The key to a strong mental game is to realize what you need to do in order to score well on the course. It’s best to not let the mind stray from what you set out to do at the start of the round, play consistent and as mistake-free as possible. You don’t want to ever lose focus when the situation shifts to less then ideal. The best way to develop a strong mental game is to not let errant shots and missed opportunities affect your next shot or your round. The strongest mental games are also attributed to the players that are the most patient and confident in their abilities on the course.

With that, there are many different pieces that add up to a complete mental game. For example, I prepare for tournament rounds by strategizing how I am going to play every hole by mentally walking through the course shot for shot. I try to think about where I what to ideally place every tee shot and every approach through an entire round. This has proven to really help me when the tournament starts and I feel that I that I know what I need to do in order to win. Once the tournament starts, I find that there are two different things I have to deal with mentally; my throwing and the people I am playing with.

When I am getting prepared to throw, my concentration is on different things depending on the type of throw that I am preparing for. I really try to focus on going through the basics of the technique, being patient and not trying to force anything that might cause an errant shot. During putting I try to concentrate on shifting my weight from back to front while extending my arm and reaching for the basket. During approach shots I concentrate on the speed of the disc coming into the basket, the angle of release and keeping the disc within 20 feet of the basket on all upshots. During driving I try to concentrate on hitting the right of angle of release whether it is on a hyzer, straight or anhyzer line and gauging the power needed to throw an accurate drive.

As for dealing with players in my group, it used to really shake me up early in my Disc Golf career when a player in my group was difficult to play with. I have learned to keep my distance from them and really focus on what I need to do on the course in order to score well. I have sometimes even used their negative emotions to increase my intensity during the round. I think the best thing to do is to really concentrate on the task at hand and play your game to the best of your ability in all situations.

Another thing that I keep out of my head is how other players are performing. I am never concerned with other player’s scores unless it is coming down to the final holes when I am battling it out for a win. I don’t think that concerning myself with others scores does anything positive for me during a tournament because in reality I know that I can only score so well on every hole on the course. It can only take my focus away from what I need to do in order to score well and play my best in a tournament. If someone plays better then your best that weekend, they deserve to win.

So remember, keep your mind on the basics and what is in your control. Letting other things or other people into your mind just distracts you from maintaining your mental game. I have always loved to play at any time, but I know that I play my best disc golf when I have that tournament feel and can maintain my intensity and focus.

The New Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10 has a new Disc Golf feature that allows you to throw on the greatest traditional golf courses in the world.

Watch the Video! Wii Disc Golf - Put Down the Clubs!

Tiger Woods PGA Tour 10

The opener reads: “Are you ready to play one of the fastest growing sports in America?! Disc Golf is very similar to regular golf. The goal is to get the disc in the basket in the least amount of throws. Play all of the courses. Have fun!”

The game is set to release in stores on June 16th.

This is going to be huge for our sport when the Millions of players that buy Tiger Woods Video Games get the chance to play a Disc Golf Video Game.

The Team Jenkins Disc Golf Documentary was set to begin filming the weekend of April 4, so our family made plans to fly down to Houston, TX where Director Rob Engle has a large production studio where he works. It actually happens to be the largest production studio in Houston. Val and I were flying in from Atlanta, GA where we played the Atlanta Open National Tour Event the previous weekend and my parents, Sharon and Leroy, were traveling from the cold winter weather of Ohio. It all seemed to work out as the Texas States Disc Golf Championships was taking place that weekend along with the initial start to the filming of our documentary.

This whole idea for a Disc Golf documentary was started by Rob Engle when he was trying to pursue making a film that granted greater exposure to the sport. But much like everyone else that has attempted to makea film telling the history of Disc Golf from the beginning, it seemed a little cut and dry to just produce a film about the timeline and future of Disc Golf. He wanted a story and a plot that would intrigue viewers that had no knowledge of the game and have them understand why we love this sport so much. He approached his good friend Neal Dambra about his idea over a year ago, and Neal mentioned that his doubles partner Leroy has an entire family that plays. And thus Team Jenkins became the story line for his documentary that he was looking for. He met up with us at the World Championships in Kalamazoo, MI and explained to us his grand idea to have a film that portrayed the “family friendly” sport of Disc Golf by highlighting how we all started this great game. He captured some great tournament footage throughout the week and later produced an youtube teaser to really get us interested into what was to come - he is doing the entire film in HD quality.

We all met up in Houston on Wednesday and played some practice rounds as a family to get a feel for the courses before the tournament. On Thursday we all arrived at the Tom Bass course and were greeted with 30-35 mph winds to start the first day of filming. Rob Engle is the director of the film, with Patrick Brogdon on Audio and Humberto Jaime working the HD camera. Rob had Innova Champion Discs Inc. deliver a United States Disc Golf Championship basket to Houston for us to use during the action shots of the documentary. We set the basket up in certain locations on the course and each of us did individual putting and driving sessions in some extremely windy conditions. We did some really cool putting and driving shots on the side hill of the Wilmont course with an amphitheater in the background. We spent a majority of the day capturing lots of different views and perspectives, giving Rob lots of footage to work with for the documentary.

The tournament started on a windy Saturday morning on the Tourney course which seemed to be the most difficult of the 3 courses that we played for the weekend. Rob had mic’d and follow around my mother, Sharon, and Valarie for the first round. Matt Orum played an amazing first round shooting a 52 - besting the next best score by 4 strokes. I played really tentatively and made too many mistakes in the wind to shoot a 58, 6 strokes off the lead. I was mic’d for the second round and played a lot more confidently, shooting a 50 with a few mistakes on some of the easier holes to remain 6 strokes off the lead to Matt Orum, who shot a 50 as well. It was going to be a battle going into Sunday as we faced the longer 24-hole layout on the Wilmont course.

