Oct 07 2004, 07:33 PM
Hello to all my friends, competitors and fellow golfers and organizers,
This may come as a bit of a surprise to many of you, although I've discussed it with my teammates and some others, but I am done. Sadly, I simply do not have the time, patience, finances and most importantly the passion to continue my involvement in DG at the level I'd envisioned.
As a player, I've never been very competitive, but I always had a drive to be. My desire to become competitive as a tournament player and always striving to be a better golfer, was one of the main motivations that drove me to be so passionate about the game. That passion in turn, fueled my dreams for what Hill Country Flyers could have, and should have become, as well as all my other disc golf related involvements. With the desire to play now pretty much gone for me, the desire to remain involved has taken the train out of town with it. I just simply cannot continue to pursue my vision in the sport the way I wanted to and I don't have the competitive fire anymore personally, which is where a lot of my drive came from.
I have put so much money and love into everything I've done in disc golf, and I just don't have enough of either to give to it anymore. I still believe that the vision I had for Hill Country Flyers can work if pursued by the right person in the right situation, but I�m not that person and this isn�t that situation.
I still love the game, as it is truly a beautiful thing, and I won't be walking away completely. I'll still play casually some, I'm sure, and will probably make 1 or 2 ZT10 events per year and probably Vic Open or LOSO, now and then. But the days of TDing for me, thousands of dollars in sponsorships, thousands of miles traveling to play and 20-25 events a year are over. And really, I'm okay with that.
Further, I have a responsibility to my daughter to get my life back on track. Chasing wild dreams isn't exactly a committment to that. She has suffered more than anyone else at the expense of my disc golf obsession, and that will now be replaced with some type of competitive hobby that not only I can feel better about, but something that she cares to participate in and one which doesn't take me away from home as often.
I have made many really good friends in this sport and met hundreds of wonderful people, with whom I've shared a great deal of my life. I will not walk away from or abandon those friendships, and some of them will be life long relationships, I'm certain.
To the members of Team Evolution, whom I've already alerted to this decision, I'd like to say something. Never in my knowledge, has such a fine group of golfers and outstanding human beings been rallied under one non-manufacturer or large corporate sponsor banner as were they. I never regretted any of the selections to my team, and have never been anything but proud to call Jerry Perez, Sr., Justin Kerr, Danielle Vargas, John Maiuro, Stephen Brower, Billy Nelson and Tony Bender my teammates and my friends. You guys are simply the best.
I am constantly amazed at my friends Chris Himing and Gary Duke, who each in their own way put so much of their time and their life and their love into this sport, that disc golf in Texas would be so much poorer without them that it is hard to fathom.
I�ve been employed by John Houck, perhaps the greatest course designer (even though we don�t always see eye to eye on design) ever, been mentored as a player by Vinnie Miller, who is one of the most unique and iconic golfers in Texas and a good friend, learned TDing from Chris, whose contributions to our sport although amazing, are far from yet being what they will eventually become, nominated and pushed Gary into becoming our state coordinator (which may in hindsight, with much respect to Bryan James, be one of the best things I�ve ever done), been embraced by the Round Rock Dragons, the greatest club in Texas and have had the honor of founding and running the most successful monthly mini in our state at The Resort at Lago Vista. I was blessed by taking over one of the most traditional PDGA sanctioned events in the state in Victoria, second only perhaps in longevity to Waterloo. I had the honor of running Dave Moody�s outstanding Red Rock Show for one year at one of the areas undisputed best courses. I am extremely proud of founding the Live Oak Summer Open and the Coastal Clash. These two events will certainly grow and will remain as two of the best in our state for years to come. It was an honor to found and run the Cold Turkey Classic last year at what is really my home base for disc golf, and the first course I ever saw or played on competitively, Old Settler�s Park in Round Rock, and I hope someone takes up the torch for this event, since I still believe it could work as a holiday event for Cen-Tex golfers. And perhaps nothing gave me as much joy as my involvement with the Ware Family and the golfers of Central Texas (and those from around the USA who donated) as we came together to make a real difference in the life of a child of one of our own with the Tony Ware �Flying Solo� Memorial at Lago Vista.
That�s a pretty heady disc golf resume, which I will always be proud of. And hey, I can�t forget that I was the 100th best MM1 at the best World�s ever in Iowa. :)
I have a list of people I owe money and payout to. The payouts are from unfulfilled special orders and from this year�s LOSO, where we actually ran out of merchandise for our winners. These folks will be taken care of as a priority among all my other bills, and I have been in contact with most of them to tell them that. My new part time job has helped me begin to get back on track, after 2 individuals defaulted on approximately $60,000 worth of personal loans from me and I nearly lost my home. Now that I won�t have all my weekends taken up with disc golf and travel, I have lined up more work to add to that to make this process go even quicker. To anyone who I owe that reads this, please believe that you are a priority that will be addressed ahead of many other personal needs. This is very important to me and I won�t let you down.
To that end, I also have some stuff for sale (discs, used baskets, accessories, etc.). If anyone is interested, I�ll be putting a list together shortly and will be happy to email it to you. I can be contacted at [email protected] Obviously, any of the players to whom I owe payout will be given first consideration if they want anything I have.
I know that this was damned lengthy, even for one of my posts, but since I won�t be around the board much from now on, I wanted to get my moneys worth on this one. To all my message board friends (and adversaries), I can only say that the reason I posted here so much wasn�t because I had no life. It was because I so enjoyed you all being such a big part of my life. Okay Nick, you may now have your board back. :)
Play nice and I�ll see you guys on the course sometime.
