How did you first discover disc golf?

My first exposure to disc golf was in 1985 in Carrollton, Texas, where I was living as a graduate student. I played with a lid, but only if there was no basketball game going on in the playground. Hoops was my first love, so I had no problem putting the disc in the trunk of the car and lacing up my sneakers to run up-and-down the courts. And, although I did not take the sport very seriously at first, living and playing in Texas planted the disc golf seed, so that when I discovered Sedgley Woods in Philadelphia, I immediately became obsessed with disc golf. That was in 1987, and I’ve never looked back.

Do you remember the first disc you ever threw?

Funny you should ask…there was a long period of time when I refused to admit that using a golf disc could make a difference playing this game. Remember, it was in the late 1980’s, so not many golf discs were even being marketed yet. I stubbornly held onto that misconception about the advantage of golf discs, up until my friend handed me a Jaguar! Remember them? Well…let me tell you…watching that golf disc fly so far and so straight totally floored me. What’s funny about that is, when my friend realized I was using his disc to kick his butt, he asked for it back. I then found a used Scorpion and milked that for a while, until it became understable. After that, I filled my bag with Cheetahs, Cyclones, Aviars, Rocs…whatever I could find.

Holding down the PDGA marketing position sounds like a tall order. What are the nuts and bolts of your day to day?

I’ll tell you…every day is so different for me, which is one reason I love my work. One day, I’m writing and submitting sponsorship proposals, the next I’m doing video work and voice-overs with Kevin McGorry who produces Disc Golf Monthly, and then the next, I’m grunting out lanyards and press releases for the up-coming National Tour event. I work out of my home office, so it’s nothing to put in a 60 hour work week. Much of what I do involves writing…for promotional materials, for the pdgatour.com, for sponsorship proposals, or for other endeavors that I’m involved with. I have a tough time saying “no” to people, so I sit on no less than seven Boards right now…our regional disc golf club, with our community athletics association and swim club, peace and environmental activism, and others. Oh yea…I’m also the father of four kids 9, 7, 5, and 1 year old, as well as a dedicated husband. My family is also a huge part of my day as well. But I essentially eat, breath, and sleep disc golf every day.

If you were to walk away from your position today, what accomplishment would you be most proud of?

Walk away? Let me tell you…I’m going to have to be dragged away from this work. After being the tournament director for the 2005 PDGA Pro Worlds, I was so invigorated, that I asked the PDGA, “What’s next?” This was a little different than the stories I had heard about World’s TDs who disappear for ten years after the event. Anyway…since our association has not had great luck with outside marketing efforts, they asked me to get involved in this area of need for our sport. In the less than two years I’ve been doing this work, I would say my most meaningful accomplishment is being able to persuade our growing list of corporate sponsors that disc golf can have a financial impact on their business. In fact, I would urge our disc golf leaders to realize that disc golf is no longer just a recreational activity, but an industry! That’s why we are seeing Convention & Visitors Bureaus clamoring to get our big tournaments, why medium sized companies are partnering with our loyal players, and why resorts are now taking a keen interest in hosting our events. Do you know that the 2005 PDGA Pro Worlds had a $1.5 million economic impact in the Allentown, PA region? More importantly, we were the sporting event with the greatest economic impact in Allentown (PA’s third largest city) that year! That’s a story getting the attention of more-and-more businesses around the nation.

The PDGA message board can be a rowdy bunch at times. Do you rely on that forum to get a better sense of what’s really going on?

Oh…you had to ask me about this one, didn’t you? My panned response to this question is, “I am allergic to message boards.” I recognize the immense potential of this communication medium, but believe that, in actuality, we realize about 5% of this potential.

I like to write fictional short stories, and about ten years ago I wrote a story entitled “Hiding Behind the Keyboard.” The essence of this story was that we seem to loose our social graces when it comes to communicating electronically, often writing things we would not dare say to people face-to-face.

Research is now demonstrating that writing BY OURSELVES results in a “dis-inhibiting” effect that causes people to hit the “send” button before they filter what they are actually saying. Even more disturbing to me is how some of our message board “celebrities” have created this persona of themselves in the digital realm, so that message boards are now their primary source of validation as people. It’s amazing to me.

While there is still some constructive, up-lifting stuff on message boards, what I see mostly are exchanges where participants are trying to be more clever than the next, and, in the meantime, electronically tearing down others with words they would not dare use if they were sitting across the table from each other. Honestly, I don’t have time for that.

What is the number one challenge facing the PDGA today?

