monkey ball disc golf -- is it about the disc golfers or is it about the money?

*Spinning up a storm* By ALDEN GONZALEZ Special to The Sun
To those who have even heard of it, disc golf is merely a form of recreation. To Garrett Gurthie, it's a symbol for his family's history. Now 17 and going into his senior year at Gainesville High School, Gurthie is the No. 32-ranked player in the U.S. and is receiving increased credibility nationwide. But perhaps if it weren't for Gurthie's location - living just a few feet from Northside Park, one of the only disc-golf courses in Gainesville - he would've never found the sport that would make him a star. http://www.gdstour.com/garrett_gurthie.php "This is the only course in Gainesville you can play decent rounds in," Gurthie said. "I sure have a lot of history here." That history starts with his father Howard. After serving in the Navy, Howard was reintroduced to the sport that caught his attention when late one night, he brought a girl to the park so they could be alone. "I didn't even know where I was, I was just hoping to get lucky," he said. "Then the next day, we decided to meet again and I saw a bunch of people throwing Frisbees and I thought, 'This is that game I heard about.'" That girl would become Howard's wife and the one who would conceive his five children, each of whom were born with a Frisbee in their hand. "They grew up biting on the Frisbee, they were teething on it," said Howard, who believes his first son, 22-year-old Ben, was conceived that night at Northside Park. "I thought we had rats in the house." By age 7, Gurthie was already playing in tournaments, and at age 13, he turned pro. Because there's no age classifications in disc golf, that meant the young Gurthie would be matched up against competitors in their 20s and 30s. But that didn't cause Gurthie to fret. "They looked at me and said, 'What's this kid doing here?'" Gurthie said. "I didn't feel any pressure though because they were the ones behind me. They needed to catch up." Ever since he took up the sport, Gurthie says he practices at the park every day for two-to-three hours. But even though most of the time he's launching discs alone, he can still feel his grandfather, John Henry, looking on. John Henry was paralyzed one day when a homeless man - who he let spend the night at his house - beat him with an aluminum bat. After dying shortly thereafter, Howard took his father's ashes and spread them among the magnolia trees in the middle of the course. It was that act that helped save the park from being destroyed and replaced by a Wal-Mart a few years ago. "I told (City Council), 'We did this under the understanding that this is a city park,'" Howard said. "'And now you're going to put pavement over my dad's ashes?'" Now, with his favorite place to practice still intact, Gurthie can take the disc golf world by storm. And over the last two years, he's done just that. In 2006, he raked in $6,800 in tournament earnings, and through 2007, Gurthie has already earned about $4,000 in six tournaments. Still, Gurthie takes that money to pay for his next tournament and helps Howard - now a single father after his wife died from a heart attack two years ago - buy groceries. In two weeks, Gurthie will have another chance to make some money when he'll compete in the Daytona Open at Tuscawilla Park. Then in October, Northside Park will take another step in remembering his grandfather when it hosts the John Henry Gurthie Memorial Tournament. As for Gurthie's more distant future: he plans to rejoin the GHS golf team and give disc golf a break his senior year. Then, he wants to tour the country and play in all sorts of tournaments to establish himself as one of the best at disc golf. But if he doesn't, it's OK with him. "(Disc golf) is just a way for me to have fun and make some money," he said. "I've learned there are a lot more serious things in life."