I was on the attack on Sunday knowing that I could make up some ground on the lead card and possibly close the gap on first to win the tournament. It was as windy as it had been the majority of the weekend and never let up the entire round. I parked the 1st hole for birdie to start things off but made a misread on the 2nd hole as my disc kicked off a tree in the fairway and when flying OB in the creek to the left. I was left with nothing but a layup and an automatic 5 to start the round. I knew at that point that there were lots of holes left and I could still do what I set out to do when this all started. I began playing super aggressive in the wind, trying to score and catch up as I kept continuous watch of the lead card to get a feel on how they were playing. I made some misreads later in the round on some routine upshots leaving myself 25-30′ footers that I missed due to some crazy swirling winds. I continued to play out the round even though things did not seem to be going my way. We approached the last and final hole of the tournament, it was a 500′ shot from one end of the pond to the other with a generous right to left crossing tailwind. I stepped up to the tee with only the intention of going for the pin and nothing else. I bombed my bright yellow Pro Destroyer way wide to the right, all hyzer angle. It came in spike hyzer 15′ short of the basket and closer than anyone all day long, Parked!! I tapped in for birdie to finish the tournament with a 76 the final round as we waited for the lead card’s scores to come in. It turns out that Matty O played another great round, shooting 76 to hold on the win and I finished in a tie for 2nd with Mike Olse. Val also had a tough weekend as she battled it out with Des Reading, and Val ended up finishing 2nd as well. My mother came in 3rd and my father came in 7th. All in all, a great Texas States Disc Golf Championship as always. The tournament director Chuck Conaway and staff really put on a quality event this year. Congrats!

We made arrangements to meet up at the studio on Monday morning to continue shooting the film, it actually turns out that we did not get to the studio until around 12 pm because we were really worn out from the windy weekend of golf. We got all set up as the studio crew (Humberto, Patrick and Rob) got the stage ready for the family interviews. Our first shoot was set up as a group interview as we were all sat in a makeup living room setting with all of us sitting on the couch or chairs. Rob had us start to describe the how it all began, with details from when my parents first met all the way until their involvement with disc golf to until Val and I started playing professionally. The interview process and questions were a lot more in depth than I initially thought, but my parents were coming up with stories that even I have never heard. It was a great family interaction interview that is sure to look great in the film.

Next we then separated to do individual interviews and question sessions, and as the night grew later we began to tire. I had Val and the parents go first, as I wanted to be the last interview of the night. I also wanted to get in a quick nap on the couch while I had the chance, only to be awaken because I was snoring and they could supposedly hear it during the interviews. So I had Val make up some cappuccinos before I was ready to be interviewed. We stayed at the studio until 3:30 am to make sure that we had collected enough footage for the day, knowing that we would be available throughout the summer and into USDGC for more player interviews and live action footage.

Val and I returned to the studio the next day to do some more action shots - this time in front of the huge white seamless backdrop. We did a variety of poses and throws, from putting to upshots to jump-putts to full drives. We even did some 360-turnaround drives that will look great in the slow-motion footage. Rob got really creative with the artistic style of pulling out on many of the full-frame action shots and poses. Over the week he had collected and compiled over 25+ hours of footage including interviews and lots of tournament coverage. I can’t wait to see what it all looks like when it is all edited down into the trailer just before gearing up for the final project. This documentary will release at a few film festivals early next year and the final goal is to have this documentary air on National TV.

He will also have lots more footage to add throughout the season with lots of player interviews at the USDGC and our home tournament, Roscoe’s Revenge, this coming July 4th weekend. Thanks to all that are making this production possible. I will keep everyone posted on the exciting news from the Team Jenkins Disc Golf Documentary.

What a year! 2008 has gone down as my most successful disc golf season to date. I played in 28 PDGA Tournaments with 20 top 5’s and 9 wins (32% Winning Percentage), including 2 National Tour Wins at The Greater Tulsa Open and The Vibram Open and 5 Supertour Wins including an A-Tier Trifecta to finish off the year down South at the Corpus Christi Open, Oklahoma Open and Veterans Park Open. I kept my cash streak alive cashing in every tournament I played in 2008.

I have played more tournaments in one full season (46 tournaments in 2002), but this year I traveled more tour miles than any other year, accruing 80,000+ travel miles throughout the 2008 disc golf season (trust me it took some time to add up all of those miles). The distance I traveled is comparable to circling the planet 3.2 times with an average of 216 miles a day for the entire year. And that statistic doesn’t even take into account all the miles I walked on the golf course week in and week out. I calculated that I flew 60K by plane including some huge trips to Japanese and European Majors. The other 20K consisted of ground miles that I collected from driving the Tioga back and forth across the country including multiple trips with various friends to many tournaments throughout the year. I have never heard of travel miles throughout a disc golf season that compare to those numbers, please let me know if you have ever heard of anything comparable. For my efforts I led the PDGA Tour Points for the 2008 season.

I set my personal longest recorded throw at 695 feet (212 Meters) at the Big D in the Desert in Primm, NV this past April. I later tied my personal distance record of 695 feet at the World Disc Games Overall Event at the field of UCSC in Santa Cruz, CA this past July. I got to see my sister, Valarie, set the Women’s World Distance Record at 485 feet (148 Meters) - it was an amazing throw in the hot California desert. I also threw my longest non-official distance throw of 840+ feet in practice the afternoon before the actual Distance Competition the following day. With that throw and with many throws since, I now feel that I have a legitimate shot at breaking the World Distance Record at Big D in the Desert in 2010.

