…James and Tony were instrumental in running the club in the early years, helping with leagues and tournaments and organizing disc golf trips to courses around the state. James was the Club President for the first year. Tony was the tournament director for the first PDGA-sanctioned tournament in Bloomington, the 2002 City Grille Limestone Open.
Soon after the BDGC’s formation, Steve Madsen identified Crestmont Park as a potential location for a new disc golf course. Mark Moore worked with the City Parks Department to design and install an 18-hole course at Crestmont in 2002. In the mid-2000s, Karst Farm Park was redesigned, largely by club member Jason Nawrot (BDGC #56), to be a longer and more challenging course. A land dispute between the County Parks and the County Fair Board a few years later resulted in the course being cut back to 9 holes, before it was again expanded to 18 holes in 2016.
They made several attempts at electing officers and committees for the first decade of the club, but in reality, a core handful of people were running the club business with or without the official titles. Mark was in charge of course improvements and maintenance, did most of the heavy lifting himself, and always kept good relationships with the City and County Parks. Chris started and ran the club singles, doubles, and Tag rounds (then twice/week), managed the club’s funds and merchandise stock, and developed and maintained the club’s web presence, club logos, Tag scoring system, and membership database. He ran, or helped run, every Bloomington tournament (~6 events/year) for ~12 years (always with help from club members) until a new guard started arriving around 2012. In 2012, Dan Ott (BDGC #141) was elected President and ran the club by committee (e.g. Treasury committee, Competition committee, Course Maintenance Committee) with varying success until the latest push to establish officers and elections began again ~2014.
The BDGC Founders at Crestmont, June 2009:
Back Row: Steve Madsen, James Stogdill, Tony Hoel
Front Row: Mark Moore, Chris Golden