A beautiful late summer day greeted 14 scholastic and 3 intermediate players at Phillips Park Disc Golf course, the site of the first high school disc golf tournament in Pittsburgh back in 1995. Players were sporting their new PSDGS microfiber tee shirts and throwing Innova Rocs stamped with the series logo.

Marcus Ranii-Dropcho's two rounds of 47 staked Pine-Richland HS to the early lead in the team competition. P-R had 6 players competing, while Hampton opened their defense of the Pipe and Chains team trophy with 4 players and a second place by Sean Malone. North Allegheny HS's Tim Buresh finished third at Phillips Park, and with strong finishes by Anthony Bianco and Adam Jagus is only 7.5 points out of second place.

Allie Hartle, representing Butler Catholic Middle School, took home some cool schwag, including a first place trophy disc in the Girls Middle School division.

Everyone is now looking to this Sunday's second event, which is part of the Knobulus Maximus tournament at Knob Hill Park. The scholastic divisions are part of this Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)-sanctioned event. High school and middle school players will be grouped together for the two rounds, and get a special edition tournament-stamped Innova Champion golf disc (value $15) for their $10 entry fee.

All players are urged to pre-register online (go to www.pfds.org) to guarantee their spot in the 72-player limited field.

The other events in the Scholastic DG series include Oct. 4 at Moraine State Park, Oct 10 at Schenley Park (part of the Schenley League Final), and Oct 24 at Deer Lakes park.

The Scholastic DG Series is sponsored by the Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society, Innova Disc Golf, and Grip It and Rip It.

Look here for photos from the Phillips Park event:
http://gallery.me.com/jgdropcho#100076

Sean Ryan Malone won the second event in the 2009 Scholastic Disc Golf Series last Sunday, and with the help of HS Girls division winner Megan Riley as well as Tierney Malone, pushed Hampton High School into the lead of the team competition.

New male players from Shaler, Fox Chapel, and Medina (OH) high schools, and female players from Hampton matched the growth in the size of the Knobulus Maximus tournament that the scholastic players were part of.

The Pittsburgh Scholastic Series was part of a Professional Disc Golf Association-sanctioned event for the first time. The high school and middle school players comprised divisions in the Knobulus Maximus tournament held at Knob Hill Disc Golf course. Scholastic players got a champion plastic tournament logo disc (value $15) for their $10 entry fee, along with CTP prizes, donuts and some pretty nice playing conditions.

The series third shot is this Sunday at Moraine State Park. Register on-line at PFDS.org, or at the course from 9 -9:30 am. This is the first time the series has been played on the Lakeview course at Moraine, and the players are in for a treat. Two rounds will be played from the White tees, with a lunch break between. Bring a lunch because the concession stand at the beach is closed for the season.

Moraine is home course for Seneca Valley and Butler schools, so we hope to see all y'all!

In last weekend's Scholastic DG series event #3, many of the players were throwing the par-66 Lakeview Course at Moraine for the first time, but these kids are fearless! 12 boys and 1 girl from 4 area high schools played two rounds last Sunday in some pretty fair autumn weather. Nothing too exciting, just...

TWO ACES ON HOLE #3,
8 ROUNDS AT OR UNDER PAR,
PLAYERS AVERAGING 1 STROKE BETTER THE SECOND ROUND,
and the best thing -- PLAYERS DOING THEIR OWN SCORECARDS AND REORGANIZING THE BOARD FOR THE SECOND ROUND WHILE THE TD PLAYED IN THE MORAINE MONTHLY TOURNAMENT!

Yeah, it was pretty cool.
Marcus R-D shot a 57 the first round (including an ace) and backed it up with a 60 for the win. SR Malone got his picture taken with the Stanley Cup in the morning and still made his tee in time to take second. Shaler's Connor Kazmierczak continues to improve and tied Chris "Ghost" Hoeg for third.

Pine-Richland's Mark Fedorenko said, "I like disc golf better than ball golf" and proved it with a hole in one on #3. Tierney Malone battled through a soon to be surgically repaired patellar tendon to rack up another 101 points for her Hampton team, keeping them only 147 points behind P-R.

Knob Hill Bag Books, Throwback golf caps, henley style shirts and Scholastic style trophy discs were handed out to the top three places, but everyone who came got a sweet Innova Aviar, and those who wanted it got a putting lesson.

Event #4 goes down this Saturday at Schenley Park. Registration 9 am at the Camp David Lawrence Pavilion beside hole #7. New players are welcome and rewarded for coming out -- each participant in the series gets a dry-fit Innova jersey, and, this week, a custom-stamped Beast disc from Innova.

Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, Team Champion all yet to be decided, and a lot of fun to be had.

