EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week The Gazette salutes those who make Emporia and the surrounding area a better place to live and work. The following folks deserve a pat on the back…
Ken Weaver, who was named the interim director of the National Teachers Hall of Fame. He will replace Carol Strickland who is retiring in June after more than nine-and-a-half years of service. Weaver joined the ESU faculty in 1986 and has served on the Hall of Fame Board of Trustees from 2016-2019.
Emporia Community Foundation, which announced the 28 organizations that will benefit from Match Day. In 2021 Match Day gave $455,703 in Mathcing funds to the participating organizations. This will be the ninth year for the event and will take place on Nov. 14.
Dynamic Discs for hosting the the Dynamic Discs Open which is worlds largest disc golf tournament in Emporia. Thousands of people came from all over the world to play disc golf in Emporia for four days. Ricky Wysocki won the professional mens division with a score of -10 and won $8,600. Kristin Tattar won the professional womens division with a score of even and won $5,000. Wysocki is sponsored by Dynamic Discs and Tattar is sponsored by Latitude 64.
Radical Life, which had seven people graduate from its program. The graduates took classes for 20 weeks and learned to break the cycles of poverty and addiction. Radical Life is a non-profit organization focused on building stable and successful homes by reducing poverty, decreasing toxic stress and reducing the need for foster care in Lyon County.
Emporia State Federal Credit Union, which received state recognition by being named a 2021 To the Stars: Celebrating Kansas Businesses Regional Award recipient. This is awarded is in honor and recognition for outstanding contributions to the community, state’s economy, and the people of Kansas.
Vanessa Hinds and Logan Avenue School who won a “Challenge Award” from the Kansas State Department of Education. A school must meet specific requirements of outstanding achievement and uncommon accomplshitments for math and reading assessments to receive the award.
Madison High School Student Bryson Turner who placed first in power lifting at the State Powerlifting competition.
Madison Junior High track athletes Octavian Dean, Cruz Leiser, Lane Smith and Ethan Jones who broke a school record in the 4 x 100 with a time of 51.3. The previous record stood for 26 years.
The late Dr. Stancil Johnson, PDGA No. 009, was fond of quoting Michael Murphy’s 1972 classic, Golf in the Kingdom, which casts the sport as a contest between the golfer and the golf course; an effort to master one’s surroundings.
“Where other sports are combative in nature, force against force,” Johnson wrote in the Winter 1991 edition of Disc Golf World News. “Golf is an effort to harmonize with the ‘forces of the field’, as Murphy calls it. I would describe it as becoming one with nature. As such, a game of golf is a symbolic journey through life.”
On Wednesday in Emporia, through downpours, lightning strikes and the death of a beloved family member, mother nature proved to be a formidable foe.
The day began with tragic news of the sudden passing of Ricky Wysocki’s sister, Lauren Mayse, from complications caused by brain cancer.
Wysocki, a strong favorite to win his third-consecutive PDGA Elite Series event this week at the DDO, departed from Emporia on Tuesday after learning of Lauren’s condition and was questionable for his start until just before his 1:20 p.m. tee time.
When he did return in time to take his place alongside Paul McBeth, Nikko Locastro and Chris Clemons on the DGN live broadcast feature card, the usually-raucous atmosphere surrounding the first tee was replaced with an air of somber respect for the two-time PDGA World Champion.
The weight of life and death have a way of putting even the most illustrious sporting events in perspective.
It took the better part of an hour for Wysocki and McBeth to find their rhythm, and it wasn’t until hole 6 that both players found their way below par for good. Once they got rolling, however, it was a vintage battle as both players scorched the back nine to finish at 10-under par.
The hot scores of the day, however, came from Eagle McMahon and Calvin Heimburg, who were battling it out on 1:00 p.m. feature card.
McMahon got off to a tough start after throwing his second shot out of bounds on hole 1, only to hear the weather delay horn blow a few seconds after the red OB flag was waived.
“It was a weird start because I threw two shots and then they blew the horn,” McMahon said following his round. “On the second shot—as soon it left my hand the disc was going straight to OB. I had to sort myself out during the rain delay, and I just came back and told myself to play one hole at a time.”
The strategy appears to have worked, as McMahon rallied off a string of birdies that culminated with a 50-foot putt on hole 18 that just caught the bottom of the band and dropped in. It was a dramatic finish that left the 2018 Glass Blown Open champion with a smile on his face.
Following his bogie on hole 1, McMahon went 15-under through the remaining 17 holes to finish at 14-under par.
Heimburg completed his own 14-under demolition of the Jones Gold track in less dramatic fashion, dropping-in a ‘routine’ 27-footer for his birdie on hole 18. He matched McMahon by limiting himself to a single bogie on the day (hole 7) and bested him with 15 birdies on the day.
