Open de España 2016: James Proctor PDGA# 34250

Para los que no conocéis a James Proctor, compañero de Team Latitude 64 y gran discgolfista, aquí os dejamos una mini biografía redactada por el mismo.

My name is James Proctor, I am 20 years old and I have been playing disc golf for more than half my life.  It all started because I grew up less than a mile from Sonoma State University in northern California.  My Father had noticed the course from driving by it a thousand times, however he had no idea what it was.  One day he took me along and with a beach frisbee we checked it out.  For several years we had fun playing, improving, and learning about disc golf. Unfortunately, they had to remove the course to build more dorms so we stopped playing for a while.

Years later, when I was about 10, we rediscovered disc golf, and this time we weren't going to let anything stop us.  In 2008 at the age of 13 I played in my first tournament in the junior division.  In 2009 I played one tournament in intermediate, then in 2010 I moved up to advanced.  This was the first year my father and I began to travel and play tournaments, and playing new courses was one of our favorite things to do.  I loved spending weekends with him at different tournaments playing different courses, doing this is what really developed my love for the sport. As I grew and developed new parts of my game, I decided it was time to register as a pro in 2011.  At this point I could throw far, but didn't have any touch or a consistent putt, and it took me 2 years to learn.

It wasn't until 2013 I got my first PDGA sanctioned open win, and at that point I knew I wanted to take disc golf more seriously.  I grew up playing long wide-open courses, so throwing through tight gaps and straight tunnels was new to me.  I soon developed my fairway game, and began to work on a "get out of trouble side arm" as I call it.

In 2014 I helped start the disc golf club and the University of Nevada Reno, which ended up taking 2nd at the national collegiate championships in 2015.  I also was fortunate enough to be a member of Team Prodigy, which was an amazing experience with a great group of people.  Last year in 2015 I had my best year to date, placing 14th and Worlds and USDGC, and taking 1st at the collegiate championships.  I also won the King of the Lake, and took 7th at national tour event, The Masters Cup.

This past year has given me the confidence to conquer anything in the disc golf world, I believe I can compete with anybody and accomplish anything I put my mind to.  While studying abroad in Madrid, I plan to help grow the sport in every way possible, but my ultimate goal, with the help of Carlos Rio and the disc golf community in Spain, is to build a course in Madrid.  I look forward to meeting new people in all the events that I play, but I am especially excited for the Open de España, as it will be my first tournament playing for Latitude 64, and most importantly it will help me connect with the disc golf community in Spain.  I am very thankful for disc golf, from the people I've met to the places I've been, I hope disc golf will always be a part of my life.