John Houck's Contribution to Disc Golf

John started playing disc sports around 1975. He played in his first tournament, the Western New York Open, in August of '78. He won the World Freestyle Championships in 1984 and 1985, and that's about the same time he started designing courses and running tournaments and he continues to do both even today. John has devoted his whole life to disc sports and has worked in this industry continuously since 1982 full time.

In the late '80s he created the Circular Skies Over Texas Tour, which was initially the biggest regional disc golf tour in the country and now he hosts Texas Teams every year at his disc golf ranch in Wimberley, Texas. Texas Teams is the largest teams tournament in the world. In 2010, Texas Teams had a total of 456 players who participated in a two-day event held on three courses at Circle R Disc Golf Ranch.

John is responsible for designing, starting, and running the PDGA National Doubles Championships in the early 1990s. He continues to host the PDGA Amateur Doubles World Championship and in 2010, they were held at Circle R Disc Golf Ranch in Wimberley, Texas. Players from all around the world are invited to compete for the title every year.

In 1991, he created World's Biggest Disc Golf Weekend, his international event to spread the love of disc golf. Today, this event has grown to include 15 countries and a 135 cities around the world. This event raises money for non-profit organizations while it introduces people to the sport. Disc Golfers around the world get-together to play and enjoy the sport while they raise money for their clubs or other local non-profits. The headquarters in Austin, Texas also donates money to non-profits from the wholesale of World's Biggest discs and T-shirts.

John also co-founded Millennium Golf Discs with Harold Duvall in 1994. In 2006, he became President of Millennium Golf Discs, which is his custom brand of premium discs designed for accuracy and course management. Today, Millennium is owned and managed by DiscsUnlimited and Circular Productions, LLC. Millennium Golf Discs is famous for the Original super soft (Omega Super Soft) putter and other quality discs.

While John was Commissioner of the PDGA from 1994 to 1996 he also ran the Pro Worlds in '94 and '95 in Port Arthur, Texas. In those days he was emcee for many of the disc world's biggest events and he was doing the commentary for the video coverage PDGA Worlds. He made the first-ever instructional video for disc golf.

He was inducted into the Disc Golf Hall of Fame in 1998. He opened his private courses at Circle R Ranch in Wimberley, Texas to the public in 1999, and in 2002 he opened Circle R2 Ranch for public play with three premium championship courses in San Saba, Texas.

These days John is President of the Disc Golf Foundation and Head of Design at the International Disc Golf Center in Augusta, Georgia. He continues to define the cutting edge of disc golf course design: included in the 90 or so courses he designed as a solo designer are a record 12 courses for World and National Championships. His contribution to course design includes an additional 20+ consultations, and he is the premier disc golf course designer in the world, not by sheer volume, but mainly by the quality and the standard he sets in the industry. His course design articles are regularily published in the PDGA magazine, Disc Golfer. He continues to passionately design and consult regularly. He is President and Founder of Circular Productions, LLC and he makes contributions to the disc golf world with his work through HouckDesign, Millennium Golf Discs, and World's Biggest Disc Golf Weekend.