1000 Rated Disc Golf Players, News, scores, and more

1000 RATED: Could you give us some background on your disc golf resume’ and how you came to be helping the sport in the capacity you are now?

STEVEN: Designing a great course:

In 2003, I took a disc golf odyssey with David Wold. We travelled around the United States and played what were considered to be the best courses in the world. In total, we played over 150 courses and saw many design elements that make disc golf entertaining and challenging. We also saw many errors that should be avoided (no tee signs, missing or poor baskets, boring and repetitive layouts, trash on the ground, seeming disregard for neighbors property.)

I then got married to my wife Misty and we moved to the family farm in central Massachusetts. My goal was to build a disc golf course that could be compared to the best of the best. Maple Hill is the result. The course always has top notch tee signs (which we replace every year), incorporates elevation, prevailing winds, water, woods, and fields. It also demands a strong grasp on a variety of shots. Playing Maple Hill over and over will force you to become a better disc golfer.

Disc golf boards of directors:

In 2004, I was invited to be on the New England Flying disc Association Board of Directors as the graphic designer. I was quickly impressed with the time and effort that went in to the sport behind the scenes. Everyone sees the TD and the work that has been put into their event, but these folks were passionate about building a framework to help the TD and the sport. I was happy to be a part of that group of people.

In 2006, I was elected to the PDGA Board of Directors. While being elbows deep in the Marshall Street Disc Golf Championship (MSDGC), I came to have a bad opinion of the PDGA and the way that they were running things. Rather than simply complain, I decided to see if I can effect change from the inside. I learned quickly that change would be a slow process. While everyone on the board of directors has the same basic goals (grow the sport, build an infrastructure for TDs, improve the image of the sport to spectators and sponsors), the means to those ends were vastly different - and my means were constantly in the minority! Anyway, I now believe that the PDGA is headed in the right direction, albeit slower than I would like, and long term our governing body will be able to lead us to a bigger and better sport.

The retail side of things:

Upon arrival at the family farm, I saw a three pronged approach to building disc golf: a great course, a great tourney, and a great store. My cousin Jason Southwick (who built one of the first courses in New England in 1988) was on the way to building much of what I wanted to build. We joined forces and created Marshall Street. The MSDGC was born, the Marshall Street store was born, and the courses of Marshall Street (Pyramids and Maple Hill) were considered to be high quality courses. As with many things that incorporate family and money, my relationship with Jason soured as our goals diverged. We agreed to split up the business.

I went on to create another retail store (Prime Discs) and the Vibram Open at Maple Hill. The three original tenets are all in place and we look forward to building on the synergies being created to take disc golf to the next level and the mainstream. In the coming decade, I believe disc golf will become a mainstream sport. Hopefully by creating the Vibram Open, I can have a hold on one of the oars that pulls us there.

1000 RATED: Your involvement with the Vibram Open this year has a lot of people talking about how to run a successful disc golf tournament. Can you tell us a little about the process for how this tournament came to be, and why it was so well put together?

STEVEN: One of my long term goals is to create one of the greatest disc golf events in the world. The Vibram Open, which was born out of the ashes of the MSDGC, is the event we are building. In order for a tournament (or anything we attempt) to be a success, we must first have a set of goals. Attainable goals are best, but imo, they are also a bit boring. We then plan based on our goals. With the help of many friends, an outline of the tournament we wanted to build came into focus. We wanted to have some spectator excitement before the event to build interest and the Maple Hill Dubs was born. We needed to feed 175 people on Saturday night, and our friend the caterer was contacted. Without tons of planning and mapping out what needed to happen and when, we wouldn’t have even known who to ask for help - and I think that is the biggest thing.

Ask for help.

Clearly an event of this magnitude could never have happened without tons of support. We had a dozen spotters, a half dozen camera folks, a crew of live scorers, info tent and parking staff, and a dedicated live webcam guy. On top of all of this, there were Staff Generals in charge of each group of people. I would discuss goals with the Staff Generals and they would implement the goals (as they saw fit) with their crews. While I personally like to micro-manage, I also recognize that in this type of situation it is better to make sure things get done and not worry about the way in which they get done.

1000 RATED: Do you mind elaborating on this? How important do you think it is for a Tournament Director (TD) to put together a team of people who help in various parts of the process - rather than one person who does everything and becomes overwhelmed in the end?

