Meet Team Funk. The name is fitting, as the players excel at one of the more obscure sports out there, disc golf.
These four teenagers from Northwest Florida make up one of the world’s brightest foursomes, which is why they’ll be headed to Peoria, Illinois, this summer to compete in the Ledgestone Insurance Open.
Crestview’s Violet Holst, DeFuniak Springs’ Nolan Law, Live Oak’s Kaleb Skinner and Niceville’s Gavin Phillips will compete in the tournament that serves as this year’s Junior World’s Championship.
Consisting of a 14-year-old (Holst), a 15-year-old (Skinner) and two 17-year-olds (Phillips, Law), Team Funk has taken down its fair share of adults and top-rated players from around the world.
Between the four of them, they have competed in 72 Pro Disc Golf Association (PDGA) events, collecting 14 first-place finishes.
Now the group will take its talents to one of the premier disc golf events to see how they stack up against the cream of the crop. With Law and Phillips holding some Junior World’s Championship experience, Team Funk will have a chance to make some noise.
However, the opportunity to compete in this event comes at a steep cost. For each disc golfer to chase their dreams, they’ll need nearly $3,000. Neal Kelly, the president of DeFunk Disco, a non-profit company that focuses on disc golf course design, redesign and promotion, has taken it into his own hands to help them out.
“I’m just trying to get a snowball of enthusiasm going,” Kelly said. “They fire me up, I fire them up and it’s just exciting. I’m hoping that it can get the community involved by participating in our tournaments, donating the team money … the sky is the limit. These kids are awesome.”
Kelly estimates that housing for the trip will cost $1,350, gas will cost $450, food around $925, tournament registration at $109 and miscellaneous costs related to the event approximately $150.
If the players opt to fly to Peoria, roundtrip airfare is calculated to cost even more than gas.
To combat these prices, Kelly has helped to create custom stamped discs for each member, special edition team discs, shirts and other merch that is available to the public for purchase.
Team Funk will also have a fundraising tournament on April 30 at Anderson Pond in Niceville. Registration for the event opens March 18.
Registration can take place here.
Disc Golf Store:Flight Factory opens long-awaited disc golf retail store on Tippin Avenue in Pensacola
Course with WiFi?:Gulf Breeze adds free public Wi-Fi at Shoreline Park with plans to expand in future
Team Funk members
Violet Holst
The lone girl on the roster, Holst is also the youngest member of the team. Both in age and in terms of how long she’s been playing disc golf.
She’s been competing for just under two years, but has become a force in a hurry. In local competition, the eighth-grader competes in the intermediate women’s division. Additionally, Holst has competed in 10 PDGA events, winning six of them.
Holst attributes her love of disc golf to its beginner-friendly atmosphere, the great exercise you get from walking the course and her affinity for the disc golf community.
Nolan Law
The complete opposite of Holst, Law is the most experienced disc golfer on Team Funk. He’s been playing for almost five years, competing in 22 PDGA events.
The Walton High School senior also competed in last year’s junior world’s event. However, he left with more to be desired, as he finished toward the middle of the pack. Law looks forward to redemption this year.
“I plan on playing smarter than I did last year and not letting a bad shot or bad round get to me,” Law said.
His goal is to make a significant jump atop the rankings this time, finishing in the top 10.
Kaleb Skinner
Skinner is another Team Funk member with extended time playing disc golf, four years, and he’s also got familial ties on the squad.
Skinner and Law are cousins. Nolan actually first introduced the game to Kaleb, and since then, Kaleb has gone on to create a name for himself in the disc golf community.
He recently competed against the No. 8 disc golfer in the world, Matthew Orum, and found some success. In the second round of the competition, he beat Orum and shot a -9, 1016-rated round.
Kaleb ended up in third place for the day, beating out 988, 985, and 966-rated players to take that spot.
Gavin Phillips
Phillips is a first-year member of Team Funk, but this will be his second time competing at worlds.
In last year’s competition, he concluded with an impressive fourth-place finish. Phillips’ dedication to the sport is why he’s found loads of success, and has also led him to become an ambassador for it.
Phillips has had his hand in course improvement recently. Last year, he logged at least 120 hours working at Anderson Pond on Eglin AFB, where Bomber’s Run Disc Golf Course is located.
Lucas Semb can be reached at [email protected] or 850-281-7414. Follow him on Twitter at @Lucas_Semb for stories and various Pensacola area score updates.
