Paige Pierce is chasing history.

June 30, 2022 by Charlie Eisenhood in Preview with comments

MADISON, Wisc. — One year ago, the United States Women’s Disc Golf Championships epitomized the explosive growth in disc golf. The event welcomed the largest-ever field of women to compete at the event, but top FPO players criticized the tournament and the PDGA for not meeting the professionalism standards that had started to become normalized by the Disc Golf Pro Tour.

In another record-setting year of attendance in 2022, the USWDGC, the second FPO Major of the season, still feels a bit in flux. The FPO courses — while highly regarded in Wisconsin — are some of the shortest tracks the top professionals will play all season. Nearly every player in the press conference on Tuesday said that it was going to be a birdiefest, hinting at the fact that the courses could be quite easy. Even as every other Major has separated out the Pros from the Ams, the USWDGC holds firm to keeping the divisions all together, and the course selection reflects that. Is this model still working?

From a pure participation perspective, clearly it is. As of press time, 319 players were registered to compete, making the tournament 23% bigger than last year’s high water mark. It’s more than doubled in size since 2020. Nearly every top player is in attendance: 44 of the top 50 players in the Disc Golf Pro Tour standings are competing this weekend. The glaring absence is Kristin Tattar, the world’s highest-rated FPO player. The 2019 USWDGC champion came down with COVID-19 last week, forcing her to skip her planned trip to the US for The Preserve, USWDGC, and Idlewild. She is also nursing a nagging elbow injury, though she…