By Loyd McIntosh, For The Tribune

TRUSSVILLE — For the second consecutive year, Trussville resident Tim Keith won the PDGA Professional Masters Disc Golf World Championship, a five-day competition in Peoria, Illinois from July 12-16.

Keith outlasted a competitive field finishing with a five-day total score of 297, five points better than his second-place rival, Mitch McLellan from Norman, Oklahoma. 

Since turning professional 23 years ago, Keith has developed into one of the more dominant players on the PDGA circuit, with 80 wins under his belt out of 248 events, and earning more than $60,000 in prize money during his career. 

Now 61, the easy-going Keith is also one of the most respected people within the disc golf community. Not only a competitor, Keith has also designed or consulted on many disc golf courses throughout the region while tirelessly working to promote the sport to anyone who will listen.

Keith became interested in flying disc sports around the same time many people of his generation did — the 1970s. It was during this ultra-groovy decade that Ultimate Disc, Disc Golf, and freestyle flying disc competitions bubbled up into the mainstream from the post-1960s California subculture. For an accurate mental picture, think denim cut-off shorts, tank tops, and striped tube socks yanked up as high as they will go.

“I was one of those guys,” said Keith. “I had the tube socks all the way up to my knees, Converse tennis shoes, the super short shorts, and the headband.”

Keith’s entry point into disc sports began in 1975 with Ultimate Disc, a team sport resembling a mashup of football and soccer. Soon thereafter he started dabbling in disc golf for fun when many disc golf courses included little more than discs being thrown at trees and other targets.  

For more than 20 years, Keith continued to play disc golf recreationally, while watching the sport become more organized and grow in popularity. However, it wasn’t until 1999 that Keith decided to enter his first tournament as an amateur. “I had always played,” said Keith, ‘but didn’t know how to gauge myself and didn’t know how good I was.” 

As it turned out, he was quite good. Not only did Keith win his first tournament, he quickly realized his score would have placed him in second place in the professional division. It didn’t take Keith long to realize he had a real shot at being competitive on the…