Just four strokes, or shots, separate the top men and women in the top 10 of their respective classes heading into the final day of the 2021 PDGA Texas State Championships in Tyler.
Matthew Orum of Alabama who has 63 career wins, is tied with Richard Wysocki of South Carolina (who has 115 career wins) at 107.
On the women’s side, Hailey King of Wisconsin is the leader at 124 and Catrina Allen of Minnesota is second at 125
There were 500 players competing in different professional and amateur brackets. Two Rose City Golf Club members won their brackets on Saturday after a three-day tournament that started Thursday. Larry Rosemond of Canton won with a 187 and Jesse Weaver of Tyler won with a 189
As professional players were leaving the course at the 2021 PDGA Texas State Championships in Tyler, many were asked to sign autographs on discs or photos.
Eagle Wynne McMahon was stopped by Jonah Jernigan from Ben Wheeler for an autograph.
McMahon, who has won 46 tournaments and earned $179,000 in his career, was signing for a 13-year-old who wants to be just like him.
And Jernigan, an amateur, is two steps away, competing as well in the three day Professional Disc Golf Association tour event.
Tyler has 10 courses, and three are being used for the state tournament. The main course was the Dogwood Course at Lindsey Park.
Jon Jernigan said he started playing disc golf as a way to lose weight, get exercise and have fun at the Mineola club. Jonah, his son, came along to “simply go get my disc when I started throwing badly” he explained.
“Then he started to decide to throw the discs. And he started to throw them way better than the rest of us!” Jon Jenigan said. “Now, he’s a 920-rated player, which is really high for a 13-year-old. Jonah completed in the Intermediate bracket, which is by ability not age. He is one step below advanced … after advanced is the pros.”
He finished tied for fifth with a 168. The winner Clint Johnson, shot a 164.
The father-son team are also fans and started talking about McMahon again.
“He throws really far and I throw really far. He has the same game as me and he does a lot of creative shots other people won’t do. He will go over trees,” Johan Jernigan said of his disc idol.
Jon Jernigan added of McMahon, “Most guys will go to the right. He has the strength and ability to go way up over and come down. He’s probably the furthest thrower or second in the world and can throw 800 feet.”
Steven Sizemore helps run the Rose City Disc Club in Tyler. He praised the workers, volunteers, the association and the national media who helped with the tournament.
The Carthage City Commission has given a professional disc golfer permission to create a new disc golf course at the ballpark.
Miles Seaborn, who plays professionally, had previously asked the city to let him design and fundraise for a new course at the ballpark. He got that permission last week, with commissioners saying they were looking forward to the new amenity.
“There have been a lot of positive comments online,” City Manager Steve Williams said.
The project does not use any city funds; commissioners just gave approval for Seaborn to use city-owned land around the walking trail for the disc golf course. Seaborn plans to fundraise for each of the course’s holes.
Seaborn has been working to finalize a plan for the course, using the naturally wooded area around the walking trail. There will not be a lot of clearing to do; Seaborn said much of the area’s natural obstacles are something disc golfers prefer to keep.
He is planning nine holes, with two ways to play each for a total of 18 holes. The course will be accessed through the walking trail, but Seaborn says people will be playing away from the trail, so they won’t be hitting anyone.
“None of the holes cross or play close enough to the path to have any real impact on it,” Seaborn said. “And that utilizes a lot of the already-manicured space. So as far as new upkeep, they’re really not going to be. The idea is to do about a $700 hole sponsorship that pays for all the equipment and the installation.”
Seaborn previously designed a disc golf course in Logansport and has been playing the sport for 15 years.
“Designing is different than playing, obviously, but you know, I know kind of what I’m looking for. And I’m happy with this. I don’t know if you remember last time, but I’ve actually reversed the layout from what I thought it would be because it gives more room to make the holes a little bit more challenging. There will be two tee boxes on every hole. So there’s a more amateur, intermediate beginner tee box, something easier, then something a little longer for advanced players.”
Seaborn encouraged city commissioners to give the sport a try and also noted it’s good for kids of all ages.
“It’s a good activity for young kids too and youth,” he said, adding “the numbers, you know it’s been around for almost 50 years, the first 41 years of professional Disc Golf Association, they went from zero to 100,000 members. In the last four, they’ve gone from 100,000 to over 200,000 and COVID. So it’s exploding like crazy.”