As far as other stats, I shot 6 Course Records including some huge rounds during my biggest tournaments of the year. I shot some scorching 2nd rounds at both The United States Disc Golf Championship and The Vibram Open to post 1085 rated rounds. I continue to get closer and closer to winning the prestigious USDGC, and I am confident that it will soon be mine. My highest rated round of the year was my final round at the Memorial with a 1090 round rating to finish the tournament, which is still my highest rated round in my career to date.

I finished the year winning one-third of my events played and claiming $32,345 (2nd in PDGA Cash) in earnings. I played tournaments worldwide and claimed my first 2008 PDGA Points Title with 20,573 points. I remain to be currently ranked 4th in the World with a 1030 Player Rating which ranks at 10th in PDGA Ratings as I enter in to the 2009 disc golf season.

Full 2008 Tour Stats: Click Here

I got to witness my Sister, Valarie, and my best friend, Dave Feldberg, win World Titles this year in Kalamazoo, MI this past August. I also witnessed first–hand as my other best friend Nate Doss, held me off to claim his first USDGC Title. It was great to be a part of it all and very inspirational to see drive and hard work finally pay off. It makes my desire and passion to fulfill my biggest goals increase as I now see it as being very possible as year after year I have gotten closer to winning another Big PDGA Major. Now I want a Worlds and USDGC title more than ever.

Thanks to all my friends, family and travel companions throughout the year that have made my world travels possible and my disc golf dreams a reality. Here’s to an amazing 2009 season!

So this is the youtube video Trailer for the “Team Jenkins - First Family of Disc Golf” Documentary due to release the Spring/Summer of 2010.

Youtube Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l2E2DRkMGx4

This is documentary that will expose the family friendly sport of Disc Golf along with lots of footage of the PDGA Professional National Tour throughout the summer.

Be sure to stay tuned………………………………………

Please let me know what you think. Enjoy!

This winter I have been working very hard on putting together my official Web site, and I am extremely happy to say that AveryJenkins7495.com is ready for launch!

I am very excited about this site; it was a huge undertaking that has definitely been a long time coming. Be sure to visit the site and check back often as I plan to post all of my latest pictures, videos and stats from my life on the road as a professional disc golfer. I will be updating this Web site throughout the season to keep you posted on all the greatest news from the disc golf tour. I will also be posting blogs periodically telling of the amazing tournaments that I play and dispatches from my travels around the world, and you will also find links to other great disc golf Web sites, including this one.

Check out AveryJenkins7495.com, and be sure to let me know what you think!

Tune in at 8:00pm EST on Tue. Dec. 16th and 18th for Disc Golf Network coverage of the Tupelo Bay Open brought to you by Innova Discs and Revolution Bags.

The 2008 Tupelo Bay Open was contested on Dec. 13-14, 2008 in Myrtle Beach, SC and the Disc Golf Network was there to capture all of the action for PDGA TV. Tune in to PDGA.com on December 16th & 18th at 8:00pm and 11:00pm EST for full coverage of the event brought to you by Innova Champion Discs, Revolution Disc Golf Bags, and ClashDVD.com.

Each year, the Tupelo Bay Open provides a top notch ball golf style disc golf course event in a beautiful and professional setting. Year round the Tupelo Bay Resort has a short 9 hole pay-to-play course at the entrance to the park, but it doesn’t compare to the experience that the Tupelo Bay Open course provides.

Now in it’s fourth year, this tourney has been won by the likes of Barry Schultz (2005) and Brian Schweberger (2006-2007). Avery Jenkins will make the trip to the carolina coast this year in a bid to overpower the competition and win his first Tupelo title. Check out the video promo below and be sure to check back to PDGA.com on Tuesday, Dec. 16th for full video coverage of the event. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy disc golf as it was meant to be, straight from the Grand Strand.

Video Links:

Day 1

Day 2

Be sure to check​ out this first​ of its kind Promo​ Disc Golf Video​ Cover​age and look forwa​rd to more tournaments/event​s being​ cover​ed during next years​ tour seaso​n.​

Enjoy​!​

After a long trip across the country following the USDGC, Steve Mills and I made a trip down to the great state of Texas to play some late season tournaments throughout the south. We stayed with our good friend Robbie Bratten at his apartment in Houston. We planned on staying there throughout the week and traveling to the tournaments on the weekends. I had planned to play a few Supertour events in the coming weeks such as The Corpus Christi Open, The Oklahoma Open and The Veterans Park Open. I had been looking forward to this trip for a long time, it was set to be an amazing time, I would not expect anything less.

The first tournament was the Corpus Christi Open in Corpus Christi, Texas, way down south - maybe the furthest south I have ever played Disc Golf - almost an hour from Mexico. Robbie, Steve and I rolled into town on Thursday night to be prepared to play all day on Friday. We stayed with Robbie’s cousin John Cook who plays Fullback for the Corpus Christi Arena Football Team, quite impressive but very understandable by his size and strength. He could probably play Pro Football in the NFL. We practiced the longer course in the morning and planned on playing doubles with Robbie on the shorter Ingleside course during the afternoon round. When I mean short, I mean really short - 12 of the 18 holes were short, spike hyzers over these small trees with one hole over 400 over water. Needless to say, we scorched the course with a 40 (-14) to tie for first place with Matt Hall and Erik Soete.

On the first day of the tournament, we played the shorter course for the first round. I shot a 47 (-7) that remained 3 strokes off the lead of Michael Olse, who shot a 44 (-10). We then played the longer course for the second round. I came out on fire and needed to make a move being that this was only a 3-round tournament. I played really solid and shot a 53 (-10) on 21 holes to best the next best score by 5 strokes to gain the lead by 3 strokes over Bratten going into Sunday. The third and final round on Sunday was held at the longer course consisting of the original 18 holes. I played really consistent but not great, missing some pretty routine, easy birdies on the back 9 to shoot a 45 (-9) to win by 6 strokes. Eric McCabe made a late surge the last round shooting a 43 (-11) to finish in a tie for 2nd with Devan Owens. Michael Olse finished 4th and Robbie Bratten finished with a strong 5th to round out the top 5 places.

