Denny Ritner is the Tournament Director of La Vie en Rose, a women’s-only PDGA A-Tier event to be held in February. La Vie en Rose is being guided by Juliana Korver, one of the top female disc golfers of all time. Some of Juliana’s accomplishments include:

*Five time Women’s World Champion
*Gold Medalist in 2001 Akita World Games
*1995 Amateur World Champion
*Inducted into PDGA Hall of Fame
*Over 200 wins on PDGA Tour

Could you tell us where the inspiration for La Vie en Rose originated?

As far as the actual event is concerned, I had designed The Magnolia Disc Golf Course with hosting some sort of top blue-level event in mind. I knew I wanted a February date to provide a draw to players from farther north that were suffering from cabin fever. Initially, I had thought of doing something along the line of Am-Nationals.

I can’t recall the exact “eureka” moment, but at some point I realized that the event could make a bigger impact on the game by focusing on the women. It was exactly one-half second later that I decided to pitch Juliana on the idea of her hosting the event. I had had the pleasure of working closely with Juliana, Des Reading, and their husbands on the initial Disc Golf Cruises. As many of us know, Juliana is a humble person and considered the idea of putting her name on a tournament marquee carefully before jumping with both feet. Thanks go out to Shawn Sinclair for any influence he may have had on that decision.

As to the name of the event: On our second date, my fiancée Jennifer and I attended a showing of the Edith Piaf biographical film named for her most well known song, La Vie en Rose. Edith left a broken home as a pre-teen and grew up on the streets singing for spare change. She was “discovered” on the streets of Paris and became a club performer. She eventually recorded hundreds of songs and became regarded by many as France’s greatest popular singer, before passing on at a young age of liver cancer. Through her many heartaches, she displayed rare resiliency and practiced the philosophy of finding the best in people and situations.

What do you think will set this experience apart from other disc golf events?

I think the word “experience” in the question is key. Juliana and I are hoping to lay the groundwork for a transcendent, energizing weekend for the ladies. The venue itself is fantastic. The 700 acres provide a great setting for communing as a group and also having some space for personal reflection or time with a special someone. (We are hoping that many of the ladies will bring along their honeys to celebrate the Valentine’s Day weekend.)

Each tournament entry will include a very special player’s package that all will love. I know you’ve read that a million times before, but this time it’s actually true! Entries will also include two nights of primitive camping, two nights of live music, a hog roast lunch (with a veggie option) on Saturday, and a big bonfire on Saturday night. There will also be some fun ancillary events including random draw doubles, a “Ace for the Cure” event to benefit the Susan G. Komen Foundation, a “Light up the Night” night-lit skills event, and a unique pro-am elimination shootout.

The initial level of sponsor support has been terrific and we’re expecting more manufactures and vendors to get on board with this event as they show the ladies some love. Innova has been instrumental in helping to make The Magnolia Course a reality and providing support for this event in many other ways. Additionally, Sun King Disc Sports, Disc Golf Center, Keith Johnson, Widye Discs, Gateway Disc Sports and Discraft have come on board with generous sponsorship.

Juliana is one of the game’s elite ambassadors. How instrumental has she been in shaping the tournament so far?

“Ambassador” is a great word for Juliana. I’m hoping that the biggest thing the ladies take home after the event is a sense of how they all can bring this spirit to their communities. It’s essential for the growth of women’s disc golf that men assist by providing background support, but men can’t sell the game to new women the way that women can.

To answer the question, though, this is Juliana’s event. We’ve hashed out most of the concepts together and have gotten a lot of great feedback from Addie Isbell and Suzette Simons, but ultimately Juliana has final say on every aspect of the event. I’ve got huge respect for her and shape my ideas to be ones that I hope she’ll be proud to put her name on.

This would probably be a good time to mention a few others that have helped shape this tournament. First would be my co-TD, the long-time Fabulous Florida Tour Administrator, Shawn Harrigan. Shawn brings a ton of TD experience to the table. He’s got a keen eye for the details that matter most to players and knows how to roll out the red carpet and make an event special. He’s mentored me a great deal in the years I’ve lived in Florida and is a good friend.

The best TD education I’ve had has come from assisting Mike Barnett with The Players Cup and the Disc Golf Cruise. Mike is another mentor and friend and I thank him for the experiences and good times we’ve had so far. I’ve also learned a lot from Keith Johnson, Mark Ellis, Gunars Nollendorf, John Houck, Chuck Kennedy, Chris Himing, Brian Sullivan, Pad Timmons, Reese Swinea, and Jonathan Poole.