February 23, 2022 by Charlie Eisenhood in Preview with comments
Shovel the driveway, scrape the windshields, and grab your sunglasses: we’re saying goodbye to winter and heading to the desert.
The start of the 2022 Disc Golf Pro Tour is upon us with the 22nd running of the Las Vegas Challenge in its fifth appearance as an Elite Series event. It’s notable not just because it opens the season calendar but because it is a four round event (rare) with three different courses (unheard of). Built on the golf courses at the Wildhorse Golf Club just south of Las Vegas, the tracks put distance throwing at a premium.
Even as many players reach for their distance driver on a majority of the holes, the courses aren’t the longest on tour, coming in between 7,000 and 9,000 feet. Multiple DGPT courses later this season will crack the 10K mark.
This year’s event is also important because it marks the start of a new era in professional disc golf, with the Disc Golf Pro Tour taking up the mantle of operating the overall tour after folding in the PDGA National Tour over the offseason as a part of a bigger partnership.
RELATED: The 2022 Disc Golf Season Mega-Preview
We’re here to get you ready for the 2022 Las Vegas Challenge.
Past Winners
PDGA Tier
Open
Open Women
2021
DGPT
Eagle McMahon
Paige Pierce
2020
A-Tier
Nate Sexton
Catrina Allen
2019
National Tour
Calvin Heimburg
Paige Bjerkaas (Shue)
2018
National Tour
Eagle McMahon
Paige Pierce
2017
National Tour
Ricky Wysocki
Paige Pierce
2016
A-Tier
Philo Brathwaite
Jessica Weese
2015
A-Tier
Paul McBeth
Paige Pierce
2014
A-Tier
Nikko Locastro
Catrina Allen
2013
A-Tier
Dave Feldberg
Catrina Allen
2012
A-Tier
Nikko Locastro
Valarie Jenkins
Five Things We’ll Be Watching
1. The FPO Round 1 Feature Card! The four highest-rated women in the world — Paige Pierce, Kristin Tattar, Eveliina Salonen, and Henna Blomroos — are together on one card. It’s the highest-rated card ever in FPO. The players talked in the press conference about how excited they are to be back out competing against one another all together after nearly two years of being mostly split between the continents. The odds of one of these four players winning the tournament has to be north of 50%, so the first round could really set the tone. You’ll have to catch the action on the Disc Golf Network, as it won’t be covered by a post-production team.
Not only is this card phenomenal, but the entire FPO field is the best ever:
This is the first time in 10 years that there have been more than six players rated higher than Catrina Allen in a tournament field. And there’s more parity than ever too: the top seven highest-rated FPO players have never been so tightly bunched together.
2. How does Eagle McMahon fare? He won this tournament a year ago, and in comfortable fashion, taking down Calvin Heimburg and Ezra Aderhold by eight strokes and averaging 1077 golf. But he’s got a limited forehand right now (he says he’ll use it but only for low power shots) and might have to turn to the lefty backhand at times, as he did at the All-Star Weekend. He feels confident enough in the backhand — and the high number of backhand drives — to come to LVC before taking about a month off. So this will be a key tournament for him in the first leg of the tour as one of the few he will attend before Champions Cup.
3. Who is getting off the tee effectively? 8 of the 10 players in the top 10 of the leaderboard in MPO last year were in the top 10 on the weekend in Strokes Gained from tee to green, despite wide variance in their putting performances. It can be fairly easy to make up for OB strokes as well, given the open layouts: Paige Pierce won last year despite going OB 11 more times than did Catrina Allen, who finished in second by a stroke.
4. Which international player makes the biggest splash? Somebody is going to go off this weekend — it’s just a matter of who. The Europeans might need a little time to adjust to the wide-open fairways that aren’t so common across the pond. And don’t forget about Jacky Chen, who’s making his DGPT debut after making a splash at the 2020 Asia Open where he defeated James Conrad, Philo Brathwaite, and Nate Perkins in his second-ever PDGA sanctioned event.
5. Well, not Paul McBeth. He’s not in the field this weekend, opting to start his season at The Memorial. He talked with us on The Upshot podcast about why he’s skipping LVC: he’s unhappy about having to practice and play three courses. He’s one of the only notable names not playing besides Matt Orum, who had to drop out after getting his appendix removed this week.
GRIP6 Pick6 Locks Of The Week
This year’s lock is Calvin Heimburg. His low golf line distance is perfect for windy fairways, he finished second here last year and won it in 2019, he looked like the best player at the All-Star Weekend, and it feels a touch risky to pick Eagle. Easy choice.
