From: "Cliff Towne" <clifftowne@mac.com>
To: Cliff Towne <clifftowne@mac.com>
Subject: Pat Shea, the PDGA 2007 Senior Player of the Year
Date: Thu, 2 Aug 2007 09:21:01 -07002

Our own Pat Shea garnered some well deserved recognition at the PDGA  Worlds last night in Highbridge, WI.  Check out the announcement below:
"This year's winner of the PDGA Senior Player of the Year is the father figure of Southern California Disc Golf".

Pat Shea is now 79 years old and disc golf discovered him at El Dorado Park when he was 65.

Like it does for many of us, disc golf came at just the right time for Pat. For many years, he and his friends had ridden motorcycles both on and off road for, but Pat's legs were giving him problems so he was looking for a new passion. When he first saw a disc hit the chains he knew it was the game for him.

Since that first introduction, Pat has played in literally hundreds of Southern California disc golf events and, because he's almost always been the oldest competitor, he's won virtually every event that he's played in the Legend division. If there's no Legend division offered, Pat will play down to Senior Grand Master and he's done amazingly well at that level too. He currently carries a 815 rating, but that's not the reason for this award.

Even though he's had little opposition, Pat is the quintessential competitor. He's never fully satisfied with his play and is a perfectionist about all parts of his game. However, the most important thing about Pat's game is that every SoCal golfer considers it an honor and a treat to be in a foursome with Pat. He is relentlessly cheerful and a joy to play with no matter how things are going with his scorecard.

He's also a very modest man. Many players who have known Pat on the course for a good many years don't have any idea about his incredible background.

Pat is a devout Christian who has been married to his sweetheart, Doris for 57 years. They had three boys and a girl, all of whom are very talented as well. His oldest son, Mike was several times the US National Arm Wrestling Champion and his youngest was an Olympic-caliber college wrestler. Pat himself is a true renaissance man. For many years he was a baritone soloist, featured in nationally-televised services from his church. Pat also is a talented songwriter, poet and artist.

However, his strongest musical suit may be on the piano where he plays a very mean boogie woogie. You ain't heard the Bumble Boogie until you've heard Pat take it down. The man can do it all.

Pat has only had the opportunity to come to one PDGA World Championships and that was in the year 2000 in Ann Arbor, Michigan, when he took second in Legends to the many-time champion, Ralph Williamson. That year, Ted Williams, the 2005 winner of this award, finished just behind Pat in third place. Though Pat didn't win that year, he absolutely loved the opportunity to go head-to-head with all the other top Legends in the game. He's often called it the highlight of his career.

We hope that Pat will get another chance to play at Worlds and maybe even a shot at winning, but even if he doesn't, he'll still be number one in the hearts of all of his fans, no matter where he plays.

He's the kind of player we all should hope to be.

Pat Shea, the PDGA 2007 Senior Player of the Year.

-Cliff Towne