We then headed back to Robbie’s place in Houston to rest up and play a few of the local courses throughout the week. Mills and I started a routine of working out in the morning and making use of the hot tub while Robbie was away during the day at school. It was great disc golf training and we dedicated an hour a day to putting in preparation for the next upcoming event in Oklahoma.

Robbie, Mills, Soete and I packed up the truck and left Houston Thursday afternoon. We arrived in Tulsa, OK really late Thursday night and made plans to stay at Mike Conner’s house located across from hole #17 at McClure Park. It was one of the best host locations on tour and couldn’t be any more convenient with the players meetings, the last round Sunday afternoon and the awards ceremony all in the same place right across the street. The Oklahoma Open consisted of 4 rounds on 4 courses: Blackhawk, Redhawk, Devillio, and McClure. I had played both Blackhawk and Redhawk during the Greater Tulsa Open National Tour event earlier in the year. We practiced 2 of the 4 courses (Blackhawk and McClure) on Friday and left the other 2 course for warm-up practice before each of the remaining rounds.

On Saturday morning we had a players meeting unlike any other as “Big Dave” played the national anthem on electric guitar. I would expect no less from a Twisted Flyer event. The tournament rounds started on Blackhawk where I played really solid coming into the last couple of holes, then sitting at -7 coming into the last 4 holes (16 thru 1). I scored a par 4 on the long, difficult hole 16 and then proceeded to miss birdie on the short hole 17. So I was still sitting good going into holes 18 and 1, which were great birdies and pretty routine par 3’s if the drives are off. My drives were just that, and I ended up with bogeys on both of those holes to finish 50 (-4) instead of -8 if I would have birdied the final 2 holes. So after 1 round I had a 2 stroke lead which kept the competition closer than I wanted. We then went on to play the easier Redhawk course that offered many more birdies and chances to go real low. I shot a mediocre 50 (-4) while Hatfield and McCabe each made up a stroke with 49’s (-5) and Robbie Bratten came in with the hot round at 47 (-7). Sunday was shaping up for quite the battle until the end.

The 3rd round started out at Devillio and Coda Hatfield was within 2 strokes heading into his other home course aside from McClure. All I had to do was remain in the lead going into the final round and see what happened down the stretch. I came out of the gates on fire, scoring -6 on the first 13 holes before cooling off. That’s when Coda took the opportunity to put the pressure on, shooting -4 on the last 5 holes and taking 6 strokes on me in the last 6 holes. He finished like I started and closed the gap to 1 stroke off the lead going into the last round. Like I knew it from the beginning, it was all going to go down during the final round at McClure.

So going into Coda’s home course leading by a stroke about to enter into the windiest rounds of golf that I have played all year long, it was going to take some great play to hold off Oklahoma’s best disc golfer. I could see that he liked his chances and like I said, it was going to be a battle. We both came out scoring birdie on the first 2 holes and I took advantage on hole 3 with another birdie as Coda took an unlikely bogey. I maintained the lead throughout the front 9 and played consistent on the back as Coda continued to display his great ability to make long putts. He kept it close going into the final hole, still 1 stroke back. He then threw an unfortunate drive off the tee that clipped a light post and carried across a park driveway and safely down the fairway in bounds. I sensed the chance to close the door on this tournament and played aggressively down the middle setting up a great chance at birdie to finish it out. Coda had a tough approach and could not get it close enough. He was then forced to run a 60 footer to put the pressure on, but came up short. I had an easy lay-up shot to the pin for the win. Hatfield retained 2nd place with McCabe finishing 3rd, Devan Owens 4th and Robbie Bratten holding on to 5th. With this tournament I remained undefeated this year in Oklahoma with a previous win at the Greater Tulsa Open. Thanks to Joe Rotan for running a premier Supertour event and I plan on coming back to defend my title. We all stopped for dinner and made the long trek back to Houston that night.

Mills and I spent another week in Houston playing some other local courses and preparing for another weekend of disc golf in Arlington, Texas at the Veterans Park Open. We played a really nice course in downtown Houston with some great views of the city skyline from almost every hole on the course. A definite must-see on disc golf travels through Houston. We left for Arlington on Friday morning and with a slight detour on waiting to pick up Matt Hall on the way through, we arrived at Veterans Park with enough time to get in a practice round before heading Brian Mace’s apartment for the night.

The tournament started on Saturday morning on the shorter of the 24-hole layouts. I played great shooting a 60 (-12) to lead the tournament by 2 strokes over Eric McCabe and Miles Seaborn, and Steve Mills shot one of his best rounds of the season with a 63 (-9) that was rated at 1013. The 2nd round the course remained in the same layout but for some reason I didn’t play as well due to the wind picking up for the afternoon round or the 48 golf holes that we ended up playing in one day. I shot a 62 (-10) to remain in the lead by 2 strokes over McCabe while Coda Hatfield shot a 60 (-12) to move up to within 3 strokes of the lead. So it would be another “Texas Shootout” heading into the 3rd and final round on Sunday.

On Sunday morning they moved all the pins to their longest locations to make for the VPO Championship layout. I was more than ready for the challenge. The final round lead card consisted of Eric McCabe, Coda Hatfield, Nolan Grider, Robbie Bratten and myself, setting the stage for some great competition on a really challenging course. I played really aggressively on the front 12 holes and remained in the lead by a single stroke over McCabe. He made some clutch birdies to gain 2 strokes down the stretch to force me to turn it on the remaining 5 holes as I got a few strokes back to still hold the lead by a single throw.