Catrina Allen, even with a new bag, has to be in your picks. She looked sharp at the All-Star Weekend, and, if you can believe this, hasn’t missed the top 2 at LVC in her last nine starts. If you feel confident about which European player to pick, you can roll those dice (it is Vegas, after all), but we need to see more data first.
Courses
Wildhorse Golf Club in Henderson, Nevada. Photo: PDGA
The Wildhorse Golf Club has three courses, with every layout utilizing hazards such as greens and sand traps.
Infinite Discs Course: round 1; 7,115 feet; MPO – par 57; FPO – par 61
After being stretched out in 2021, the shortest of the three courses has been shortened by about 300′ in 2022. Par is reduced by two for MPO and one for FPO. Some holes have been shortened or turned into par 3s in order to improve the pace of play. The infamous 294-foot triple island hole 6 awaits the pros in round 1 with a $500 bounty available.
Innova Course: rounds 2 and 4; 8,823 feet; MPO – par 61; FPO – par 69
The hardest of the three courses, the Innova track will be again featured on both Friday and Sunday. The course is little changed, although it’s 10 feet longer, the MPO par has been reduced by one stroke, and the FPO par has been increased by a stroke. OB has been added along the edges of more fairways to create spectator viewing areas If there are any holes you picture in Vegas, it’s probably from the Innova Course.
Factory Store Course: round 3; 9,000 feet; MPO – par 61; FPO – par 68
The longest of the courses, just a touch longer than last year. Most of the course changes are added OB, primarily to increase spectator viewing areas. The FPO par has been increased by one.
Extended Forecast
The Disc Golf Pro Tour kicks off at the Wildhorse Golf Club in Las Vegas. This track features a lot of open holes where wind can be a major factor and has been throughout the practice rounds this week, with intense 30-40 mph winds buffetting fairways at times. However, a lot of the worst wind appears to be over, although some of the later afternoon MPO tee times could be dealing with wind.
Thursday: Temperatures in the low 30s will rise to the low 50s by the afternoon. Sunny, not much wind.
Friday: Temperatures will be warmer across the board, reaching highs in the upper 50s. Sunny. Wind could pick up into the 10-20mph range.
Saturday: Very similar weather to Friday, sunshine, highs near 60. Wind near 10mph in the afternoon.
Sunday: Mixed sun and clouds, slightly warmer. Moderate wind.
How To Follow
UDisc Live will have livescoring available all weekend. For video coverage, see our How To Watch post.
Read on for PrizePicks Lines & Best Bets…
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It’s a long way from Huntington Beach, but if you didn’t know better, you’d think Paul McBeth was right at home.
The five-time PDGA world champion is now also a five-time winner here — including the last three editions — at the tournament once known as the Glass Blown Open, and now, as the Dynamic Discs Open.
McBeth began his championship Saturday campaign with a statement piece. Sitting 60 feet long, and well below the pin on the 1175-foot par-5 hole 1, he connected on a huge circle 2 putt to prevent his three card mates — Calvin Heimburg, Eagle McMahon and Ricky Wysocki — from gaining a stroke.
The champ can be stingy like that.
He would go on to birdie the first four holes — and come as close as you can to birdieing the fifth — before his hot start cooled off.
But things went a little sideways after that. He lost a stroke to the card on hole 5, and another two strokes, as well as the lead, to Heimburg after making bogey on hole 6.
McBeth wasn’t pleased.
“Mentally I just need to go out there and play,” McBeth said, holding his newly acquired glass globe trophy — the DDO’s signature hardware. “I feel like I’m too nice sometimes out there. I’m just being too friendly to where I just need to go out there and attack. Especially in a situation where it’s a three-way tie and two people are within two strokes right behind. I just need to go out there and tell myself that I’m not out here for friendships, I’m here to win.”
It was an ominous message for any of his rivals who may have been hoping that, following one of his longest winless streaks in years, McBeth’s days dominating the tour may be drawing to a close.
He steadied the ship after the bogey on 6 and regained his lead by avoiding trouble as each of his card mates struggled to keep a clean scorecard through the back nine.
An errant tee shot on hole 16 opened the door to a potential two-stroke swing for Heimburg, who was three-strokes back heading into the island green. But Heimburg could not stick the landing and his drive hyzered high and wide, skipping off the top of the wooden fence that guards the rear of the island and into the water.