“I definitely didn’t expect to shoot a 14 when I saw the forecast with rain in play,” Heimburg, a two-time National Tour champion, said. “But luckily even though it rained on us it wasn’t pouring and the wind kept down for most of it. When the wind is down here, you have to shoot really hot to be competitive.”
Sitting just behind McMahon and Heimburg on the leaderboard at 13-under par are Ben Callaway and Andrew Presnell, who benefited from earlier tee times that were largely unaffected by the inclement weather, as well as 2020 USDGC Champion Chris Dickerson, who battled alongside the tournament leaders on the 1:00 p.m. feature card.
They’ll be joined by a tight grouping atop the MPO field which includes 17 players within four shots of the lead.
Players will return to Jones Gold for round 2, with the lead card teeing off at 1:20 p.m. CT live on the Disc Golf Network.
It’s a long way from Huntington Beach, but if you didn’t know better, you’d think Paul McBeth was right at home.
The five-time PDGA world champion is now also a five-time winner here — including the last three editions — at the tournament once known as the Glass Blown Open, and now, as the Dynamic Discs Open.
McBeth began his championship Saturday campaign with a statement piece. Sitting 60 feet long, and well below the pin on the 1175-foot par-5 hole 1, he connected on a huge circle 2 putt to prevent his three card mates — Calvin Heimburg, Eagle McMahon and Ricky Wysocki — from gaining a stroke.
The champ can be stingy like that.
He would go on to birdie the first four holes — and come as close as you can to birdieing the fifth — before his hot start cooled off.
But things went a little sideways after that. He lost a stroke to the card on hole 5, and another two strokes, as well as the lead, to Heimburg after making bogey on hole 6.
McBeth wasn’t pleased.
“Mentally I just need to go out there and play,” McBeth said, holding his newly acquired glass globe trophy — the DDO’s signature hardware. “I feel like I’m too nice sometimes out there. I’m just being too friendly to where I just need to go out there and attack. Especially in a situation where it’s a three-way tie and two people are within two strokes right behind. I just need to go out there and tell myself that I’m not out here for friendships, I’m here to win.”
It was an ominous message for any of his rivals who may have been hoping that, following one of his longest winless streaks in years, McBeth’s days dominating the tour may be drawing to a close.
He steadied the ship after the bogey on 6 and regained his lead by avoiding trouble as each of his card mates struggled to keep a clean scorecard through the back nine.
An errant tee shot on hole 16 opened the door to a potential two-stroke swing for Heimburg, who was three-strokes back heading into the island green. But Heimburg could not stick the landing and his drive hyzered high and wide, skipping off the top of the wooden fence that guards the rear of the island and into the water.
It was all but a formality from there.
But before McBeth could be crowned, Wysocki would go on to make one of the most memorable shots in disc golf history.
Putting from the drop zone after missing the island green, Wysocki let fly a 70-foot hyzer that sailed majestically over the water and into the heart of the chains, sending the gallery into a frenzy. Raptor-legging and fist pumping his way through the crowd, it was a fitting end to and emotional week for the two-time PDGA world champion.
“That was awesome. I’d been struggling most of the day and I wanted to save par and come in with a decent score, and I was able to do that,” Wysocki said. “I made the long putt, the crowd went crazy and I got my raptor legs out. That’s what it’s all about. It was awesome to share that experience with everybody. I think my sister threw that putt in the basket for me — it was definitely emotional.”
McBeth, Wysocki and company will have their next opportunity for a PDGA National Tour title at the Santa Cruz Masters Cup, May 28-30.
Since turning professional in 2010, Ricky Wysocki has won two world championships, six majors and been named Professional Disc Golfer Association Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year (four times).
Dynamic Discs
Ricky Wysocki doesn’t sweat. Instead, passion oozes from every pore.
On first impression, he’s like a robusta bean, his rat-a-tat words flowing quicker than comprehension. His cadence comes from an inner confidence that suggests he knows exactly where he’s headed.
Better yet, the excitement in his voice is so palpable that if he sold lint for a living, no one would bet against Wysocki becoming the best darn lint salesperson in the world.
But why settle for lint when perhaps being the best disc golf player has a better ring to it?
In a meteoric career on the Disc Golf Pro Tour that has paralleled the sport’s popularity, the sinewy 6-foot-4-inch Wysocki dominated 2021 en route to leading in wins, points and being named the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) Player of the Year for the fourth time.
Ricky Wysocki signed a four-year, $4 million endorsement agreement in January 2022.