It all came down to the final hole (yet again back to back weeks). It was a unique hole out to the corner of the park at 420′ with a small Out of Bounds rock wall surrounding the entire backside of the green within 20′ of the basket. The preferred shot is a roller and McCabe had this shot dialed. I have had trouble with this hole throughout the weekend carding pars both times; McCabe had the definite advantage coming into this hole and had a chance to tie it up if I failed to birdie. I decided to throw a roller this time, to trust it to stay in bounds for the closer and the win. The shot came out hot and headed right for the pin, within 3 feet to the left cruising right past and heading for the small raised wall separating the green from the OB. It hit the wall with great force, shot into the air, hitting the wall on the way down to fall back in bounds by a foot. McCabe had to chance the same shot and put pressure on me to make that putt. His shot did the very same thing, rolling by even closer to the basket, hitting the rock wall and barely staying in bounds. McCabe stepped up to his 20′ and made it, forcing me to hit my putt. I stepped up to an 18′ putt with a consistent head/cross wind that caused me to take a little more time on the putt. I went through the motion and knocked it down for the one stroke win to cap off the A-tier Trifecta in the 3 consecutive tournament weekends throughout the South. It was a hard-fought battle until the end, and McCabe played great to force the win on the final hole of competition.

It was an amazing 3 week tour all made possible by lots of people along the way. Special thanks first and foremost to Robbie Bratten for everything from a place to stay throughout the tour, travel to all 3 tournaments and for all the great times that we shared day in and day out enjoying what Texas had to offer. Thanks to John Cook in Corpus Christi, Mike Conners in Tulsa and Brian Mace for providing us with a place to stay throughout the tournament weekends, it saved us a lot of money and made for a great time. Thanks to Steve Mills for being a great travel partner throughout the 2 month tour from USDGC Doubles through the VPO, you played well and had multiple finishes in the top 10 for the first time at some good Supertours. He learned some valuable lessons along the way and now understands that being a Professional Touring Disc Golfer is not easy. And last but not least, thanks for all the tournament directors of those events that made arrangements for me to be able to attend their great Supertour events. I had a blast the entire time, played some great golf over the 3 week span to an average round rating of 1033 and made $3520 for the 3 Supertour victories for the A-Tier Trifecta.

Next Tournament: Tupelo Bay Open - Myrtle Beach, SC

On Monday morning following the USDGC Doubles event, the Clash DVD crew drove out to Hornets Nest Disc Golf Course to finish the Clash taping that we tried to complete on the previous Friday but couldn’t due to the rainy weather. Billy Crump organized the competitors for this video - Barry Schultz, Eric McCabe, Brian Schweberger, Michael Johansen, Kevin McCoy and myself for the first of its kind - Worst Shot Doubles at Hornets Nest. It was formatted to be random draw for partners, and then both players on each team were to throw and the worst shot would be determined by the other groups. The play continued shot for shot until both players on the team made the putt to complete the hole. Yes, both players have to make the putt which is very difficult especially if your partner is a great putter - and that adds to the pressure.

We all flipped for partners and here’s how that went down: Schultz got teamed up with McCabe, Schweberger paired up with Johansen and I got the pleasure of being matched up with my good friend Kevin McCoy. The teams were solid. No matter how everyone got paired up it was going to be quite the battle on a tougher course for a worst shot formatted doubles. It was going to take some amazing play to beat out the Schweberger/Johansen team, which I considered to be the favorite considering that you could pair up Johansen with just about anyone to be a great team for the fact it was his home course. He knows these holes better then everyone combined. I made jokes about that the entire round.

So the show was about to begin. One thing that came to mind was that I was teamed up with the only player that did not play doubles over the weekend and I was concerned about how well he knew this particular course considering how long it has been since he has played it due to him starting a family and having a child in the last year or so. But rest assured – it’s Kevin McCoy, no matter how long it has been, he can always play well and he makes up for that by being a phenomenal putter.

I don’t want to ruin the story line of the DVD for everyone, but let me say that it was a battle throughout the entire round. It’s unlike any other doubles round because you could not rely on your partner to make great shots; a majority of the pressure was placed on yourself to perform or in many cases not mess up when it matters most. It is a very exciting video that plays with the players throwing skills, shot making abilities and a solid, calm patience to enable the best doubles team to become victorious that day. Look for the release of the video sometime near Christmas, like always I will keep everyone posted.

My parents, Leroy and Sharon, arrived that night into Rock Hill to attend their very first USDGC ever. I was glad that they could make the trip down after all the years that they have heard what a great tournament it was. I took them by the Innova East Factory on Tuesday morning to look through some discs and other rarities that you can get from the factory, including browsing1000’s and 1000’s of discs. I love going to factory when I get the opportunity once a year. We spent nearly 3 hours there. All of us went out to the Winthrop course later that afternoon to get in a Team Jenkins practice, just me and the family, never would have thought. It was great to show them the signature holes and the great landscape on the USDGC course, holes that they have only seen on video up to that point. It was a great practice day at the US Open.

We attended the Tournament Players Meeting that night, where they awarded the Golden Rake to deserving members Bill Jacobson and Lisa McDaniel for all of their hard work and continuous support of the USDGC year in and year out. The Tournament Director Jonathan Poole gave a brief history of the event and recited a very inspirational speech that I took to heart, hanging on every word. This was going to be my year, I could just feel it. They then began to call out the First Round Tee Times with groups starting at 7 am, keeping players on the edge of their seats and crossing their fingers that they get an 11 am or later tee time when the grass is dry and when it is warmer out. I got hooked up with a 9:20 am tee time, early enough to get out there before any kind of wind starts up but late enough where I don’t have to warm up in the morning fog. We all then collected our annual USDGC Players package, where we each received a really nice Huk Lab sweatshirt, a personalized t-shirt and caddie bib and a clear 1st-run Boss all contained in a custom USDGC graphics cooler -some of the nicest players packages that we get all year.