Mark Atwood
#16523
This may come as a bit of a surprise to many of you, although I've discussed it with my teammates and some others, but I am done. Sadly, I simply do not have the time, patience, finances and most importantly the passion to continue my involvement in DG at the level I'd envisioned.
As a player, I've never been very competitive, but I always had a drive to be. My desire to become competitive as a tournament player and always striving to be a better golfer, was one of the main motivations that drove me to be so passionate about the game. That passion in turn, fueled my dreams for what Hill Country Flyers could have, and should have become, as well as all my other disc golf related involvements. With the desire to play now pretty much gone for me, the desire to remain involved has taken the train out of town with it. I just simply cannot continue to pursue my vision in the sport the way I wanted to and I don't have the competitive fire anymore personally, which is where a lot of my drive came from.
I have put so much money and love into everything I've done in disc golf, and I just don't have enough of either to give to it anymore. I still believe that the vision I had for Hill Country Flyers can work if pursued by the right person in the right situation, but I�m not that person and this isn�t that situation.
I still love the game, as it is truly a beautiful thing, and I won't be walking away completely. I'll still play casually some, I'm sure, and will probably make 1 or 2 ZT10 events per year and probably Vic Open or LOSO, now and then. But the days of TDing for me, thousands of dollars in sponsorships, thousands of miles traveling to play and 20-25 events a year are over. And really, I'm okay with that.
Further, I have a responsibility to my daughter to get my life back on track. Chasing wild dreams isn't exactly a committment to that. She has suffered more than anyone else at the expense of my disc golf obsession, and that will now be replaced with some type of competitive hobby that not only I can feel better about, but something that she cares to participate in and one which doesn't take me away from home as often.
I have made many really good friends in this sport and met hundreds of wonderful people, with whom I've shared a great deal of my life. I will not walk away from or abandon those friendships, and some of them will be life long relationships, I'm certain.
To the members of Team Evolution, whom I've already alerted to this decision, I'd like to say something. Never in my knowledge, has such a fine group of golfers and outstanding human beings been rallied under one non-manufacturer or large corporate sponsor banner as were they. I never regretted any of the selections to my team, and have never been anything but proud to call Jerry Perez, Sr., Justin Kerr, Danielle Vargas, John Maiuro, Stephen Brower, Billy Nelson and Tony Bender my teammates and my friends. You guys are simply the best.
I am constantly amazed at my friends Chris Himing and Gary Duke, who each in their own way put so much of their time and their life and their love into this sport, that disc golf in Texas would be so much poorer without them that it is hard to fathom.
I�ve been employed by John Houck, perhaps the greatest course designer (even though we don�t always see eye to eye on design) ever, been mentored as a player by Vinnie Miller, who is one of the most unique and iconic golfers in Texas and a good friend, learned TDing from Chris, whose contributions to our sport although amazing, are far from yet being what they will eventually become, nominated and pushed Gary into becoming our state coordinator (which may in hindsight, with much respect to Bryan James, be one of the best things I�ve ever done), been embraced by the Round Rock Dragons, the greatest club in Texas and have had the honor of founding and running the most successful monthly mini in our state at The Resort at Lago Vista. I was blessed by taking over one of the most traditional PDGA sanctioned events in the state in Victoria, second only perhaps in longevity to Waterloo. I had the honor of running Dave Moody�s outstanding Red Rock Show for one year at one of the areas undisputed best courses. I am extremely proud of founding the Live Oak Summer Open and the Coastal Clash. These two events will certainly grow and will remain as two of the best in our state for years to come. It was an honor to found and run the Cold Turkey Classic last year at what is really my home base for disc golf, and the first course I ever saw or played on competitively, Old Settler�s Park in Round Rock, and I hope someone takes up the torch for this event, since I still believe it could work as a holiday event for Cen-Tex golfers. And perhaps nothing gave me as much joy as my involvement with the Ware Family and the golfers of Central Texas (and those from around the USA who donated) as we came together to make a real difference in the life of a child of one of our own with the Tony Ware �Flying Solo� Memorial at Lago Vista.
That�s a pretty heady disc golf resume, which I will always be proud of. And hey, I can�t forget that I was the 100th best MM1 at the best World�s ever in Iowa. :)
I have a list of people I owe money and payout to. The payouts are from unfulfilled special orders and from this year�s LOSO, where we actually ran out of merchandise for our winners. These folks will be taken care of as a priority among all my other bills, and I have been in contact with most of them to tell them that. My new part time job has helped me begin to get back on track, after 2 individuals defaulted on approximately $60,000 worth of personal loans from me and I nearly lost my home. Now that I won�t have all my weekends taken up with disc golf and travel, I have lined up more work to add to that to make this process go even quicker. To anyone who I owe that reads this, please believe that you are a priority that will be addressed ahead of many other personal needs. This is very important to me and I won�t let you down.
To that end, I also have some stuff for sale (discs, used baskets, accessories, etc.). If anyone is interested, I�ll be putting a list together shortly and will be happy to email it to you. I can be contacted at [email protected] Obviously, any of the players to whom I owe payout will be given first consideration if they want anything I have.
I know that this was damned lengthy, even for one of my posts, but since I won�t be around the board much from now on, I wanted to get my moneys worth on this one. To all my message board friends (and adversaries), I can only say that the reason I posted here so much wasn�t because I had no life. It was because I so enjoyed you all being such a big part of my life. Okay Nick, you may now have your board back. :)
Play nice and I�ll see you guys on the course sometime.
Mark Atwood
#16523