disc golf

That’s a disc. On the wire.

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It can -- and did -- happen! (photo courtesy Kody O'Neill)

There are things that happen in this world where one has to question if it really could happen.

Kind of like if someone told you they got their disc stuck on a power line.

Would you really believe it if someone told you that?

Exactly.

Insert Kody O’Neill, who went out to play a casual round with his friends Salamen Butler, Levi WhiteEagle and Travis Duncan at Lake Bella Vista Course in Bella Vista, Arkansas.

Yes, it's WAY up there! (photo courtesy Kody O'Neill)

O’Neill said the course is pretty new and is a pro-level course. The beginning could have been a warning of what was to come as three discs were lost (water hazard throws) through the first five holes.

“We made a joke coming around to hole 15 that we could not lose any more Frisbees,” O’Neill said.

Then came hole No. 17, a par-4, 750-foot straight hole. O’Neill took out an Innova Tee Bird and said he threw it as far as he could.

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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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McBeth wins opening National Tour event; tourney roundup: Feb. 22 – March 6

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Paul McBeth (shown here at last year's Vibram Open) won the first National Tour event of the season this past weekend at The Memorial Championship.

Using a steady weekend with three rounds in the 40s, Paul McBeth won The Memorial Championship for the second straight year, winning the title by three strokes over Innova teammate Will Schusterick.

The tournament ran in Scottsdale, Ariz., from Feb. 29 – March 3 and served as the first event of the National Tour Elite Series.

McBeth, who earned $3,500 for his victory, finished 44-under-par with a four-day 188. He had rounds of 45, 44, 53 and 46.

One of his rounds — the first — was an 1107-rated round, one of four rounds at the tournament that had a rating of more than 1100.

Schusterick had one of the others — shooting a 43 in the final round for an 1103 round. He finished the tournament with rounds of 49, 45, 54 and 43 for a 41-under-par 191. Schusterick earned $2,500 for second place.

Dave Feldberg, who placed third with a 39-under 193, had the other two top-rated rounds. He shot a 44 in the opening round for an 1115 round and had a 42 in the final round, for a 1112. In the second round, he shot a 48, but a 59 in the third round appears to have doomed him. He still left with a $2,000 check for third place.

Avery Jenkins and Steven Rico tied for fourth place, each winning $1,550 for finishing at 31 under. They each had a 201. Jenkins’ top round of the tournament with a final-round 48. Rico shot a 47 in the second round as his top score.

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News roundup: Locastro joins Innova; several new discs out

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It was recently announced that Nikko Locastro would be joining Innova this year.

The news seems to be piling up early in 2012.

We’ve gathered some of this news over the past few weeks, but with not launching until this week, we had to keep it as a bunch of briefs. Though much of this is all out there, we still wanted to share.

Locastro now with Innova

One of the top professional players in the world, Nikko Locastro, has left Gateway and joined the Innova Star team for this season.

Locastro is the 12th member of the Innova Star team. He joins Avery Jenkins, Dave Feldberg, Des Reading, Josh Anthon, Paul McBeth, Paul Ulibarri, Ricky Wysocki, Sarah Stanhope, Steve Brinster, Val Jenkins and Will Schusterick on the team.

On his personal website, Locastro said the decision wasn’t anything against any other company and that he was now focused on this year and beyond.

“After trying out new products in the off season and over looking my options I decided to go with Team Innova for 2012. … Having a mixed bag had its ups and down but at the end of the day it was something that happened for a reason.”

– Nikko Locastro, on his website.

Locastro won last year’s National Tour championship, edging Nate Doss (Discraft) by one point.

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Poll 1: Disc count

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It’s poll time!

The plan is to do a weekly poll and we encourage you to vote. Even more, drop a comment below and maybe win something.

If you comment and elaborate on your vote, you’ll be entered to randomly win some sort of swag.

We have all sorts of things to give away, though you probably won’t be getting a basket or something like that! We have some smaller things we can stuff into envelopes and send out and if you’re selected from this, we’ll contact you and send you a piece of swag!

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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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