It was all but a formality from there.
But before McBeth could be crowned, Wysocki would go on to make one of the most memorable shots in disc golf history.
Putting from the drop zone after missing the island green, Wysocki let fly a 70-foot hyzer that sailed majestically over the water and into the heart of the chains, sending the gallery into a frenzy. Raptor-legging and fist pumping his way through the crowd, it was a fitting end to and emotional week for the two-time PDGA world champion.
“That was awesome. I’d been struggling most of the day and I wanted to save par and come in with a decent score, and I was able to do that,” Wysocki said. “I made the long putt, the crowd went crazy and I got my raptor legs out. That’s what it’s all about. It was awesome to share that experience with everybody. I think my sister threw that putt in the basket for me — it was definitely emotional.”
McBeth, Wysocki and company will have their next opportunity for a PDGA National Tour title at the Santa Cruz Masters Cup, May 28-30.
While some might be clueless, disc golf is probably one of the fastest-growing sports today. With rules structured like regular golf, the game possesses countless unique qualities. Of course, the invention of disc golf is the result of a long (and slightly undocumented) journey. However, ultimately, the game managed to reach the point which has helped it flourish into what is today.
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Though there are countless moments to look back on, one can never fail to appreciate Ed Headrick, the father of disc golf.
Even if people like George Sappenfield and Kevin Donnelly helped kick start the whole game, Headrick remains at the front. Of course, Sappenfield and Donelly’s contribution is invaluable, which ultimately led to Headrick picking up an interest in the sport.
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Ed Headrick was the man behind the modern “Frisbee” and inventor of “disc golf”. As per his last wish, his family moulded his ashes into a bunch of frisbees that were given to friends and close relatives.
As mentioned, the golf disc’s history isn’t exactly well documented. No matter how you look at it, there is no one incident that points to the golf disc’s invention. Headrick’s involvement, though, was surely the beginning of it being in a competitive light more widely.
Ed, who worked as an executive at the toy company Wham-O, took interest in disc golf back in 1975. The same year, the sport became a part of Wham-O’s World Frisbee Championships. Headrick installed the first course himself. Irrespective of changes needed later, it was a correct step.
A successful World Frisbee Championship has Ed pursue the prospect of something more. He resigned from Wham-O, and the Disc Golf Association came into existence in April 1976.
Next came the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA). Ed sold lifetime memberships for $10 at tournaments, the first being the Boulder Flying Disc Festival in 1976.
The next big step was the $50,000 Tournament in 1979. You needed to qualify for an invitation, which was another plus along with the huge cash prize. “Ed was very dedicated to the idea that his events should be ‘pro’. That was part of the reason the word Professional was in the name of the association,” said Dan ‘Stork’ Roddick. “He wanted to make them a big, big, big deal”.
When did Headrick pass away?
In time, the Disc Golf World Championships were introduced, along with tours for the PDGA. Slowly, the organization grew, with more events being sanctioned every single day.
Headrick passed away in 2002, surrounded at home by friends and family. His ashes were added to a limited number of discs, which were handed out to friends and friends. Some were sold, and the proceeds were given to the “Steady” Ed Memorial Disc Golf Museum at the PDGA International Disc Golf Center in Columbia County, Georgia.
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Some of Ed Headrick’s patents
Frisbee Paten
The Disc Golf Basket
Inner Chains Invention
Basket Crossing Chain Invention
Basket Sliding Link Invention
Today, there are thousands of active members playing disc golf. What started was Headrick, as the number one member is now a sport, only hoping to grow with time.
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WATCH THIS STORY: Top 5 Incredible Streaks In the History of Golf
What do you think about disc golf? Would you give it a shot? Let us know.
Eagle McMahon tees off on the first hole of the GoPro Mountain Games Disc Golf Tournament Sunday at Maloit Park in Minturn. McMahon is one of the top ranked disc golfers in the world.
Eagle McMahon visited the Vail area in 2015 and 2016, playing in tournaments organized by the Eagle County-based Flying Eagle Disc Society.
Since then, the Boulder resident has went on to win some of the most competitive events in the sport, playing disc golf in Europe, Australia and “pretty much every state in the U.S.,” he told the Vail Daily on Sunday.
Walking the course at Maloit Park in Minturn, McMahon said he was happy to be back.
