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PDGA Executive Director Recognized by Sports Events Magazine

PDGA Executive Director Recognized by Sports Events Magazine

Monday, February 17, 2014 - 13:53

SportsEvents Magazine is dedicated to "helping planners of amateur sporting events and competitions be more effective, informed and successful with their events"1 This niche market magazine has acquired almost 20,000 subscribers with distributions in nearly every state and provinces of Canada as well. In the January 2014 issue of SportsEvents Magazine, a newly created industry award for excellence, dubbed the éclat, was given to sporting event leaders, organizers, marketers, managers, etc. from across the country. 

The word éclat (pronounced eh-kla), is a word of French origin and is defined as "brilliance of performance, dazzling achievement or success". Of the 22 éclat recipients, PDGA Executive Director Brian Graham (#5861) was chosen for his contributions to the sport of disc golf and his efforts to create and develop the International Disc Golf Center in Appling, GA. 

Brian started playing disc golf in 1989 and has never looked back. He started running PDGA sanctioned events less than a year later in 1990, and served as the regional coordinator for the old Region 8 in the Southeast. He was the PDGA’s first official Marshal and was the tournament director of the 1996 PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships and then a decade later, the 2006 PDGA Pro Disc Golf World Championships. In 2002 he received the PDGA Volunteer of the Year award for his involvement in creating the International Disc Golf Center. A year later in 2003, he received the PDGA Tournament Director of the Year award for creating and flawlessly running the Disc Golf Hall of Fame Classic for the inaugural National Tour Elite Series.

Brian's professional background consisted of civil and environmental engineering, which ended up being a great fit for the role of PDGA Executive Director that he would eventually be hired for in April of 2007. We're proud to have Brian as the Executive Director of the PDGA and we know with his help, the sport of disc golf will only continue to grow. Brian continues to work tirelessly towards one of his major goals; helping to make disc golf a more featured aspect of the sports tourism industry. 

SportsEvents Magazine has a digital version of the full copy of the January 2014 edition available on their website. On behalf of Brian and the entire PDGA staff, we are honored to have received this award and recognition.