Hole 12 - 2nd shot

The first round of competitive play started on Wednesday morning. I got out there about 2 hours early to ensure a complete throwing and stretching warm up with enough time to get in a solid half hour of putting. I would rather have too much time on the practice field then not enough. Plus I throw lots of shots to make sure that I am ready for longer shots that I will be throwing during the round when each shot counts for so much. I was feeling good, but not as pumped up as I usually am for the start of the USDGC, not sure why. I approached the tee at the designated time and my Father was there to caddy for me every step of the way.

I came out of the gates on fire carding birdies on 2 of the first 3 holes; this was the start that I was looking for. I came into hole 4 sitting 2 down and looking to finish out the front 9 way under par. But I think that I may have looked too far ahead. I threw a bad sidearm off the tee and had to lay up where I would have a great look at throwing the spike over the trees for a par on the par 4. I threw the spike but I guess that I did not account for the tighter OB surrounding the trees around the green area. The shot hit the top of the trees and rolled back into the OB. No need to worry at that point, I just needed to throw in up there for a putt to walk with a bogie, but instead I decided to throw the shot a bit long to avoid another OB and missed the putt coming back, scoring a 7 on the hole. That quickly moved me from 2 down to 1 over in the matter of one hole, unbelievable. That was the hole that changed my thought process for the entire round and made me realize that this was for real. I cannot take any of these shots for granted. Never.

I played a pretty consistent front 9 carding birdies on the next 4 holes. I had some bad breaks as well as some bad rollaways to score 2 over on the back 9, including 3 bogeys and 2 doubles with 5 out-of-bounds throws to shoot a mind-numbing 67 on the course par 68. I could not believe that at that moment I had just carded a 1 down during one of the largest tournaments in the game at an event I have been waiting for this entire year, with everything short of a miracle I basically just shot myself out of any chance of winning the US Open. I had more OB’s the opening round then I had the entire tournament last year, and it was by far my worst round that I have scored there in years. It was almost too much to take at the time. All that I could do was take out my frustrations on the distance fields for the USDGC Distance qualifier.

I arrived down at the fields feeling absolutely crushed, but still knew that everything that happened out there was my doing and I was the only one that could bring it all back. It was all on me. I showed up at the qualifier a little early to watch some throws and get some great wind reads. The wind was better than most years; it seemed to be mostly tailwind at times. I was the 12th player to throw and that I did - really far. My first 2 throws were decent, but nothing to get me qualified as of yet. The 3rd throw was a smooth turn-around that caught perfectly and flew out the entire length of the field and then some to take the top qualifying spot at the time at approx. 660 feet. Now that’s how you take out some aggression. That made me feel just a little bit better about the day, but not completely. We went back to the hotel to prepare for the round that I had to face the following day.

This was going to be the day where I could change it all, and I kind of had to in the position that I was sitting in the tournament. I was currently in 43rd in the tournament and there was nowhere to go but up, way up. This day of warm-up was a lot more intense; I was throwing better then the day before and I had more motivation. I had something to prove. I had a great 4-some to start the 2nd round and that always means a lot to have good friends on the same card. It keeps me easy-going and less stressedWe approached the starting tee and I was ready to do this the right way.

I birdied the first 3 holes to start the round and thought nothing of it, I was on a mission. I soon approached my nemesis hole from the day before, good old hole #4. I played it really, really safe and walked away with a conservation par, saving 3 strokes from the first round. Off to a great start. I proceeded to shoot a consistent, clean front 9 going 6 down. I now had my work cut out for me as I approached the fierce back 9 that can destroy all those who do not respect it, in short it contains some of the hardest and most difficult holes on the entire course. I threw all of my shots precisely and on the mark to all of the locations I wanted to land off the tee. I then proceeded to make a bunch of solid putts on 10, 11, 12 and 13 to go 4 down with an eagle on 12. I played out the rest and birdied 15 and 16, with a par on the island green of hole 17. I had played the round mistake-free and laid up the tee shot on 17 just to insure an OB-free, bogey-free round. So a par was just fine at the time.

Hole 18 is a difficult birdie but a pretty standard par if you can keep all of your shots in bounds, and that’s exactly what I needed to do, play it safe and finish the round. So I picked the safest shot that I could choose on such a difficult tee-shot, the sidearm plays perfectly into the side hill ideally giving a great look at a comfortable approach shot and hopefully a birdie. Except for this time, the shot flew great off my hand and landed just where I wanted it but the misfortune of disc landing on a side hill caused it to stand and roll down the hill OB. This round was not to be as planned. I marked the stray shot back in bounds and threw the approach 15 feet from the basket to save par. It was everything that I could ask out of a round as I played absolutely perfect going into the last hole to shoot the New Winthrop Gold Course Record at a scorching score of 55. Just what I was looking for, an unbelievable round that went as planned shot for shot, hole for hole. I only made a few mistakes that I could have capitalized on, but I could not ask for much more after the round that I shot the day before. I was not to be outdone, but Nate Doss made claims to the course record as he came into the clubhouse with an amazing 55 as well. Two of the best rounds ever shot on that course during the very same round, I could have never imagined that to happen, it was meant to be. So now that I was back in the hunt to win it all, I felt a little more at ease with my position in the tournament. I moved up 40 spots in just one round and I was now just 6 strokes back of the lead.