J. Gary

Hey J. Gary,
Just wanted to let you know I played with Ian Kuehn (14y.o.) from Medina, Ohio, at the Ohio River Open. He was the only junior playing, so he was put on a Card with the two of us playing Intermediate Women. Anyway, he was wearing a Pittsburgh SCholastiC Series shirt, and I talked to him some about the Pittsburgh area events he's played. He had lots of good things to say about the loCal events, played really well, and was an all around great kid!

Yes, it was cool that some kids from OH played in the Scholastic Event at Knobulus Maximus. Ian was stoked to get that jersey, and seemed to have a good time. It's great to see new players starting so young, isn't it?

Ian is a good kid for sure. Glad I got to impress him with a good round at ORO.

J Gary what tees were they kids using when the aces were hit?

Ian is a good kid for sure. Glad I got to impress him with a good round at ORO.

J Gary what tees were they kids using when the aces were hit?

Sean Malone is the man by the way...back to back 49's today at Schenley....****.....

Scholastic players played white tees both rounds.

The final event of the 2009 Scholastic Disc Golf Series is this Saturday, Oct 24 at Deer Lakes disc golf course, and the two rounds (one from the White tees and one from the Red tees) will determine all of the races within the series. Pine-Richland and Hampton are within 63 points of each other in the team competition; NA is a solid third.

Sean Ryan Malone, after shooting matching 49s to win event #4 at Schenley last weekend, and Marcus Ranii-Dropcho are tied with identical point totals (429). Both have won two of the 4 events. Tim Buresh, Anthony Biaco and Zach Thorslund are within 50 points of each other for third, and Connor Kazmierczak and Mark Fedorenko are battling for 5th position and perhaps the Rookie of the Year award. 12 players can qualify for the Individual Series title, by playing at least 4 of the 5 events.

Every player in the series gets a dri-fit Scholastic Series jersey, and every player at Deer Lakes will get a custom stamped DX Beast, an Innova mini, and sticker. Closest to the Pin, Longest Putt, and other games will be played. Bring your lunch and get a disc golf lesson from one of the PFDS players who will also be playing in their monthly club tournament on the course that day.

44 new concrete tee pads at the Deer Lakes course await. Newly cleared and pruned, the course is looking Suh-WEEET.

The largest turnout of players during the 2009 Pittsburgh Scholastic Disc Golf Series occurred at the Deer Lakes disc golf course in the final event on Saturday, October 24. Eighteen boys and two girls represented their high schools to determine the winners in the 14th year of the series.

Both the team and individual winners were decided by the closest of margins in the series� history, with Pine-Richland winning by 83 points over 2008 champion Hampton, and North Allegheny, with three players consistently finishing in the top 5 in most of the events, not far back in third.

Sean Ryan Malone won two events, finishing second in the series, to lead Hampton�s bid to defend the Pipe and Chains trophy. Hampton nearly pulled it off on the strength of the female members of their team, however, the P-R boys took 6 of the top 10 spots at Deer Lakes, including Marcus Ranii-Dropcho�s third series win, to put them over the top.

Marcus came out on fire, shooting a 57 from the White tees in the first round. He and Shaler�s Connor Kazmierczak (who finished third at the Deer Lakes event) threw second round 55s from the Red tees, a course record. Marcus finished -20 under par for the two rounds on Deer Lakes� par 66 layout, to win the event and clinch the series crown for the fourth consecutive year. Marcus, currently the top rated amateur player in Pennsylvania according to the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA), and Sean, who won two PDGA amateur events in 2009, have both played disc golf for over ten years, and have battled each other in the Scholastic Series since the sixth grade.

In addition to the trophies and prizes to the top three boys, Hampton�s Ellen Murray and Jessica Holden also took home the hardware for their first and second place finishes at Deer Lakes.

In other awards for the series, North Allegheny�s Tim Buresh edged teammate Anthony Bianco by nine points for third place overall. Mark Fedorenko (Pine-Richland) and Connor Kazmierczak (Shaler) shared Rookie of the Year honors, and 11 other players qualified for the series by playing in 3 or more of the five events.

Every player who competed in the series received a Scholastic Disc Golf Series jersey. Players also got a golf disc at each event they entered, with trophies and prizes awarded to the top three boys and girls finishers in both high school and middle school divisions. Innova Disc Golf, the Pittsburgh Flying Disc Society and Grip It and Rip It sponsored the series, which had total value of $1840.

Saw Marcus the other day at Knob with some of his friends. So glad to see that. Made me feel a little bit old, but I can't wait to see how much better he gets now that he has some friends to come out and play with.

Nice shooting kids.