So will the Magnolia Course be fairly mellow for the ladies or should they be prepared to get worked?

The challenge of the course will be appropriate to each division. The pro women will play the blue tees and the winner will most definitely have demonstrated a superior golf game for the weekend. The blue tees are quite challenging. They present a 7000+ ft. par 63 technical layout. There are quite a few opportunities to use power if you’ve got it, but accuracy, shot shaping, scrambling and strategy weigh in more heavily on one’s final score. I’m anticipating that the winner will not average better than a stroke or two under par per round.

The 5500 ft. red tees will be played by the pro masters, advanced, and intermediate divisions. I’m guessing that an even par round of 63 on the reds will be rated around 900. We’ll also be using a temporary set of “green” tees that will probably come in around 4000 ft. for the recreational division.

I know that you played a role in getting the course installed. Will you share a little background on how that came to pass?

I first heard about the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in the summer of 2005. I immediately started daydreaming about bringing disc golf to such a facility. A couple days later I called, started channeling Reese Swinae, and next thing you know I was talking to the park’s marketing manager at the time, Greg D’Angio. It turned out that Greg had played a lot of recreational disc golf at Northside Park during his U-F days and he swore he had a bag of beat-up Vipers to prove it.

I set up a meeting with Greg and invited Mike Barnett. Mike and I pitched Greg on running a temporary-course event as a demonstration. Shawn Harrigan got the event, Springtime on the Suwannee, on the 2006 FFT schedule and we sold out with 99 players. Immediately following the event, we were not able to close the deal on a permanent course. The project then idled for quite some time, until I finally decided that I HAD to make it happen. At that point, I contacted Jonathan Poole and he was an immense help in strategizing and ultimately selling the park on nine holes. I had a great deal of help with hashing out course design ideas and construction of the first nine from Gregg Hosfeld, Mike Barnett, Jack White and J.T. Rosenthal in early 2007. Finally, in late 2007, I procured nine more baskets and spent six months cutting out the second nine. I thank my old golfin’ friend and co-worker from Michigan, Matthew Monzca, for helping construct the second nine.

What aspect of the event excites you the most?

You mean aside from having 80 screaming women shouting “Denny, Denny, Denny”? Sorry, I digress, frequently. It’s become much clearer to me this year as I’ve become a daddy to a great 3 year old boy, how important it is for the sport going forward that we INSIST on a family friendly atmosphere. A quick anecdote: I brought my son to a weekly handicap at a local course and walked up to my appointed starting tee only to be greeted by my group-mates behaving in a very un-family-friendly manner. They didn’t even flinch when they saw us and continued doing their thing. I imagined that I was someone who was brand new to game and how I may have been offended, instantly made my mind up about the sport and never returned.

I see increasing the percentage of female players as being important towards that end. I think this is one of the impediments that women face as many of the “old boys” don’t want to have anyone rain on their private party club parade. This is going to change. Those that think the disc golf course is their private playground to act the fool on and trash are dinosaurs. Much of the sport needs a paradigm shift in attitude towards inclusiveness and mainstream values. This doesn’t necessarily mean colored shirts or the like, but it does mean that our courses need to be places to which we aren’t afraid and/or embarrassed to bring our wives, girlfriends, kids, parents, grandparents or potential business sponsors.

I will judge the success of this event by the extent that women can use the weekend to have fun, compete, exchange ideas, and build enthusiasm to bring back home for the 2009 disc golf season. I recognize that many women are pioneers in their local scenes and often face luke-warm support, lip service, or plain rudeness as they work hard to grow their ranks in order to have more women to play golf with. I believe it’s important to put on a good show for both the experienced players that have already given a lot to the sport and those that are brand new and enthusiastic.

For those looking to support the event in some fashion, how should they proceed?

Please check out our beautiful tournament website that Juliana has designed at
www.julianakorver.net/rose

Juliana has donated her entire year’s disc sponsorship from Innova and autographed them as fundraiser discs. We also have a limited number of awesome InnColor Star Ontario Rocs for sale. Information on how to purchase those discs, how to sponsor a course tee sign for a year, and club/business sponsorship packages is on the site under the “sponsors” tab.

We will also be needing men to assist in tournament operations. Please send me an email at if you’d like to be included on our tournament volunteers email blast.

I’d also be happy to answer questions by phone at (727) 512-9696

Thanks Denny. We wish you the best of luck.

Thank you so much for granting us this opportunity to spread the good word. Peace.