Coordinator Spotlight: Cameron Harbachuk #52085
Coordinator Spotlight: Cameron Harbachuk #52085
This story is part of a series of member spotlights, featuring players of all ages and skillsets. In this article we interview the Florida state coordinator. State coordinators are volunteers who are elected by the PDGA members in their state for two-year terms.
Name: Cameron J. Harbachuk
Member #: 52085
Age: 29
Hometown: St. Petersburg
Favorite course: Picnic Island Park DGC | Tampa, Florida
Profession: Finance
When and how were you first introduced to disc golf?
12 years ago at the age of 17. My cousin came into town and was an avid player. She gave me my first set of discs and started taking me to the weekly doubles event at the course down the street from my house. I was hooked from the start and have not gone more than 2 weeks without playing since.
How often do you play?
I try to play at least 2 - 3 rounds per week.
Who do you play disc golf with?
Most of the time I am playing with my wife Danielle Payne (PDGA #69002) and my dog Lily. We have been together for 8 years and have been playing disc golf together since the start. If I am not playing with her I am either playing solo, or playing with my group of best friends, who luckily also play disc golf.
What is your favorite thing about disc golf? What makes disc golf different than other sports/hobbies for you?
It's a cliche response to this question, but it is the community. I have never experienced a collective group of people more passionate about one single thing than disc golfers are about the sport of disc golf. What other communities will band together to spend 10 hours out in the hot sun laying tee pads for a new course, or walk around the course picking up every single ounce of litter on a random Tuesday just so the course looks good, or standing in the middle of the woods as a tournament spotter all day telling relative strangers where their frisbee landed to ensure they don’t take a penalty stroke?
I’ve also never seen a group of people rally around a cause like I have seen disc golfers do. Anytime there is a member of the community in need, disc golfers are the first people to take action and try to take care of that person regardless of how well they know them. I feel like the mentality is “Are they a disc golfer? Well, they are family now.” It takes a very special kind of person to be a disc golfer and it's that exact kind of special person that makes disc golf as amazing as it is.
What is your favorite ever disc golf memory?
Easily my first pro win. It was back in 2018 and I had just been sponsored by Discraft a few weeks beforehand and was tossing around the idea of going pro or not and finally decided to pull the trigger. I signed up for a little one round flex start at one of my local courses against a pretty stacked field of Clearwater, Florida Pros, so my expectations were pretty low. At the time, I had not yet decided what my putter of choice was going to be, so I was bouncing between a couple of different Discraft molds trying to determine which one I liked most. In the process, I foolishly left them at my house when I went to volunteer at the event for the morning during other tee times.
As my tee time started to roll around and I began to transition out of volunteer mode into player mode, I realized that I had left behind all of my Discraft putters. I asked the TD if he had any putters that I could borrow and he tossed me his Rubber Blend Challenger out of his bag. My first putt with that disc was a 60 footer for birdie on hole one en route to one of the best rounds I have ever played, and a win in my first ever pro tournament. Once the round was over I went back to the TD and told him he was never getting the disc back and it currently sits in my trophy shelf as a memento.
When did you join the PDGA? 2012
When did you become a coordinator? 2018
What inspired you to run for a coordinator position?
By the time I had run for state coordinator, I had already been involved in collegiate disc golf and at the club level as an admin/tournament director. I was looking to make a larger impact and leverage my technical and organizational skills to make a meaningful difference in the state of Florida as the sport continued to grow. I also had good relationships with the previous coordinators from Florida (Brian Kilgore, Michael Barnett, CR Willey, Bryan Moore) and wanted to take the opportunity to learn as much as I could from them and continue the lineage.
What has been one of your biggest accomplishments as a coordinator?
Creating an almost fully automated process for our event pre approval process. When I became state coordinator the entire pre-approval process was managed on a non-shared excel workbook and all communication was facilitated by email, text, phone calls etc. The new process I have created has allowed event directors to all access a live calendar of all events (both pre-approved, and events requested for pre-approval) at any time. Additionally, the request process is now channeled through a single point of contact (a form on my website) and the entire process is now almost fully automated.
