On June 24th and 25th Donovan Baker set a record for the most holes played in a 24 hour period. Donovan set his record at Tommy and Sue Brown Park in North Richland Hills, Texas. Special thanks goes out to Josh Smith of Haslet, Texas for the photos.

Donovan's story is a great tale of determination and perseverance and well worth reading.

The first thing I need to do is to thank to my fiancé, Jodi, for being there the whole time. She did the live twitter updates, scores, video, log, times, and everything else in between; including NURSE! I need to thank my caddies; not only did they do the hard work of picking up the discs, but even at times when I got hot, tired, or disorientated they were there to support my needs. Without all their love and badgering, I guarantee you there would have been MANY more shots taken and MUCH more distance traveled to do this.
 
The course, Tommy and Sue Brown Park in North Richland Hills, TX, is a permanent 6-hole course and is a “lefty” course for sure. I throw right-handed and only 2 holes were straight ahead shots. I love anhyzer throws, so that part is not really an issue for me. It did have 4 places where cedar type trees could swallow your disc if you threw too far to the right, so I did have to take some unplayable lies during this round. It’s a very flat and a simple full-circle layout. Even with the few trees, it only takes some smart play to make this course excellent for this type of event.

I have been asked how this all got started. Rodney Gardner, the person who did 504 holes in one day, had been talking about the PDGA record in the forums on dgcoursereview.com. The PDGA record was 833 by both Dann Schultz & D.L. Redman back in June of 1985. So in November of 2009, I started planning this with the help of Rodney and all my great online friends and resources from the website. I found out after applying, that Guinness didn’t even have a World Record recorded for this event yet, but did have the category. So to break the PDGA record and set the World Record, strategic planning was going to be the key. If I couldn’t make the math work, I wasn’t even going to attempt it. I started finding many ways to shave seconds off each hole and each round during my training. I chose the date (Thursday June 24, 2010) because it was nearly the longest day of the year (daylight hours), and it was only 2 days short of a full moon. I chose a 10:00AM start time to get the hottest parts of the day over with early. This also allowed me to finish the 24 hours in morning hours so I could pick up the pace and finish strong in case I ran into difficulties leading up to the end of the 24 hours. Training on that course during the hottest hours of the hottest days was to make sure the heat was something I could stand. I never had a single physical issue during the training. All of that was a good idea, but when the day came, I wasn’t prepared for what did happen.
 
The big day arrived and I took my first steps. My planned pace was 50 holes an hour. I was averaging under a minute a hole for the first 4 hours. But by the end of the 4th hour break, I was close to fainting from the heat. The average high temp was supposed to be 85, but it turned out to be 101 and humid. So I took an extended break (including some time in the truck with the a/c on) which helped me feel better. At this point I actually felt completely rejuvenated and ready to go again. At this point I had already changed socks twice and swapped out my regular playing shoes 2 times, but it was so hot, the blisters were already showing their ugly faces on the bottoms of my feet. I have never had blisters on my feet before. After six hours, the skin on the bottom of my feet already looked like it melted off, bunched up, and slid towards the inside of each foot. I was at the point of thinking it may not be physically possible for me to finish. But then due to my caddy and Jodi, I realized the damage was done and it was just a case of me pushing through the pain and walking it out for the next 18 hours. Jodi was so supportive, I secretly wondered if she hadn't upped the amount on my life insurance-just kidding. She is the best!

It rained HARD for about an hour from about 6:45PM to 7:45PM with lots of lightning. Losing that hour started to worry me until Jodi told me just how close I was to my needed average and that it was not going to take me that much to get back on track. I expected some of the holes to be pretty muddy and sloppy wet walking ahead, but in reality, the dirt was barely moist and the grass was hardly wet. It was so hot; most of it must have evaporated as fast as it came down. While the rain held me off from playing it also helped get the temperature down just as we were heading into the evening hours. I have been hydrating as much as my stomach could take in, but if the temp had stayed as high as it was I would have been hurting from more than just my feet.

I am a 41 year old, 240 pound guy. However, when I set my mind to something dealing with endurance, it is tough for me to lay down. I’ve done all kinds of long distance racing including triathlons all my life. Due to all of the encouragement from Jodi, my disc golfing friends, family, and great friends online, I was not about to give up. Obviously, I had to take breaks more often and it really hurt to get back on my feet after each one, but the goal was there and I still had enough time ahead of me to do it.


Once I finished the 834th hole, I smiled at the camera and put a fist in the air, but it went away in just a few steps. It was dark and I looked at my crew and said, “One goal left!” The caddies were huge for me near the end too. The pain was getting so intense, that I was having some trouble concentrating on where to throw. They were reminding me of where to place each shot and speaking confidence on each putt. This kept me focused and prevented me from taking unneeded steps from errant shots. I even strung together a set of 60, 54, and 46 pars in a row during the painful rounds. I never stopped walking in a straight line. At one point someone said that I looked like a machine as my discipline never strayed while I was on the course. I was just so determined to finish this I didn’t have time to think about anything else.

Only my feet were hurting during the round. My arms, knees, legs, and everything else was still as fresh as ever. I wore compression Under Armor heat-gear and that really helped. Except for some posterior-end blisters I had no other ailments. I threw right-hand backhand the entire time except for the left-handed putts when I was on that side of the basket. I have been asked how I strengthened my arm for this. On days I played with my friends, I would go out to a field after our rounds and throw as hard as I could until I couldn’t take it anymore. Then I took some ibuprofen and 2 days later do it again. Within a couple of weeks, I could throw all day with no more pain. I did this when I started the sport seriously 2 years ago and it really kept me from getting any arm fatigue then too.

As the last round was upon me, I was feeling no pain as my mind was on the thought of completing hole 999, 1000, and hitting 1002 at the end of the round. After I hit the putt for 1002 and still had something like 42 minutes left, I looked at Jodi and we both knew I had done enough.

Jodi was a medic in the army and took great care of me even after she had been awake for more than 40+ hours. Even though I drank a ton of water and electrolytes, I had some dehydration. I did pass out at home when I finally sat down for real. But with Jodi’s quick thinking and some cold wet rags, I was only out for a few seconds. I ended up being bed ridden for 3 days and finally started hobbling around again after that.

I was asked if I went for any aces? I think I took about 5 or so runs at the first hole and parked a few of them. I just decided not to get too crazy. My goal was always to play smart, save my arm, and make pars. I have been asked if it was all worth it? It was a great challenge and I love our sport. If it helps get more people involved or at least gets people talking about the sport, it is totally worth it. The local news channel 11 aired a nice segment and we have already heard people from the neighborhood who have nothing to do with disc golf talking about it; so mission accomplished!

There’s still lots of paper work to gather and submit to Guinness. So if my stuff gets approved, 1002 should be the World Record too. I thought I came really prepared! However, the only thing we didn't bring was bolt cutters. You know, to cut the chains off the last basket like they do for basketball championships. I am just kidding of course. No one should ever write on, damage, or deface our great sport and equipment for any reason.

By the numbers:
45+ estimated miles traveled
1002 holes completed
167 rounds (on 6-hole course)
3063 physical throws
3077 total score (71 over par)
14 penalties (stroke & distance)
0 aces
56 birdies
841 pars
87 bogies
14 double bogies
4 triple bogies