Though the PDGA has faced numerous challenges in its 25 year history, and successfully remedied most of them, the challenge I worry most about is how prepared we are to handle the accelerating growth of our membership. From the inside, we can all appreciate how far disc golf has come in the last decade, yet, I believe that we have yet to reach the proverbial “tipping point.”

Think about it, it took the PDGA almost six years to grow by approximately 3500 members from 1996 to 2002. From just 2003 to 2006, we added 3000 new members. So, in absolute numbers, we have almost doubled the growth rate of the association in the last few years. I believe that the our new Executive Director, Brian Graham, must be prepared for the coming tipping point when we grow by 3000 members in a SINGLE YEAR and then 5000 members the next year! This is what we in the PDGA must be ready for, or we will be facing the other challenge that concerns me…a fickle membership who (rightly) continues to ask, “Why should I join the PDGA?”

There are plenty of examples out there of companies who had significant market share, only to wake up one morning and find the “loyal” customers spending their money elsewhere. Just ask Ford, or Dell, or Yahoo!, or any newspaper what happened to their revenue stream. We must continue to serve our members if we are to continue the growth of the PDGA, since this “new world economy” has turned business on its head.

Our members (and consumers) have unprecedented power in driving our association (and business in general). The PDGA has to realize this. At its core, the number one challenge is whether the PDGA will have the resources to manage membership growth effectively, especially as it accelerates.

Disc golf always seems to be on the brink of a mainstream explosion. How do you think our landscape will change if that really begins to happen?

I’m not sure we would recognize the “explosion” if it did happen, because we are seeing signs of it every day. If you get Google Alerts or Yahoo! Alerts, then you will see disc golf in the news in multiple newspapers every single day. The Broom Hilda cartoon strip featured disc golf in its Sunday run a few months ago! Broom Hilda! My grandmother loved that comic strip, and we are seeing disc golf now being included in that. Zoey 101 on the Nickelodeon channel dedicated an entire 30 minute episode to disc golf two seasons ago! Brittany Spears little sister was playing disc golf on a major cable channel. And of course, there was Dave Feldberg’s appearance on Conan O’Brien a couple weeks back. I guess I’m wondering if we are still on the brink or if we have left the tributaries and are NOW in the mainstream.

One thing I think often gets over-looked by those of us so close to the sport, is that there are really two disc golfs: one that is played competitively, whether it be at a National Tour event or a local course “monthly;” and one where friends go to hang out together and play a casual round together, often not even keeping score.

What I wonder about, though, is if we have enough courses to handle the mainstream explosion that will grow both these populations of “disc golfers.” What happens next when a kid watching Zoey 101 one evening says to his dad, “I want to play disc golf.” Does the father say, “Well…there is a course about an hour drive from here, and it’s in a pretty shady neighborhood.” Or does he say, “Yea, that’s a good idea. Let’s go try that at the park this weekend.” If there are enough courses, that dad will find a near-by course, that is not terribly crowded, and where people are acting responsibly. The mainstream explosion may even provide the impetus for the “pay-to-play” movement to gain momentum. Regardless of what type of golfers they are, however, increases in the number of courses will go a long way towards determining if the “explosion” is sustained over a long period of time, or whether disc golf will fizzle (like the contraction ball golf has seen over the past 5-8 years!)

There is a lot of talk about Disc Golf World News calling it quits at the end of the year. Many old schoolers are still in shock I believe. What kind of impact do you think this will really have on things?

First, it should be noted that Rick and his staff have made enormous sacrifices over the years, and that their sacrifices have been a major contributor to the legitimacy that disc golf now enjoys. The evolution of disc golf into an industry, as I have stated before, has occurred in no small part because of the hard work and excellence of Disc Golf World.

Next, I can only speculate on what impact the loss of DGW will have on the sport as a whole, but I believe strongly that the PDGA membership will NOT react favorably to this loss. The PDGA will be soliciting other publishers to try to replace this invaluable asset, but, whoever gets the job, will have large shoes to fill.

Finally, one of my philosophies in life is that “no one is irreplaceable.” But I do believe it will take the PDGA some time to recover from this loss. Being the number one demonstrable benefit of membership, replacing DGW will not be an easy task. Yet, if we frame this situation in the proper way, it may indeed provide the PDGA will an opportunity for establishing some new, more timely and modern method of communicating the disc golf news. I cannot help but think that launching a disc golf “Facebook” or “My Space” site could provide our members with an added benefit of membership that could adequately replace DGW, as well as keep our membership informed. Maybe even pdga.com could be reworked. Using electronic communications could be touted by the PDGA as an effort to be more “green” by saving the paper it takes to print 40,000 issues of DGW each year. Regardless, there is still great uncertainty on how this situation will work out.