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A thank you and farewell to all

/ P.J. / 4 Comments

Not that this should be a shock to anybody, but the end of Rattling Chains has obviously happened.

However, I needed closure on this part of my life, as well as for the site, considering I still see e-mails asking about it.

announcementI had a time in my life where I was unemployed. This blog provided so many things for me. One, it allowed me to find one of the greatest games in the world. Though I don’t get to play as often as I’d like, I do still try and get out and throw plastic. I’m not an active PDGA member as I don’t plan on playing tournaments or anything, but I still support what they are trying to do.

Maybe, one day, I’ll get back into it. I do think I might subscribe to the magazine, though, as I miss that.

But for the time Rattling Chains existed, I fully believed in the cause. I wanted to bring a journalistic-style of blogging to the disc golf world. It’s something I still think can do well, if done right. As the site grew (and it did so nicely), we had a fun little staff who did some wonderful work.

Thing evolved, but when you try and grow and there’s nothing coming back, it gets tough. I didn’t play enough disc golf to have a full-fledged connection to it. The other main writers were doing so much with but just a thank you. Though, I can’t lie, I still hope to get out to the West Coast and play a round with each of the main players some day in the future.

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Six months with Rattling Chains — what’s next?

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By P.J. Harmer — Rattling Chains staff

So the answer has to be given … did we rattle the chains?

As readers will remember, we came out of the gate quickly when we started six months ago. We were super pumped and the possibilities were endless. The ideas that were being thrown around were plenty.

When we initially started this blog, we said we’d revisit it in six months. At that point, we’d decide if we wanted to continue or shut it down. As someone who has been a writer for most of my professional life, I didn’t want to let the blog go to hell. If we weren’t doing well, we’d shut up shop and move along.

But it wouldn’t come without a fight, that’s for sure.

Over the course of the first half year, we’ve had some ups and downs. We started quick, we slowed up, things looked bleak and we’ve kind of bounced back.

We also got lucky to get some quality contributors right off the bat in Jack Trageser and Steve Hill. Since then, we’ve added Andre Fredrick and Jenny Cook. We also have a few people who have submitted things to us here and there, giving us some great things.

What I’ve really liked about this blog is all those different voices. From men to women, we’ve tried to give what we can.

This three-day schedule on a weekly basis hasn’t been the best for visits, however. And that’s understandable. After all, if there are fewer stories, people won’t come back every day.

That meant is was decision time. We’re at that six-month point. So what to do?

Do we continue?

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Rattling Chains with Avery Jenkins: Looking back at 2011 and forward to 2012

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Editor’s note: As noted in our announcement last night, 2009 World Champion Avery Jenkins has agreed to blog with us during the 2012 season. It’s an honor to have him willing to work with us. We’re just a couple of amateur players from upstate New York, so when we started this blog, we never thought we’d get so lucky to land someone like Avery to work with us. He’ll blog periodically throughout the season, so sit back and enjoy as he takes all of us through life on the tour and in the world of disc golf!

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Before getting too far into the 2012 season, I needed to write my 2011 year in review. I always need to stay on top of my blogs before I fall behind. Let’s look back to another great season of disc golf as I take you on a quick journey of some highlights from the 2011 season.

The life of a touring professional can be strenuous at times, but realize I really love to travel as much as I do and always look forward to the next event. I played in 24 Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)-sanctioned events with 10 top-5 finishes in 2011. I also earned a win at my first event of the year, at the Asia Open in Taiwan.

Avery Jenkins had a strong 2011 season. (Photo courtesy Leah Taylor)

I also had several strong finishes at the Kansas City Wide Open National Tour event, the Players Cup Match Play Championship and the Hall of Fame Classic Super Tour event. I also had a solid showing by placing fifth at the first Professional Disc Golf Association Championships at the International Disc Golf Center in Augusta, Ga.

I also finished seventh at the European Open, a major disc golf event in Nokia, Finland. And, I was part of the NorCal championship team at the NorCal vs. SoCal Team Invitational Championships earlier in the year.

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Avery Jenkins to blog with RattlingChains.com

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The staff of Rattling Chains is proud to announce that 2009 Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA) World Champion Avery Jenkins will be blogging with RattlingChains.com during the 2012 season.

Avery Jenkins will blog with RattlingChains.com for the 2012 season. (photo courtesy of Avery Jenkins)

Jenkins will bring his views, thoughts and reactions to being on the road this year. It will be a good view of life on the road from the eyes of one of the top pros in the world.

Jenkins, as of Feb. 14, is a 1027 rated played by the PDGA. In 2011, he played in 24 PDGA sanctioned tournaments (plus the National Tour series). Of those 24 tournaments, Jenkins had one victory, five runner-up finishes and one third-place finish.

Jenkins, one of the most well-known and easily approachable professionals on the tour, won the 2009 World Championship and is a member of the 12-player Innova Star team. The 2012 season marks his 13th on tour.

According to the PDGA site and Jenkins’ player profile, he has won 42 tournaments since 2001.

His first blog post, a wrap of his 2011 season, will appear Friday (March 9) on RattlingChains.com.

If you have any comments, questions, thoughts, ideas or anything else, feel free to e-mail me and the crew at: pj [at] rattlingchains.com. Don’t forget to follow us on Twitter and like us on Facebook!

Welcome to RattlingChains.com!

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That sound is beautiful ... and this we're hoping this blog hears it often!

Hello and welcome to Rattling Chains, a blog that will be about everything disc golf!

Over the past few months, I’ve searched for a disc golf blog to read and it seems that many blogs were sporadic or weren’t fully disc golf based. There are plenty of forums out there for disc golf, but I couldn’t find a blog that would give me the type of stories and things I had hoped were out there in a blog.

The burning question here is whether or not the disc golf community and the sport in general is ready for a full-time blog on the sport?

After all, it’s played outside and not near the computer.

I hope so.

I found a bunch of disc golf blogs and sent the links to some friends, seeing what they thought and if they thought it would be worth going forth with a project like this.

The many disc golf blogs we visited included ones that were based more on certain stores, players, courses or brands. Though some we visited were updated on a regular basis, many of them were short or didn’t provide content to make us want to go back.

Some photos are nice, but if I just wanted photos, I could search disc golf on Flickr.

And it’s also nice to see what kind of new products stores are getting, but if said store is 500 miles from me, it won’t be easy for me to drive down and have a peek.

Then there’s the National Tour.

If you haven’t seen any NT events, the players are amazing. For this sport to grow, the NT has to take off because that’s where the real exposure comes from.

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