Four decades ago, a savvy business man from California embarked on a plan to invent a target for one of his earlier projects…the Frisbee or flying disc.

Of course, that business man was “Steady” Ed Headrick and his target was described in the patent application as a “disc entrapment device.” We call it a pole hole or just a basket. But whatever you call our target, it was the single-most important development in making disc golf a bona fide sporting/recreational endeavor. With a standard target to now throw at, there were no disputes regarding where on a tree you hit, whether you knocked the garbage can over, or dents on mail boxes to frame the sport as some type of fringe/rogue game.

Yet Headrick’s target was just the tip of the disc golf iceberg, when one considers the rippling effect his efforts created. Here in Northern California, disc golf was embraced by players and park systems alike. New flyers began to be manufactured. And Headrick’s Disc Golf Association was organized, promoted, and administrated to congeal the disc golf community. Indeed, though the DGA is now know primarily as a manufacturer of disc golf targets, it began as the precursor to the Professional Disc Golf Association. Headrick’s primary caveat was that it was a player-run organization, and when you look at the current PDGA Board of Directors, it is easy to believe he would be pleased with the roster of players that now steward the sport.

There are so many stories, so many people, and so many lingering attributes that are being revealed to all the fans and players of this year’s 2011 PDGA World Championships in Santa Cruz, California, that looking back at the sport often usurps the current mission of the event–to crown a number of World Champions this week.

DiscGolfPlanet.tv is pleased to be a media partner with the PDGA, Innova, and the entire Worlds team, lead by Tom Schot, and we will be bringing you Live Internet Broadcasting from Santa Cruz for the next five days.

Our Tentative LIVE Broadcast Schedule is as follows…
Tuesday, August 9th… DGP Weekly LIVE from the Chains Movie Red Carpet affair (10pm Eastern/7pm Pacific)
Wednesday, August 10th… The Women’s Open Division/Men’s B Pool LIVE (1pm Eastern/10 am Pacific)
Thursday, August 11th… The Masters division from Delaveaga (Broadcast times to be determined)
Friday, August 12th… Men’s Open Division from Pinto Lake (Broadcast time to be determined)
Saturday, August 13th… Semi finals and Finals from Pinto Lake (Broadcast time to be determined)

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