Going into last weekend’s PDGA World Championships, Nate Doss was feeling confident. He had string of solid finishes on the Disc Golf Pro Tour and looked to carry that momentum into Emporia, Kansas.

Doss found himself among the leaders for the entire tournament, but the lead card was just out of reach in the end before finishing in a tie for sixth place. After a quick trip from Kansas to the Peoria, Illinois area, Doss is ready to take on the Ledgestone Insurance Open, the penultimate event on the Disc Golf Pro Tour before the Tour Championship.

We talked with Doss after his final practice round.

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You finished tied for sixth at Worlds after finding yourself in the hunt for most of the tournament. Whatare your overall thoughts on the weekend?

“Going into any tournament, especially Worlds, you always want to be up there and win it. With my preparation I thought I was going to be there more in the end than what played out.”

“It came down to putting. I had a dozen or so putts that I should have made that chained out, hit the top, or hit the basket. Just too many errors inside the circle.”

“To come out with a sixth place finish though and to be there to support Val [Jenkins] on her final nine was important to me. Weekend couldn’t have been much better.”

As you just mentioned, your wife, Val, took home her fourth World Championship… talk about that experience.

“I love to use the word surreal. It was a surreal moment. For the past seven years, since 2009, we’ve been dating or married and we go through everything together. We know what we put into this sport and I’ve seen Val have so many close calls, especially in Worlds. Three last hole finishes where it could have gone either way and it hasn’t. It was amazing and took some frustration away from either of us to just enjoy it.”

The Disc Golf Pro Tour resumes with its second to last event, the Ledgestone Insurance Open in central Illinois. You were in the mix last year. Thoughts on coming back?

“The weekend after Worlds can always be a tough week. Even in the last couple of days with travel and practice it can be hard. We’ve prepared for this though. We’ve prepped for this part of the year by taking time off earlier. It’s fun being back at this tournament and being able to play for a big purse with the best players in the world here too. Super happy to be here.”

“Last year, Paul McBeth and Simon Lizotte pulled away from the field, and Cam Colglazier, JohnE McCray and I had a battle for third. Once we got over some of the tricky things, it was a fun weekend.”

We talked after the event last year and you spoke about the use of a Final Nine to close the tournament and the amount of rope to mark the out-of-bounds areas along with the stroke and distance rules. The Final Nine has been removed this year and the Lake Eureka course has been tweaked. Are you happy to see the updates? 

“I’m happy there isn’t a final nine. As a player I enjoy that more. As a spectator, you should see better competition going down the stretch this way. People are pushing right until the end.”

“For the rope and OB. I just played the Lake Eureka course today with Paul McBeth and Nate Sexton. They’ve made some improvements and moved to some parts of the park we didn’t play last year. There are still some places that have stroke and distance including an island hole with no drop zone. Which will be interesting to see how that plays out.”

“Overall, the jury is still out though. This is act two. The tournament has been around for a few years, but this is the second year in this format. We all appreciate how tournament director Nate Heinold works and everyone had strong opinions last year after he event. Most importantly though nearly everyone has come back. We’ll see how it turns out. This time around. I’m looking forward to it.”

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Thanks to Nate for the conversation during another busy week. Each and every time we’ve talked through his trip on the Disc Golf Pro Tour, Doss has been everything you would want from a professional.

We have to say too… when he was talking about Val’s World Championship, it was easy to hear his smile on his face. Certainly was proud to experience that with her.

We’ll catch up with Doss on site the Ledgestone Insurance Open this weekend.

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