Distance Finals - Top 5

It was now time to regain my UDSGC Distance title from 2006 against some of the longest throwers in the game. The top 5 qualifiers that made it to the finals were Jussi Meresma, Robbie Bratten, Garett Gurthie, Linus Astrom and myself. The event was held at this huge outdoor soccer complex the size of 3 fields in the evening under the lights, which made for an epic showdown on this cold autumn night. The first round consisted of five shots each with each player taking their longest recorded throw before moving into the final round of five throws. The longest throw of the 10 throws was to be determined the winner. The first round I had unleashed some great turnaround distance shots but none of the discs that I threw seemed to fly out the way that they did the day before due to the cold temperatures and the slight wind. I led the first round with a mediocre 507. Gurthie threw some great shots in the second round to push us into a throw-off for the tie at 507, Bratten at 592, Astrom at 477 and Meresma at 453. Gurthie and I were both granted 5 more shots to determine the Distance Champion. I have been thinking about this event all year long and this was the time to regain my title. I was throwing some of the biggest, longest shots of the night, so it seemed, but because of the conditions of the night the discs just didn’t seem to fly no matter how hard we threw. There is definitely something to be said about the physics of disc flight when the air temperatures are less than ideal. I could not believe that the longest throw up to that point was only 507 feet after we both qualified with distances of 660+, it was unreal. Gurthie threw a couple great shots during the sudden death finals to edge me out for the second straight year. He is a great distance thrower and he definitely proved that as he claimed his deserving title as this year’s USDGC Distance Champion. I congratulated him and I look forward to many more head to head distance battles in the future.

The 3rd round started on Friday morning; it was my debut to the prestigious lead card with Nate Doss -20, John E. McCray -16, Barry Schultz -14 and myself -14. I came out of the gates scoring a birdie on 4 of the first 5 holes with a lone bogey on 3 after an errant shot that strayed out of bounds. I ended -3 on the front 9 holes, falling another stroke off the lead but gaining strokes on the rest of the card totie for 2nd. I played a conservative, safe back 9 with birdies on 16 and 18 to finish it up to shoot a -5 for the round. I shot a total of -8 to score a 60 for the round to remain in solo 3rd but taking 2 strokes off the lead to remain 4 strokes back. Wait this is confusing. You said you shot -5 but then said you shot -8. Be more clear that you meant -3 on the first nine and -5 on the back nine to finish -8 for the round with a solid 60. It was all going to come down to the last and final round.

Lead Group - Final Round

This was the round that was going to change everything. This was the closest that I have been to a USDGC title going into the final round and I was more than ready to put on a show. The scores for the lead group were Nate Doss -26, Ken Climo -23, Myself -22 and Paul McBeth -21. It was going to be a battle until the end, and everyone on this lead card had a chance to win on a course this fierce where strokes can be given on any one of these holes. Whoever made the least amount of mistakes was going to win it all. It all comes down to this: playing on the lead group in the final round of the USDGC, with every shot counting for everything. I came out on fire parking Hole 1 and then proceeded to birdie 5 of the first 7 holes with a lone bogey on hole 5 due to an errant tee shot that forced me to play out the rest of the hole safe to avoid going out of bounds. I ended up shooting -5 on the front 9, going on to hole 10 still remaining 4 strokes behind Doss and pulling into solo 2nd past Climo. It started to heat up on hole 11 as I threw my approach within 40 feet and waited for Nate as his roller approach into the green barely made it back in bounds. He then proceeded to have his first putt rim out and roll to within in inches of OB. His second putt for par again rimmed out and rolled down the hill and towards OB to stop within inches. I stepped to my 40-footer, knowing how bad I needed it to catch him. I lined it up and cashed it for birdie in front of the giant gallery. Doss then stepped to his pressure putt 28-footer and cashed that for bogey. I moved to within 2 strokes with 7 holes remaining; this was the time and it all came down to these final holes.

I threw a pretty routine drive on the long par 5 hole 12, and lined up a long 430+ approach with a line-drive Excaliber that took a huge skip past the pin and rolled out just outside the circle. Doss then stepped to his approach to throw an amazing hyzer that settled with 15 of the basket. I lined up the eagle putt with the slight head wind and left it an inch low to leave me with a drop in birdie as Doss got a stroke back with a standard eagle 3. We continued to streak through the next couple of holes as Doss played great and took one stroke per hole as he birdied holes 13 and 14 and scored a par on 15 to take back a 5 stroke lead going into the last 3 holes, almost too many strokes with that many holes. There was only one thing to do at that point: I had to birdie out and see what Doss would do on Hole 17. I still had a chance. I then birdied the 391 foot hole 16 with a massive sidearm hyzer that spiked within 10 feet for the drop in.

Drive on Hole 17

It was all going to come down to Hole 17, which happened to be a lot less frightening this year compared to last for the fact that the player was not charged with a stroke penalty for an OB shot, it was only considered a BunCR and the player would just re-throw from the tee until a shot landed safe inbounds. So Doss would have to miss the island green 5+ times for me to tie him going into hole 18. I stepped to the tee and threw a Whippet-X sidearm and it cut rolled back to the pin on impact for the drop-in birdie. Doss then threw a smooth putter shot that settled down safely on the green and inbounds. He laid up the upshot and scored a par on the hole to pretty much seal the deal. I made a great tee shot on hole 18 and got up and threw an accurate approach into the pin. I was asking Schweberger as I walked up the 18th fairway what the 2nd card did for the round and if I had to run the putt if left with a longer downhill putt. He said that I had no worries and I had a secure 2nd place by 4 strokes over 3rd. Doss played out the hole super safe and conservative with a lay-up shot that he slid up to the pin. I stepped up to my 15 footer to claim 2nd place yet again for the second straight year. Doss dropped in to assure the victory as the gallery exploded with applause. It was a memorable moment that I will not soon forget; it was a battle until the end and a much deserved win for my good friend Nate Doss. It could not have happened to a better person in the world, he played like a Champion all week long.

