Week 7 of Winter Doubles League set for Sunday, Feb. 12 at Mile Lane
* Glow round schedule through March 1
* Doubles Championship entry remains open
* Allegany County Disc Golf Club on Facebook
LONACONING — The past decade has been a time when society has given certain topics and words a second or third look and reconsidered the original meaning.
David Warder, for one, might be willing to redefine the word “subpar.”
A dictionary indicates the term means “below average.” But the 32-year-old Frostburg resident could rebrand the word to mean “under par” — and, at least during an Allegany County Disc Golf Club glow round on Friday night at Living Waters Church in Lonaconing, better than anyone else.
Seven players completed the club’s first glow round of 2023 and the first at Living Waters Church in Lonaconing, where Warder himself helped design and establish an 18-hole disc golf course using a five-basket layout. While the terrain is pancake-flat, Warder employs the use of mandos — mandatory lanes — and out-of-bounds areas. The club modifies Warder’s original plan for all but youth players in only one way: Instead of all asphalt being out-of-bounds, only parking lots are OB; driveways or pathways not intended for parking are fair game.
Warder navigated the nine short tees and nine long tees better than any in the seven-player field. He was the only one to finish under par on the par 56 course, throwing a two under 54. Warder was consistent, throwing 27 on both halves.
Warder held a one-stroke lead after the front nine over Bill Shreve, 46, of Cumberland and only two strokes ahead of Shania Farris, 26, of Wiley Ford, W.Va. Frostburg residents Jay Goodman, 20, and Kevin Spradlin, 43, were each three strokes off Warder’s pace with a 30. Luke Spradlin-Vogelsang, 9, of Frostburg, was seventh with a 41 but threw a solid 35 on the back end to set a personal best on the course — and several strokes ahead of where he and a teammate played a doubles round earlier this month. Luke was the only player in the field who threw fewer strokes over the second half of play, and he did so by six strokes.
Warder remained steady on the back nine, throwing for only one bogey while managing three birdies. Shreve suffered three bogeys to fall off the pace. Shania Farris, meanwhile, led her husband — who was named the club’s Player of the Month for January — by five strokes at the midway point. But Tim picked up a stroke on long No. 6 when Shania threw for bogey, then closed the gap to a single stroke when he threw for par on long No. 8 and Shania threw for triple bogey. She nursed a one-stroke lead on No. 9, but lost it on the second-to-last basket on long No. 1. She threw for double bogey while Tim managed par. The two-stroke swing gave Tim a one-stroke advantage with only one basket remaining.
It was the first organized glow round in Lonaconing since Warder established the course late last year.
The field played on two cards. David Warder, Bill Shreve, Tim Farris and Shania Farris started on short No. 3 and played to short No. 9, then short Nos. 1 and 2. Then they started the long tees in teh same order: No. 3-9, finishing on Nos. 1-2. The other group played 1-18.
