Warder wins ACDGC May Player of the Month award

Shreve 2nd, Wolodkin 3rd, Raynor 4th

* Disc Golf Clinic Series #1: June 17 from 5 p.m. – 7 p.m. at PVAA Complex in Cresaptown
* Summer Flex League Week 1 (June 23-26)
* Summer Youth League begins June 20
* Previous Player of the Month award winners:
^ January – Tim Farris
^ February – Shania Farris
^ March – Ethan von Hagel
^ April – Noah Gaughan

FROSTBURG — Who had it easier: Babe Ruth, when he set the single season Major League Baseball home run record (four times in an eight-year span)? Or Roger Maris, who, 34 years after Ruth hit 60 homers in 1927, hit 61 in 1961?

It would appear that voters for the Allegany County Disc Golf Club’s Player of the Month award for May believe Maris, and not Ruth, completed a more challenging home run trot. The three-person voting panel favored David Warder over Bill Shreve for the monthly award. The three voters submitted ballots with a 5-4-3-2 ranked choice system, meaning they ranked their preferred candidate with a 5, their second choice a 4, and so on.

David Warder tries out the proposed tee and basket location for No. 5 at Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course prior to its opening.

Warder, 32, of Frostburg, finished with two first-place votes and a second-place vote for 14 points. Shreve garnered one vote each for first, second and third for 12 points. Sam Wolodkin, 20, of Frostburg, earned a second-, third- and fourth-place vote for nine points, with Keith Raynor, 46, of Vale Summit, placed fifth with one third-place vote and two votes for fourth place, finishing with seven points.

Warder has opted to receive, with a value of up to $15, in the form of a gift certificate to the Mile Lane Disc Golf retail store.

It was the second time in three months that Shreve, 47, of Cumberland, has finished second; in March, who lost by a single point to Ethan von Hagel. Shreve continues his bid to become the first two-time winner of the award, which began in June 2022, the month after the founding of the Allegany County Disc Golf Club. He won the award in October 2022.

Shreve had quite the candidacy, too. He toed the tee pad more times than other contender during the month. In May, he played in nine of 10 club rounds — nearly double the participation of any other candidate. He won two rounds outright — including one after being chased in a two-hole playoff — and finished second (twice), tied for second (twice), tied for third once, fourth once, and tied for fourth. More important, Shreve played the club’s first organized round at Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course in Frostburg. In that inaugural round, Shreve (a) set the club course record with an under par 46, (b) set the club record for a front or back nine split (22 strokes) and (c) took only 51 minutes before throwing the first ace in course history.

But voters felt that Warder, and not Shreve, merited further consideration perhaps because once Shreve established that record, everyone else had something to try and beat. Warder, at least in May during a club round, was the only one who did.

Warder played the club’s third round at Hoffman Park DGC on May 16 and notched his first victory, but it was three strokes worse (49) than Shreve’s winning mark (46). In the club’s fourth round at Hoffman Park on May 22, Warder went for it all — and got it. His front nine mark of 23 was a single stroke shy of Shreve’s club record for a front/back nine split. Warder threw two strokes better on the back nine — and, more importantly, one stroke better than Shreve’s record — en route to a 10 under par 44. Warder also set a club record with 10 birdies in the round (Shreve is second with nine).

Bill Shreve will go down in course and club history as the first winner at Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course and the first to throw an ace.

Warder played in five of the club’s 10 rounds. He earned three first-place finishes — including his records-setting performance — and settled for fourth place another time. Warder, ranked third in the club’s Advanced Division, becomes the highest-ranking male athlete to win the award. Shania Farris, ranked second in the Women’s Division, is the highest-ranked individual to earn the award.

Warder also was the top local player to participate in the Mellow Day in May PDGA tournament in Fairmont, W.Va. He also led three club members in a tournament in Paw Paw, W.Va. Warder also tied for second in Week 2 of the independent Saturday Morning Tag League at Mile Lane Disc Golf in Mount Savage.

Shreve is ranked sixth among 17 Advanced Division male players; Wolodkin is 11th. Raynor is ranked third among 30 male Recreation Division players.

Wolodkin played in five club rounds in May — all at Hoffman Park as a way to celebrate the opening of the first public disc golf course in Allegany County — and finished fourth (even par 54), then seventh (59), then third (50). Then the lefty found his groove. In Round 7 on May 26at Hoffman Park DGC, Wolodkin fired off a bogey-free round of seven under par 47 to notch his first individual club win. In that round, he beat Warder by two strokes and Shreve by four. In Round 9 on May 29, Wolodkin returned to the field of play and threw another bogey-free round, this time finishing two strokes ahead of Shreve for his second club win.

Raynor, meanwhile, just might give too much of himself outside of club rounds to be as effective as possible during club play. Raynor has been one of the critical volunteers who worked to open Hoffman Park Disc Golf Course, and he is so much a mainstay with landscaping equipment at The Glades at Meshach Run in Accident that he might as well pitch a tent in the meadow and put in a change of address with the U.S. Postal Service.

Like Warder and Wolodkin, Raynor played in five of the club’s 10 rounds in May. Sixth in Round 1 (of nine) at Hoffman Park DGC on May 14, Raynor returned the following evening, chopped off eight strokes and moved up five places to earn a club victory with a bogey-free round of 51. In Round 5 — the club’s first glow round at Hoffman — Raynor took Shreve to overtime before falling short on a second playoff hole. Raynor also had two third-place finishes.

The club was founded May 14, 2022, and began recognizing monthly award winners in June. In the first 12 months, the breakdown of the winners includes: