Sunday, October 18, 2026

The other side of the madness

On my first hole of a two round event (#3), I was walking to my disc when someone on #1  started yelling at me claiming I picked up his disc. Confused I bent over to look in my bag asking what it was and after hearing him shout Envy, a disc hit me in the head. It was his Envy of a different color and according to those who saw, he threw it on a line drive towards me.

I saw the name on that disc and realized he should have been in my card and not the other one and after someone in my group remembered seeing his disc (which is the same color as one I threw in the area), he apologized and since I wanted to play disc golf, we let him continue from our second tee (#4).

About half way through the round which he had already "checked out mentally", I could tell he realized that "he fucked up bad" (since I have been there before). He saw me limping and wanted to help "work out the knots in my left leg" and the others in the group had to convince him to stop trying to help.

On the walk from #20 to #1, he decided he was done and left to the relief of those in my group. After the round ended, the other 5 pros in the event along with the other player on my card all explained to the TD what happened and the pros stated they would have refused to play round 2 with him had he stayed. I then posted to a Facebook disc golf group knowing there is someone in that group who would be very interested in what happened.

After the event, the tournament director (who is in the IL and IN disc golf hall of fame) said he will be calling the IL PDGA head (also in the IL disc golf hall of fame) explaining what happened. One of the pros who saw what happened also said he will call him.

As I lie in bed 9 hours after this happened, my legs are sore which right now is normal and I needed to drink Powerade to offset a leg cramp but I feel no ill effect from the throw off the head. I have always seemed to be able to take a punch with no problem especially when playing.

Personally, I have no real ill will towards that player. I have "lost it" playing and watching sports too many times over the last 50+ years to count (almost all was me being an asshole; the first time it wasn't was the first time I was called "the madman") I had a player at a tournament keep a disc I left behind in practice so I understand being angry at someone who they believed took it. What bothers me most was his lack of professional respect during the round. Not keeping score, throwing practice shots after missing a putt (all assessed a one shot penalty), and bailing before the round was over. The assistant tournament director had to look up how to apply a disqualification as opposed to a withdrawal. 

The other pros there said they never want to play with him again and a couple of them even replied to those on my Facebook post (that I have since deleted) telling those who thought I was being over dramatic exactly what happened from their point of view.

It was great to get the support from other players at the event and I was happy that the other MA3 player in the group who also had to deal with him won by one shot though I was one missed putt with a 60 foot roll away and three bad wind related putting breaks from winning by two.

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