8.8.11
With less than 24 hours before Worlds rounds start, players gathered for a day of fun and skill testing “Side Games”. With Distance, Putting, Skill Shot, and Mini Golf, and many divisions, A lot of people had fun and won titles. Among the winners in Skill Shot, Gregg Hosfeld won Grand Masters, Sarah Stanhope won Womens, Carrie Berlogar won Masters Women. In Mini Golf, Valarie Jenkins won in the Womens on the challenging course ripe with Out-of-Bounds and a cool “Top of the world” island hole.
David Wiggins Jr. finished second in Open, just a stroke off the leader. David also lead in distance for almost the entire day. His early drive in light wind held up after the winds picked up. UNTIL…. World Record Holder, Sweden’s Christian Sandström threw some spectacular shots to claim the win. His top throw was 624′. Had he thrown another 10 feet, he would have thrown out of the field! It’s amazing that Christian still has the power to throw against the world’s best… Next year, his record will have held for a decade. 
Players gathered at a local Santa Cruz high school for the player’s meeting and PDGA awards. After welcoming the players, new PDGA board of directors. Team members Dave Feldberg, Kevin McCoy, and Peter Shive all were voted onto the board that helps guide the sport of disc golf.
Then the awards for Pro Points Titles (points are based on amount of players beat in tournaments). Ken Climo (C) won the award for Masters Points, even though he never played in the Masters Division. Carrie Berlogar won the title in Masters Women, and Valarie won the Points title for Pro Women. David Wiggins Jr. won the Amateur Points Title during his run for an Amateur World Championship last year.
Phil Arthur won the Bob West Memorial Sportsmanship Award. Phil was at the meeting, and hopes to get into the tournament off the waitlist, hopefully he gets a call from Brian Graham this evening.
Carrie Berlogar was awarded the EDGE obelisk, for her work with youth programs. EDGE is dedicated to teaching disc golf to our youth. Dr. Rick Voakes won an obelisk for the Board of Directors Award.
Finally, Player of the Year awards were announced. Valarie Jenkins was the womens winner, while Dave Feldberg won… no, wait, it’s a tie! Dave Feldberg tied for Player of the Year along with Nikko Locastro. Do they break an obelisk in half?
The players meeting ended with a hearty thanks to Tom Schot for bringing the world championships to California in this, their 30th year.
Well, get some sleep, players, because tomorrow it’s time to let em rip!