When an event director fills out their form request, I get a notification and do a quick check of the mileage between events scheduled on the same weekend, and if approved, I hit a check box that automatically sends out a notification to the event director instructing them to move forward with sanctioning. I am working on a final iteration of this process that will automatically identify the distance between events submitted through this form and decline events that are against PDGA Tour Standards automatically. This has been a necessary process improvement for me to be able to manage the explosive growth of events in Florida, and has been a massive quality of life improvement for our tournament directors as they continue to look for creative ways to provide the ever expanding field of Florida disc golfers more events to participate in.
Who is your disc golf mentor?
CR Willey (PDGA # 4390). Over the past 10 years or so he has acted as my coach during my time with the University of South Florida Disc Golf Team, teammate at Discraft and a mentor as state coordinator. He has done it all in the disc golf community so having him so close by to bounce ideas off of or just get a quick refresher on my game has been incredibly valuable. I am lucky be to able to call him a close friend of mine.
Where do you see disc golf and the PDGA heading in the next five years?
Short answer - The sky's the limit at this point. When I got my PDGA membership back in 2012 I was #52085. 3 years later I got my wife her number #69002. Now just another 6 years after that we are at over 200,000? It’s clinically insane the amount of growth we have experienced in the past 10 years or so.
Long Answer - I think disc golfers everywhere should be incredibly excited for the growth of disc golf, and more importantly how entities like the PDGA are responding to the current surge of popularity and preparing for the continued exponential growth.
The PDGA is doing a fantastic job of facilitating the growth of the sport, and more importantly focusing their attention on the support of event directors and the image of the disc golf community as a whole. If you look at the PDGA website there is a new job posting almost every couple of weeks. That should excite any disc golfer because it shows that the PDGA understands that in order to sustain this growth in the future, they need a staff full of extraordinarily talented individuals with a wide range of subject matter expertise. It shows that the PDGA is committed to investing not only in their people, but the future of the sport.
On the flip side, if you look at what disc golf manufacturers are doing it should be equally exciting. Over the past 10 or so years, professional disc golf went from something that you had to “hustle” at to make a living with contract details that were kept a secret. Now, you could easily say that the top 200 or so players make a true living off just playing disc golf alone and it is public knowledge what the top players are making. This ensures the continued growth of the sport because now young players that are coming up through the ranks can focus their full attention on the sport. New players now look at it as much of a career opportunity as playing any of the four major sports (Baseball, Football, Hockey, Basketball).
So in five years where could we be?
In my mind 400,000 members seems feasible at this point.
How can disc golfers learn more about what you do and support your efforts?
Honestly I just want disc golfers to know that their state coordinators are here for them. We are much more than people who are responsible for pre-approving events and juggling the schedule and that we can provide guidance and assistance to more than just the prospective or returning TD. We welcome the questions and inquiries from players and want to do everything that we can to ensure a positive disc golf experience for everyone.
We are in this role because we truly love disc golf and love the disc golf community and want to push the growth of the game and the PDGA in our home states. Whether it be asking a rules question, asking about who to contact at the main PDGA office, or looking for a contact who specializes in certain areas like disc golf course design or lessons in the state, we want to provide that direction. Additionally, we want to help TDs put out the best experience possible for their players. Most coordinators have decades of tournament directing experience and I feel like that experience is not leveraged enough.
If you are a current TD running an event and looking for tips or strategies for how to make it better, your first step should be your state coordinator. Similarly, if you are a brand new TD looking to break onto the scene with high quality events, you should reach out to your coordinator and request an hour meeting and just bounce ideas off them and leverage as much time as they have available for you.
Thank you Cameron for being a PDGA member, state coordinator and sharing your disc golf experience with all of us.