The Fan That Stole My Heart
I love all of the disc golf fans, but this guy really had me. He came out to watch the MPO division tee off, I had been watching him from afar taking pictures from his phone. At the end of the tournament I spotted him getting a photo of Paul McBeth with his first place trophy, so I had to put them both on the spot and got a photo of them together, he was shocked! And it was kind of hilarious.
The story could have stopped there with the photograph, I didn’t get his contact information, nothing! After the tournament this moment would not leave my mind so I posted about it on Instagram and had an overwhelming response, people wanted to hear more about him, and so did I.
I ended up reaching out to the disc golf community. There were lots of people that saw him at the event. One person thought he was lost driving into the venue and was surprised to later find he was there to watch the show. Another said he was watching players tee off on hole 1 and putt out on 18 with a note in his hand that read “Paul McBeth.”
But how to find him? I first sent the photo to Tournament Director, Nate Heinold, who replied he didn’t recognize him. Then I messaged the Peoria Frisbee Club on Facebook but no one seemed to know him. McBeth was tagged in the photo and he messaged me saying ‘Brook from Washington, IL told him about the event.’
We found Brook White and it turns out the two are neighbors. His name is Wayne Glabe and is 91 years old. But I still didn’t get his address or phone number and was waiting to get more information.
That’s when Nate Heinold emailed me saying “you are just not going to believe this….I was driving down to the post office today to take some stuff from the tournament, and as I am coming back I see a guy at the gas station. I whipped my car into the parking lot and ran over to stop him as he was driving, and sure enough it was our guy.”
Nate was able to get his phone number and I was able to talk to Wayne. He says he putts over at Brook’s house about five times a week and that’s how he discovered the game. He recalled moments from the tournament and knew that McBeth had won by five strokes and made a point that McBeth was also Brook’s favorite player.
Brook was kind enough to share a video of him putting, and he’s really good at it. At 91 life doesn’t get any better than this. It is something that we can all aspire to live by. My plan from here is to send him some prints and we hope to reconvene at Worlds, the date is marked on his calendar as is mine. Click here to watch the video.
