This is how my journey began…

It was Memorial Day 2015, when my friend asked me if I wanted to play disc golf. At the time, I was still recovering from one of my worst rugby injuries (I’ve had a lot). I had already retired from the sport due to injury, but wanted to play in one last alumni game. The unique thing about this game was that I had the privilege of playing alongside my brother and my father, while my sister played in the women’s match. It was a truly awesome family event for us. Unfortunately, with less than 3 minutes left in the game I went in for a tackle and… POP! I heard a loud crack, thinking I dislocated my shoulder. It turns out I fractured my scapula, right down the center.

Albeit, even with limited mobility of my shoulder I wanted to play a round of this disc golf I never heard of. My friend gave me a few of his discs to use for the round and we took off to Chestnut Ridge. Since I had limited mobility of my shoulder (I couldn’t raise my elbow above 45 degrees) I had to throw all sidearms. Fortunately I was capable of a putting motion and could putt normally. The first hole of this course is on the top of a huge sledding hill where you can see downtown Buffalo way off in the distance. I’m already thinking “wow, this is beautiful!”

As we progress through the course, the woods get denser and a heck of a lot more challenging. My friend explains to me that disc golf is essentially hiking through the woods, throwing Frisbee’s (at the time I didn’t know it was a sin to call discs Frisbee’s) while trying to compete against the course. I’ve been an outdoors person my whole life, my passion is hiking and camping. For sure this is going to be a sport I can get into!

For anyone that’s played Chestnut, they know that the course pars are very generous. I managed to shoot -2 in my first round ever! So naturally I think I’m awesome and can really be successful in this sport. I basically demanded we play a second round because I enjoyed myself so much! I immediately caught the bug, the absolute itch to learn more about disc golf.

Within a few months, I found out there was a professional disc golf association. The PDGA. I signed up immediately and started looking into tournaments so I could get a feel for what competition is like. I’ve played sports my whole life, so I’ve always had an urge to compete.

This is where my journey begins…