STEVEN: This is critical. Even for our one day events (which seem so easy when compared to the Vibram Open) a core of good people to help makes everything go smoother. From running the putting contest while checking score cards to spotting on the hole where the back up always occurs. A good staff and a good team makes a tournament a success.For an event like the Vibram Open - or any other National Tour or Major event - it was necessary to have a core group of Generals to manage all of the volunteers. These people have to be free and willing to offer suggestions, question my judgment, and implement a plan of action to accomplish their task. They are close friends who I trust implicitly. Even with the incredible staff we had at the Vibram Open, I still became a bit overwhelmed at times - although I never let it show.

1000 RATED: Was the Vibram Open the most successful tournament you’ve ever run?

STEVEN: Yes, by far. A TD comes away from every tournament seeing things that could be done better (we crammed too many activities into Saturday night, I forgot to present the Maple Hill Dubs checks, etc.), but in this case, they were so small relative to the overall goal of creating a premier disc golf event. At the MSDGCs, we always had significant delays and confusion due to the use of two courses and moving everyone during lunch. There was also the issue of having multiple people in charge and not always agreeing on what the goals should be.

The Vibram Open allowed me to establish my vision of what the event should be and put the pieces and the people in place to make that vision a reality. The amazing thing for me was how well everything fit into place. I suppose tons of preparation had something to do with our success.

1000 RATED: How much time does it take to do something like this?

STEVEN: To put together an event of this magnitude, there are three main areas that need to be addressed: schedule, courses, and budget. If you have the resources, you should also work on media coverage and drawing spectators.

Schedule: You need to plan the event itself and map out its route and how you will accomplish each facet of the schedule. For about six months, we had the schedule written down and it was simmering on the back burner with new ideas popping up and being discussed . About one month before the event, we started planning the logistics for how everything would be accomplished. How many staff would be needed and for how long they would be needed. Whenever possible, try to put too much staff on a project. These folks are volunteers and many hands make light work. It also increases the chances that they will genuinely have fun accomplishing the task. One week before the tournament, we got together with as many staff folks as could attend and we mapped out jobs, tasks and generals. While we had to be flexible come event time, having everyone on the same page to start with made adjustments relatively easy.

Courses: We seem to improve the Maple Hill course each year and we (Tom Southwick and I, the course owners and designers) need to sit down at the beginning of each year and decide how many tweaks we want to tackle before the big event. A group of five to ten dedicated volunteers sprucing up the course the month before the tournament really made all of the difference this year. We were able to put down extra mulch, do extra trimming, and even put some flowers around the course. It all seems to tie in to the fact that without significant help, it could not be done.

Budget: This is the other critical component to running the Vibram Open. I create a tournament budget and allot an extra 10% to every expenditure just in case. The budget includes all of the income from players, sponsors, and retail sales at the event as well as all of the expenditures (payout, staff lunches, porta-potties, player polos, etc.) The budget is a critical tool in pulling off an event like this. When a Staff General says, “we need 40 bags of ice”, I don’t want that money to come out of my (or my staffer’s!) pocket. I need to know that there is money to pay for the extra things that invariably show up. I would recommend mapping out everything that you can think of that you will need to spend money on, throw in some money for unplanned things, and then show the list to a dozen TDs. Listen to what they say and incorporate their comments into your budget. Next year, use last year’s budget and the check stubs from last year’s event to put together a more accurate budget for the next time around.

1000 RATED: How do you handle grabbing a potential sponsors attention - do you have a secret plan or budget for your advertising technique? What kind of material do you present to these potential sponsors that might help other TD’s understand how to effectively get sponsors in their area?

STEVEN: This is a great question and it is clearly one that is tough to answer. First off, I just spent a whole paragraph talking about a budget, now we need to find some way to pay for everything. We will get some money from player entry fees and some from disc and shirt sales, but to make an event big, we need sponsors.

The key to attracting sponsors is to realize that everyone is in it for themselves. Even your staff, the selfless volunteers, is in it for themselves. They are staffing because you make it fun for them to be a part of this event. They want to be there. You need to look at your potential sponsor and say, “why would they want to be a part of my event.” I create sponsorship levels and PDFs for use on the website, but probably less that 25% of the sponsors fit nicely in any of these packages. For example, the easiest sponsor for a TD to get would be the food sponsor. Call three pizza / sub shops that deliver and ask them how much they would give you to take lunch orders at the beginning of each day of your event. Pick the one that you feel can accomplish the task and will share the most profits with you. Bam, you’ve got your first sponsor.

