August 31, 2022 by Kingsley Flett in Analysis with comments

I played Worlds in 2011 and 2012, so I remember well the 36 hour journey from Western Australia. The antipode (the direct line through the center of the earth) of Emporia, Kansas, would come out of the Indian Ocean offshore from where I live, so if I was to skip the airlines and drill straight through, it would be a 2600 mile shorter trip. I mention this only to emphasize the sense of strangeness that comes from waking up in the middle of the night to write about a disc golf tournament on the other side of the world.

My father is nearly 90 years old and grew up in the tough gold mining towns deep in the West Australian desert. He barely gets what frisbees are, let alone disc golf.

“You’re up bloody early,” he said this morning. “Yeah I’m writing about a disc golf tournament in America,” I replied. He held my gaze for a couple of blinks and then went back to reading the newspaper, clearly deciding to not engage with this nonsense.

But competing in the Worlds is such a big part of my own personal storyline that I feel bonded to the big show. My interest in other pro tour events might wane depending on what else is going on in my life, but I always tune in for the Worlds and the USDGC. I’ll need to adjust my sleep cycle to catch the FPO for the rest of the week as this morning I was only awake in time for the men.

The Disc Golf Network production standards have continued their upward path, with multiple cameras seamlessly switching between a few cards and managing to catch a wide sample of the action. The drone shots were impressive but used sparingly, which is a lesson most YouTubers need to learn. I particularly liked how the aerial view gave a sense of place, showing where disc golf fits in this town of 24,000 that has come to play such a big part in the story of the sport.

The five-day format and the Saturday finish gives the event an earlier start in the week than the rest of the tour. It’s clearly too early in the week for the Emporia locals, as the absence of a gallery was noticeable, but it was also strangely relaxing and enjoyable. With just the cameras and the players on the course, there was an intimacy, like watching a Saturday morning round with some friends. The tension was there, of course, but that competitive pressure seemed like the early stages of the Tour de France:…