It’s golf, but not as you know it. Disc golf may be lesser known than its ball-based counterpart, but you may be interested to learn that there is big money in a rising sport that is now played in 40 countries.

Paul McBeth, the world’s most successful disc golfer, recently signed an endorsement deal worth $10 million with Discraft, and is at the forefront of the game’s recent explosion in popularity.

With the PDGA Elite Series, Euro Tour and Majors now underway, disc golf tournaments are happening far and wide. The Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship will wind up the 2021 season on October 14-17 in Charlotte, NC.

McBeth, a Huntington Beach, CA, resident, is a five-time Professional Disc Golf Association world champion and is crowned by many critics and observers as one of the greatest players of all time. With more than 6,500 disc golf courses around the United States, and over 70,000 active PDGA players across the globe, now is the perfect time to test that throwing arm.

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McBeth, who is currently in third place in the Disc Golf Pro Tour standings, helps deconstruct the sporting discipline and training needed to excel in disc golf.

Disc Golf Basics

With the Disc Golf Pro Tour making its debut in 2016, disc golf may seem like a new concept, but it actually dates back to the early 1900s. The first game was believed to have been played in Saskatchewan, Canada, among school friends, but it was not until the ‘60s and ‘70s that different organizers held more formal tournaments. In some places, the game was known as frisbee golf.

These days, disc golf is the preferred name and is promoted by the PDGA. Courses typically feature nine or 18 holes, with an average distance of 200 to 400 feet per hole, but these numbers varying from course to course.

The game generally takes place outdoors, where obstacles such as trees, hedges, and bodies of water threaten to the block the flight path between the player’s disc and the target hole. Similar to traditional golf, the player must complete the course with the fewest actions possible, but instead of using a club, the disc is thrown into baskets that are usually elevated off the ground. “I discovered disc golf through my father, who had played 20 years prior to me getting into it,” says McBeth. “I knew about it my entire life, but I didn’t start out until I was 14 years old.”

The coronavirus pandemic encouraged many people to take to the outdoors, and this has allowed disc golf…