Area woman eyes disc golf glory

By Bryan McKenzie

Published: October 3, 2008

Dee Proffitt searches for the right driver to get her off the first tee and within putting distance.

She settles down, concentrates, winds up, lets loose and follows through, sending the flying disc floating straight into the wind and curving, curving, curving to the left and into the brush and bushes.

‘Game got me out’

“Wow, that’s really in the ugly,” she laughs, shaking her head. “I wonder if Tiger Woods had these shots.”

Dee’s errant drive is a rare occurrence. In fact, the 47-year-old Albemarle County native won the 2008 amateur world championship in her class at the Professional Disc Golf Association tournament held in mid-August in Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, Mich.

Today and Sunday, Dee and a host of others who throw specially designed Frisbee-like flying discs into free-standing baskets will compete at the Walnut Creek Park course in the Mountain Jam VII disc golf tournament. The competition begins at 9:30 a.m. and is sponsored by the Blue Ridge Disc Golf Association.

The game is played like small-ball golf, with tees, fairways, water hazards and penalty strokes. The discs are aerodynamically designed for different flight characteristics with weight, density, curvature and leading edge differing depending on the disc’s intended use.

It was Dee’s membership in the association — and the sudden shuttering of a women’s gym where she was a member — that got her on the road to the world championship.

“I was never very athletic, but I was doing well when they closed down my gym,” she recalls, replacing her driver with a midrange disc to get out of the ugly and back toward the chain-and-wire basket that serves as the hole. “This game got me out. It’s about a 5-mile walk to do all 18 holes.”

Dee’s game became an obsession. She played several tournaments with the club. She played the course often. She improved.

Going for gold

When she decided to try for the championship, she began working out at home. She bought her own basket and practiced putting short throws. Soon she was traveling after work to play courses at The Grange, a private disc golf club in Spotsylvania.

“I focused on just getting to the hole and making par,” she says. “I thought if I could do that, I could be consistent and capitalize on others’ mistakes.”

It worked. In the five-day world championship tournament, she worked her way to a tie for second, then into second, then into a tie for first and finally, the big trophy. She won no money, but she copped great swag, the merchandise and goods given as rewards for her play.

Next year, however, it could be different.

“My friends tell me I should switch to professional,” she said, noting that her game would have to come up a notch. “I don’t know. It would be a challenge.”

She smiles at the thought, however.

“I’ve already won the amateur,” she laughs. “I guess it’s sort of what’s next.”