Dynamic Discs
“I think after last year, I am,” says the two-time PDGA world champion when asked if he’s the best player in the sport. “There are obviously players who are great, but in 2021 I won every award there was and I was also the most consistent player out there.”
Although current world champion James Conrad might take umbrage, know this: Wysocki’s words weren’t spoken with arrogance at the wheel.
In an era when athletes fish in a sea of cliches, there was refreshing earnestness mixed with a bit of innocence. There’s little doubt his successes in the Tour’s Mixed Pro Open division at 28-years-old has him positioned to remain as an upper echelon player, but sticking that legacy flag in disc golf’s historical ground is what matters most.
Dynamic Discs, founded in 2005, is also banking on him. On January 4, Wysocki, who turned professional in 2010 and promptly won PDGA Rookie of the Year honors in 2011, signed a $4 million endorsement deal with the company that could prove to be more lucrative in the long run. The payout matched Paul McBeth’s $1 million average annual contract as the biggest in disc golf history.
“His contract is $1 million a year and it’s guaranteed,” says Dynamic Discs team director Eric McCabe, the 2010 PDGA world champion and, incidentally, the company’s first sponsored athlete. “It could be more than that because depending how many discs we sell with his name on it, it could be $2 million.”
Says Dynamic Discs founder and CEO Jeremy Rusco: “I never thought in this short of time we’d have a million-dollar athlete throwing and representing Dynamic Discs. For us it’s really exciting — and for Ricky — and for the future of the sport.”
RELATED: Nine Must-Play Disc Golf Courses
Additionally, the deal included an extra $250,000 signing bonus paid in bitcoin. Crypto payments are a growing trend among some professional athletes. The NFL’s Saquon Barkley, Odell Beckham Jr., Trevor Lawrence, Russell Okung and Aaron Rodgers have packaged endorsement deals in crypto or leveraged it into contracts.
“For one, I’ve done a lot of research and feel confident, in my opinion, it will be the next generation currency,” says Wysocki, who makes his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. “It’s a long-term hold. In five to 10 years I think it will be worth quite a bit. Plus, in disc golf there is a crossover with crypto.”
Before the crypto deal, though, things got rather cryptic. At the end of 2019, Wysocki started “feeling off” and struggled. Fatigue followed him like a shadow. It was uncharted territory. He practiced, emphasizing shots and parts of his game that came easily. Self-doubt seeped in. Was he on the downside, he thought.
Little did he know, Lyme Disease had taken root. In hindsight, he said, it made sense since disc golfers compete on courses in wooded and bushy areas.
Then it got worse. In early 2020, Wysocki missed tournaments for the first time in his career.
“He went from being the top golfer in the world to barely being able to walk,” Rusco says.
For six months he battled the disease and then depression.
“From going from being a top-level pro athlete in my sport to getting Lyme Disease to barely being able to walk, and not knowing if I’m able to touch a disc at that level again, it was crazy to me,” Wysocki says.
It changed his mindset about health and wellness. After hiring a nutritionist, he said it was one of the best moves he ever made, pointing to his momentous 2021.
“I noticed I consistently had mental clarity and energy to play at the best of my abilities,” he says, adding that through blood, urine and saliva samples his nutrionist is able to set up his body for optimal performance with vitamins, supplements and diet.
There’s little argument the sport has experienced an upward trajectory. McCabe calls his era the pioneering times. Few players then made a salary, and only eight to 10 were traveling on tour full time. Today that number is closer to 50.
“The only time you were getting paid from a manufacturer was if you got your name on a disc. And the way you got your name on a disc is that you won a world title,” McCabe says.
Ken Climo, perhaps the most celebrated professional disc player, reeled off an unfathomable nine straight PDGA world titles in the 1990s and finished with 12. He earned $436,230.32 in career money. In 103 fewer events, Wysocki has already totaled $506,832.76.
Yet it’s not necessarily about the money. It comes back to legacy. Wysocki, a six-time major champion, wants to be everything he can be, from growing the game at a grass roots level through his Sockibomb Foundation to being an anti-Lyme Disease advocate, to becoming a legendary player in the same vein as Tom Brady.
For someone who became hooked on the sport circa 2004 while being home-schooled during his teenage years in Medina, Ohio, he’s gone places.
“It progressed from, ‘Hey, this is fun,’ and then it progressed to ‘I have a passion for this’ and ‘Hey, I’m good at this’ to ‘Hey, I’m going to dedicate my life to this’ to ‘Hey, I’m now the best player in the world for, who knows, how many years to come.'”
carol strickland, division, emporia, ken weaver, kristin tatta, kristin tattar, Life, pat on the back, Ricky Wysocki, school, sport
0 Comments
