Where have all the good men gone?

[ziggy]

Been wondering..

Ron Russell

Scott Stokely

Cam Todd

others?

1,000 rated players who have gone into hibernation

where have they gone??

I for one miss watching Cam Todd on video. His throwing style has me glued to the tube.

[AciDBatH666]

last I hear Stokely threw out his arm, came back too soon, and threw it out again.
Don't quote me on it, I THINK it was the last I heard about him.

[Blake_T]

from the rumor mill:

cam and ron have retired with no plans for returning (jaded and burned out on disc).

stokely's arm is basically done but also heard possibly repairable with surgery. heard that he has different career focuses now that do not involve disc golf at all.

[ziggy]

from the rumor mill:

cam and ron have retired with no plans for returning (jaded and burned out on disc).

Too bad, based on what i have seen in video - cam todd has the best putt to study.

where ron had the best ambidextrous style as well as the most difficult putt to study.

[roadkill]

I can understand why touring pros like Cam and Ron would burn out.


Not to go off on a tangent or anything but let's be honest there is no money in disc golf as a competing player. You have all the expenses of traveling and living on the road out of your car, suv or winnebago and you must finish in the top 5 every event just to pay for your expenses. When you're forced to win/finish high in order to eat it takes the fun out of it. I mean c'mon a really good tour player might win 20k year if he has a good year but geez he probably had 16k in expenses. Many are eating ramen noodles, taking cold showers in campgrounds and trying to mooch a place to sleep any chance they get. I can imagine they are disc golfers during the tournaments but feel like hobos the rest of the week.

I would only consider touring if:
a. I had sponsor(s) that took care of most if not all of my expenses

b. I was wealthy or atleast very comfortable financially

c. Had means for a steady stream of income that I could do from all over the country.


Suppose you spent hours everyday (some on this board do) honing your skills to be very good at your chosen skill and then when you became one of the elite players you're scrappin to pay for your next meal or to fill the gas tank to get to the next event.

There are many other skills that with the same dedication and practice would earn you 100k + per year.

[dgdave]

I don't know if this has any validity to it, but I heard Stokely and his wife were in the amateur adult film industry. And you know what they say about a guy with big hands.

[jHarr]

thought ron was comin back or something...
http://www.discraft.com/vid/long_putts06_lg.wmv

http://www.pdga.com/msgboard/showflat.p ... o=&fpart=1

[Glock23]

I don't know if this has any validity to it, but I heard Stokely and his wife were in the amateur film industry. And you know what they say about a guy with big hands.

I guess he is making some new instructional videos!

[Will]

i heard ron was roofing down in florida and only plays in few tourneys.....he does make it to michigan every year at least once to river bends..

[Bradley Walker]

I don't know if this has any validity to it, but I heard Stokely and his wife were in the amateur adult film industry. And you know what they say about a guy with big hands.

If that were true, you don't think there would be evidence on the Internet?

[roadkill]

I didn't see any real evidence in either link to make me think Ron is making a comeback. (to real competitive play)

I'm not sure how old the video is but even if it's recent he could have done it as a spokesman for discraft being that he was sponsored by them when he was active.

Ron ran the tournament at the Melbourne Open but did not play. I couldn't find him in the list of rated pdga players either.

On a side note I believe Ron was wrong in delaying the start of the tournament to accomadate Ken Climo. When you show up late regardless of the reason you take 7s (actually par plus 4) for every hole you miss. This rule should be applied to everyone equally. To delay the tournament an hour to wait for Ken to arrive was really just wrong. I'm sure Johnny McCray would agree with me.

[roadkill]

I don't know if this has any validity to it, but I heard Stokely and his wife were in the amateur adult film industry. And you know what they say about a guy with big hands.

If that were true, you don't think there would be evidence on the Internet?

Not neccessarily. It depends what roles they have. Everyone automaticly thinks actor/actress roles. Maybe they started a chain of adult film stores. An adult website. These types of roles in the industry wouldn't give you any notoriety or search engine trails.

I suspect this maybe more rumor than truth anyway.

[koronin]

I have a DVD of the 2003 National Tour (it's ok) and Ron's putting style cracks me up everytime I see it. You'd think there's no way he can get away with that but he sank a very high percentage of putts.

from the rumor mill:

cam and ron have retired with no plans for returning (jaded and burned out on disc).

Too bad, based on what i have seen in video - cam todd has the best putt to study.

where ron had the best ambidextrous style as well as the most difficult putt to study.

[Jerry R]

Read this on the PDGA board about Cam Todd:

http://www.pdga.com/msgboard/showflat.php?Cat=&Board=Players&Number=231237&page=8&view=collapsed&sb=5&o=&fpart=1

[ericdmb]

I think something that has to do with it are the people that are taking over the sport now. Feldberg, Jenkins, Doss, Orum etc. these are younger guys with great game... perhaps they combine the getting old with the younger talent and feel that they can't compete and being a touring pro playing masters might not be worth it....


I really don't know, just some thoughts