Team Jenkins

I had an amazing time as always at this year’s United States Disc Golf Championships, it still remains one of my favorite tournaments year in and year out. This tournament will be mine someday; it will be my passion and the reason for my drive to be the best. Who knows how it would have ended if I had started this year’s first round just a little better, I want it more than ever now. It was even better to have my parents present at the event this year and my father caddying for me all four rounds made it even better. I wanted to win for them so bad, but they were still amazed how it all finished in the end. At least they got to see me own the stage and dominate at the Showcase Distance Finals over Winthrop Lake, quite the show for those that know. When you leave a tournament like that, you just can’t wait to get back. It will be a tournament that I will dream about until I once again get my chance to win it all. Until next year……………………………

Next Tournament: The Players Cup - Crystal River, FL

So I arrived in Charlotte, NC on Wednesday night before the start of the USDGC Doubles Championship. I made the 8 hour drive down from Ohio with my friend Steve Mills and pulled up to Billy Crump’s house to spend the weekend. Feldberg, Climo and Schultz just arrived that day as well, early enough to get some rounds in at Winthrop Gold, Renaissance and Honests Nest in preparation for the Doubles event. The Doubles Teams were Feldberg and I, Schultz and Schweberger, Climo and Brinster, and Orum and Barsby to name a few. It was due to be a super competitive doubles competition on some technical Carolina courses.

Thursday we made a trip out to Wintrop the very next day to get in a solid day of wind practice in preparation for the doubles and for the singles later on the following week. It might have been the most wind that I have ever experienced on that course, making hole 17 one of the hardest holes ever just trying to land a shot in play anywhere on the green. The ropes seemed the tightest that they have ever been on many of the holes making the course at least 2 to 3 strokes harder in my opinion with a lot of the OB’s closer to many of the downhill slopes and surrounding many of the baskets.

On Friday, Billy Crump made arrangements to record a Worst-Shot Doubles Clash out at Hornets Nest but it was cancelled that morning due to mass amounts of rain that we experienced throughout the night into the remainder of the next day. Not the kind of weather that you want to worst shot doubles in, we also did not want to damage the expensive video equipment. We put off the video until Monday morning so that we could show the course at its best in better conditions.

The USDGC Doubles Championship started on Saturday morning at Hornets Nest in the downpour rain. Some teams decided not to play due to the weather and due to the amount of teams that actually signed up. Climo had to pull out of the event due to a hip injury and did not want to risk hurting it worst with the start of USDGC the following week. So Brinster teamed up with Ken “Tank” Franks that morning to join in on the action. The rain soon let up after the pre-round warmups.

The first round we started off playing an alternate shot format on Hornets Nest, being one of the tighter woods courses on tour. We played pretty consistent only missing a few drives and putts throughout the round, it that placed us in 3rd place after the first round of play shooting a 52. Michael Johansen and Jeremy Koling were leading the pack with a 47.

The 2nd round was played out at Renaissance Park, a great combination of wooded to moderately woods holes with a few shots to open up on throughout the round. That round was a straight up best shot doubles format and we were paired up with Disc Golf Legends - Stan McDaniel and Joe Mela. It was a Stan McDaniel designed course, so he knew that course better then anybody and it definitely showed as they shot a 51 for the round. We edged them out during the round shooting a mediocre 50 with lots of missed opportunities. Johansen and Koling shot a 50 as well to retain the lead with Will Schusterick and Kris Orrick shooting a 50 to move up to 2nd place 4 strokes off the lead. We remained in 3rd place still 5 strokes back going into the 3rd and final round at Winthrop Gold.

The 3rd round was held at the Winthrop Gold (USDGC) course, which for those that dont know, it is one of the most challenging and most difficult courses in the world. It has lots of of par 4’s and 5’s, with lots of open holes but also lots of OB on every hole. Trust me, its as good as it gets. We were paired up with McDaniel and Mela for the final round, what a pleasure, we could not ask for a better pairing for a doubles event. The doubles format for this round was best disc, which is a format where both players play the hole and best score between the two is then recorded. So it gives lots of opportunity to score well and it was probably the best format for us especially on this course where we have the most experience as compared to the teams ahead of us.

We battled through the first 5 holes only shooting at -3 down at that point, we didn’t start to really heat up until the back 9 holes where we birdied 7 of the last 9 holes to shoot a solid 57, but we both knew that it was probably not going to be good enough with the strength of some of the teams out there. We saw the lead card absolutely tearing it up, but no one was to say what they were shooting at the time. At the end, Schultz and Schweberger shot an amazing 54 to come back to take the temporary one stroke lead on Feldberg and I until Schusterick and Orrick came in the clubhouse with a solid 56 to hold them off for a one stroke win. So we finished 3rd place 2 strokes off of 1st and 1 stroke off of 2nd.

Congratulations to Kris Orrick and Will Schusterick for being the 1st Annual USDGC Doubles Champions!!!

It was a great weekend and we played some great golf on some challenging courses. I know that we should have shot a lot better the first couple of rounds on the wooded courses especially on those layouts. It was not exactly what we expected but they played great and totally deserved the hard fought win. Thanks to the Bill Jacobson and Charlotte Disc Golf Club for hosting and running this Annual Doubles tournament. Looking forward to next years USDGC Doubles event.

USDGC Singles Coming Soon…………………………..