The Pennsylvania Disc Golf Hall of Fame

2011 Advanced Womens Master World Champion - Rochester, NY

 

In the summer of 2009, my friend Mike mentioned this new game to me that I might be interested in. Fortunately, I was at an activity lull that summer and had the time to check it out. We went out to the school's hockey field where he showed me how to throw back hand. Throwing that way just felt too awkward to me and I told Mike it felt more natural for me to throw forehand, and so began my journey into the sport of Disc Golf. Mike took me to Creekside DGC and Willow Mill which is a nine-hole beginner's course and supplied me with an Eagle and an Aviar putter to learn the game with.

            The first couple of weeks out throwing were frustrating with not knowing where the disc was going after it left my hand. So, on a Saturday morning I went out alone to Willow Mill with my discs from Mike and decided I was not leaving that day until I had par the course. I stopped counting after ten rounds. More rounds later, I became  embarrassed every time I went by a couple of men working on a pavilion at the park as by then several hours had passed and it was getting into the afternoon. By November I'd fallen in love with Disc Golf, the challenge of playing in the woods, learning from and playing with the community of interesting Crawdads and Llamas.

            On my one year anniversary of disc golf playing, Roz Crandall and I went to the Women's Nationals in North Carolina where I met many women involved in disc golf. What fun it was to be at an event with a bunch of women at different skill levels. The following summer of 2011, I was immersed into Disc Golf. I had acquired the wonderful “Old Disc” Bob Eberly as a husband and also joined a group of local Crawdads who were going to Am Worlds 2011 in New York. 

            The first day of AM Worlds competition, in the Women’s Master Division, I found playing in open fields in the wind a bit different and I struggled trying to figure out what disc was going to perform best in such conditions, finally settling on my star destroyer. It became my main driver the whole week only to be lost in the water at an island-hole in the final round of the tournament. By then, I had gone into that round 14 throws ahead of the second competitor and was not worried about losing the disc. I had been playing almost every day since I began playing disc golf; therefore, I felt some confidence in knowing my game and performing it.

            I am the youngest of eight girls in a family of eleven children from the island of Palau in the western part of the Pacific. We grew up spending most of our days outdoors all year long. We lived a simple life in the village where we gardened and fished daily for our own food. There was no electricity or running water so we used kerosene lamps at night and cooked with firewood. The first time I wore sneakers was at seventeen when I left Palau to come to the United States to attend college. I mention it because I still have issues with closed shoes and I am much more comfortable disc golfing in sandals or crocs.

            I still love being outdoors, gardening, fishing at the river and now playing disc golf or weed whacking on the courses. I have tried to interest my three children, ages 28, 28, and 26 in disc golf, but they have not taken to it yet. In 2004, I lost a husband to cancer and April of 2011, I was blessed with becoming the wife of "Old Disc" Bob Eberly who has involved me even more into other aspects of disc golf such as maintaining courses and running tournaments.