Now you’re thinking, “Okay Steve, that was easy, but what about the heating / AC guy?” That is the correct way to think, what about him? How can I get him to sponsor my event. There are several approaches: help disc golf, support the community, gain customers. The third is the place we want to be. Long term we cannot count on the disc golf community to support disc golf for the sake of supporting disc golf. While it will continue to happen, it will not grow the sport significantly. Supporting the community can be a good approach (especially for high-profile local chain stores like Walmart, Radio Shack, or your grocery store) and can yield small but consistent donations. But the real money, the long term money, is in generating customers for local (and eventually national) businesses. When I was shot down the first time by the heating / AC guy, I asked them why they did not want to sponsor. They told me the economy was slumping and they had no money. Rather than accept that answer, I went home and regrouped. I thought about how could I get customers in their door. I thought about anyone that I knew that needed heating / AC services. I thought about how I could get their support (the first year) without any money.

My answers to these questions: get them customers by putting their name on a local sponsor refrigerator magnet that we give to all our local players (I developed this on the fly while trying to get local sponsors and it worked!) Did I know anyone that needed heating / AC services? Nope, although my thought here was to have them offer $300 in services rather than $300 in cash. That way they would know that their sponsorship dollars will be coming back to them. All I needed to do was find someone that needed their service, have that person pay me for the service, and have the heating / AC guy do the work. As a last resort, I could offer to do a sponsorship for the heating / AC guy at little to no cost to show him what kind of local exposure he would be getting.

In the end, none of these things worked on them. However, when I walk in the door next year with a sample of this year’s magnet and all the other local businesses that are on it, I bet they sign on. The key to sponsorship is persistence, listening, and determining what a sponsor wants. Once you know what they want, get it to them and you’ve got a long term sponsor.

1000 RATED: What other tips would you like to offer TD’s who are looking to better their tournaments?

STEVEN:Stay calm, ask for help when you need it, and have fun being a TD. If its not fun, you won’t be doing it for long - and I want you TDing for a long time.

1000 RATED: Do you have any funny stories from some of these events that you’ve run that you’d like to mention? Is there anything you’ve done in the past that you look back upon now and say, “Boy, I’ll never do that again,” so that others can learn from your mistakes?

STEVEN: I decided to run a “Putting Slam” at this year’s Vibram Open. The idea was to get the top 10 putters (determined by a Putting Slam qualifier) and have them perform their most exciting putts. I remember last year’s putting contest and being bored out of my mind watching the winner hit a bunch of 28 foot putts. This year I asked the competitors to “thrill me!” The Putting Slam was scheduled for five rounds, we had five distinguished all set up as judges and the competitors started their putts. While it was much more entertaining, after watching one guy jump off a van and throw his putt while flying through the air, I realized that things were going to get out of control. We stopped the competition short (which was fine because we were running late on the schedule anyway) and I was relieved that only three of the ten competitors had gotten minor injuries. Next year we will make an exciting and SAFE putting competition.

1000 RATED: With the amount of sanctioned tournaments that are running every week nowadays, how difficult do you think it is for TD’s to find the added cash they need to bring in the top rated players? Should they just start planning earlier? Is there any special advice you’d give for those who are having a hard time?

STEVEN: I don’t actually think it is all that hard. The number of PDGA sanctioned events doesn’t really matter, and can actually be used to reinforce how much the sport is growing. Your event isn’t competing against other events in other communities, it is competing against the local high school football team and the minor league baseball team. Your sponsors are predominantly going to be local businesses and they just need to see a return on their investment. If you want to make a premier event, yes, you need to start planning at least six months out.

1000 RATED: We know this might be a difficult question to answer, but who is your favorite 1000 rated player and why?

STEVEN: It changes from week to week. : - ) One fellow that I met at the Vibram Open that consistently impressed me with his laid back demeanor (even though he is clearly a fierce competitor) was Eric McCabe. I am currently reviewing the video footage for the 2008 Vibram Open DVD (hopefully out by Thanksgiving) and whether he has a good shot or a bad shot, his body language seems to be the same. His body language is saying to me, “wow, I am playing disc golf and this is wicked cool.”