course with various water holes on the middle holes. It is a course where there are lots of birdie opportunities, but also mixed with the possibility of taking some serious digits on an errant tree kick if you are just an inch or two off. It is all about throwing your tee shots down the middle of the fairway and hoping to at least get a putt for birdie on many of the holes. It is one of the tightest courses that we play all year on tour.

The Spring tour proved again to be the time of year for tournament weather! The NorCal, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Los Angeles, and Sacramento leg is both scenic and relaxing.

In an effort to live some of my childhood dream vacations, I've decided to try and make every trip between tournaments a geological exploration, full of hiking and sight seeing.

On this leg of my tour I chose the Pacific Coast Highway from Florence, OR to Arcata, CA where I would play the famous Par Infinity Bigfoot Tournament, which is held in the "Redwood Curtain" (Humboldt State University).

Finally able to log-in...yesszz.   can't wait to play in Las Vegas for the first time and then roll down to AZ in the SPiRiT with Burl, Val and Brinster.  Sooo looking forward to play in the sun and see my friends!! 

My Plans So Far...

     ZBoaz - Fort Worth, Texas - Feb 10th-11th - A tier

     Memorial - Pheonix, Arizona - March 2nd-4th - NT

     Red Rock Show - Red Rock, Texas - March 17th-18th - B tier

     Texas States - Houston, Texas - March 31-April -1 - A tier

     Bowling Green Open -Kentucky - April 14th-15th - NT

     Golden State Classic - La Mirada, California - May 4th-6th - NT

     Beaver State Fling - Portland, Oregon - May 25th-27th - NT