Central Iowans hit tour during Indianola stop
For Pat and David O’Meara of Indianola, it wasn’t the young pup teaching the elder how to play disc golf, as so often happens these days.
For this family, it was the other way around.
“I used to play a lot of frisbee growing up,” said Pat O’Meara after caddying for his son, David, during the Disc Golf Pro Tour event at Pickard Park in Indianola. “I used to practice my throws around my back yard. Then I discovered the game of disc golf when living in the Quad Cities about 20 years ago.”
“My dad took me out with him sometimes. I took a liking to it, especially when I saw there were tournaments I could play in,” David said. “And I did really well in my first tournament.”
“It took him two or three years for him to start beating me pretty regularly,” Pat said. “When he was 14 or 15 years old.”
“Maybe two years,” David said with a laugh.
“Maybe,” agreed Pat. “Once he could out throw me there was no turning back.”
Playing among the best
O’Meara, now 19 years old, was playing alongside some of the greatest disc golf players in the world on his home course of Pickard Park during the three-day tournament July 9-11.
O’Meara played his round of 18 holes on Saturday with a foursome made up of Gavin Babcock of Altoona, Andrew Presnell of Ozark, Missouri and Jake Spencer of Fridley, Minnesota.
After two rounds of the three-round tournament, the four players stood at: Presnell was 30th out of 82 players; Babcock at 34th; O’Meara at 39th and Spencer at 73rd.
Compare that to the standing of James Conrad, who won the world championship in June in Utah, who was in 15th place after two rounds on Saturday.
Like O’Meara, Babcock also had a caddy with him; his mother, Shera Morgan, of Altoona. Babcock, who travels around the country following the pro tour schedule, said he rarely has a caddy, but that it’s a huge advantage to have one.
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“For me, it’s really about carrying the bag and maintaining positive energy,” Babcock said. “Some players can be really crabby or whiny and just bring down the whole morale of the card. It’s nice to have someone you can always talk to and stay positive with.”
Having a caddy to carry the bag full of discs, twenty or thirty of them, is valuable because over the course of a round, if a player is carrying a 30- to 40-pound bag, that player will set down and pick up the bag maybe 75 times.
“That’s 3,000 pounds of weight you are picking up that you can save yourself if you have a caddy,” Babcock said.
Wrestling fans in Iowa may remember Gavin Babcock as a standout athlete from the Southeast Polk school district. He went on to wrestling for Central College where he graduated with a business degree.
His successful high school and college years in wrestling are paying off on the disc golf pro tour, Babcock said.
“The biggest take-away is the mental side of things. I know how to stay calm in tougher situations and get the job done. This isn’t a very physical sport, but the training aspect is very mentally tiring. Athletics gives me the strength to combat that and stay focused.”
Now he’s “living his dream” traveling around the country following the pro tour events. After Iowa, he heads to Michigan, Minnesota, Illinois and then the east and southeast where he will finish up the tour in October.
After the tour closes for this season, Babcock is planning to spend a few months in Florida playing some local tournaments. Then it’s back to Iowa in December for a two or three month break. The 2021 season will start in February.
Babcock said that although he has no firm plans for his winter months in Iowa, he’s open to giving a few lessons and workshops or connecting with some friends from school.
“Sure, if somebody wants to pick my brain about the game, I’d be open to that,” Babcock said.
Disc golf course designer comes home to play
Also attending the tour stop in Indianola was the course’s creator, Juliana Korver. This Disc Golf Hall of Fame Inductee was the 1995 PDGA Am World Champion and the 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 PDGA World Champion. She designed the Pickard Park 18-hole course when it opened in 1999.
She’s a graduate of the University of Northern Iowa where she first learned to play disc golf. Although she now lives in San Diego she has plenty of family still in Iowa, including her mom.
“My mom saw the articles in the Des Moines Register last week and got all excited about it,” Korver said with a laugh.
It’s been a few years since Korver was last on the tour. But her software engineering career took a hit when her company slowed down from the pandemic. So this spring she decided to join the tour.
Coming back to her home roots for the tour has been good, Korver said, as an interview with a reporter was interrupted when a fan asked her to sign his scratched and scarred Innova Juliana Korver Pro Aviar Golf Disc.
Korver also had time to catch up with long-time friend Jason Steffen, the person who taught her how to play disc golf. Steffen had a booth at the event in Indianola selling discs.
“I think it was the spring semester of 1992,” Steffen said, looking at Korver for agreement. “And she wasn’t bad. Actually, she was better than most. But then, she’s always been athletic and competitive.”
“But what he didn’t mention is that he was the best player in Iowa at the time,” Korver said.
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Korver’s second round of the tournament was canceled on Saturday right after her second throw on the first hole. Lightning in the area, and eventually tornado warnings, closed down the day early.
But after her first round, she was holding her own at seventh place in the field of 24.
Although the Pickard Park course has changed through the years as it has been expanded, updated and had some redesigns for the 2004 World Championships, Korver said the course appeared to be in excellent condition and felt very familiar.
“This course has the luxury of having so much space,” Korver said. “There are some who would try to put two full courses out here, rather than one.”
Korver said that being back on the course for her first round on Friday felt “emotionally surreal and lots of fun. I have a lot of memories here and my 78-year-old mother was here for the game.”
It was hard for her to block out all of the emotions that came back during the round, Korver said.
“But they were hugely wonderful emotions,” she said throwing her arms out wide. “Look at all of this. It wouldn’t be here if it were for me. That’s heavy.”
Teresa Kay Albertson is a reporter for the Des Moines Register and the Indianola Record-Herald. Reach her at [email protected] or 515-284-8561.