“It was actually a deal maker for me that this was not (Professional Disc Golf Association) sanctioned, because I just wanted to come up here, play in the mountains, have some fun and just tone it down for a while,” McMahon said.
Women’s winner Erikah Weir said this year’s GoPro Mountain Games was a hot-ticket event on the disc golf calendar.
“It was a race to know when the registration is going to happen,” Weir said. “Disc golf is one of those sports that really exploded during the pandemic, so we’ve seen a tremendous amount of growth.”
Steve Klehfoth with the Flying Eagle Disc Society said that the 2021 GoPro Mountain Games tournament sold out in less than 48 hours.
Eirkah Wier prepares to tee off on the second hole of the GoPro Mountain Games Disc Golf Tournament Sunday in Maloit Park in Minturn.
Stopover before worlds
McMahon is on his way to Utah to compete in the 2021 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships in Ogden starting June 22. He said the GoPro Mountain Games presented a perfect stopover opportunity for him.
“I’m friends with Steve Klehfoth and I saw they had this event, and I wasn’t really doing anything on the weekend anyway, so I figured perfect little stop before heading out to worlds, have some fun out here and decompress,“ McMahon said. ”The statistics (at the GoPro Mountain Games) don’t count for your overall career stats, which, it’s a good thing that we record stats, but sometimes you just kind of want to be off the record, take a deep breath and have some fun.”
McMahon was first drawn to Flying Eagle Disc Society disc golf tournaments in 2015 when he learned that the club’s annual event would be taking place on a traditional golf course or, as disc golfers call it, a “ball golf“ course.
“It was definitely cool to be playing disc golf on a ball golf course in the mountains at the time,” McMahon said. “That was the time when you weren’t seeing as many ball golf courses. But ever since then, it’s become a very normal idea, and you see if all over the country.”
Professional disc golf
With disc golf exploding in popularity, it has allowed the idea of the disc golf professional to become a reality. But that also brings the pressures of the task at hand.
“Disc golf is my job, but I got into it as a hobby, and it’s my passion,” McMahon said Sunday. “So (at the GoPro Mountain Games) I can bring it back to my roots, not worrying about it, and just playing for the love of the game. That’s kind of what brought me here.”
Local Nathan Matlack tees off during the GoPro Mountain Games Disc Golf Tournament Sunday in Minturn.
The emergence of the professional disc golfer has also brought fans. The top finishing local on the day, Nathan Matlack of Edwards, got to join McMahon’s foursome on Sunday after shooting the low round on Saturday.
“It was surreal to watch Eagle on Jomez coverage, at a huge event last weekend, and just geek out like a fan, and then be watching him sink 90 footers in my face, live, the next weekend,” Matlack said.
Matlack was able to ask McMahon questions about disc golf and specific tournament moments he has watched via streaming services in recent years.
“It was really cool to chat with him in person,” Matlack said.
Matlack finished tied for 5th in the open division, taking home $215 for the effort.
February 23, 2022 by Charlie Eisenhood, Patrick Aubyrn, Kingsley Flett, Gabe LaBounty, Jesse Weisz, Cameron Guidry, Christopher Wiklund, Steve Andrews and Ben Murphy in Preview with comments
The 2022 disc golf season is finally here! The top professional players are warming up in the Nevada sunshine as the Las Vegas Challenge, the first stop on the 2022 Disc Golf Pro Tour, kicks off the touring season tomorrow.
Inside, we look at the stories that will define the next nine months!
PDGA/DGPT Unification: Tour Cards, Playoffs, and Media, Oh My!
In some ways, it’s remarkable how quickly the Disc Golf Pro Tour has gone from a shaky foundation to being the only game in town, with all the North American players and even top European athletes planning their seasons around it.
In the offseason, the PDGA ceded control of the professional side of the game to the DGPT, folding the long-standing National Tour into a single, unified Disc Golf Pro Tour. And the professionalization has been happening fast. Top players from 2021 (plus some European and other exemptions) get a slew of benefits as a Tour Card holder. The Pro Tour sold its media rights to post-production teams for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Minimum added cash is going ever higher.
And the season structure is getting more clearly defined as well. Now, Majors earn players DGPT points, too, and everything funnels into a multi-tournament playoff structure that whittles the field down from 150 at Green Mountain Championships to 96 at the MVP Open to 48 at the DGPT Championship, a model loosely modeled around the PGA Tour’s FedEx Cup.
The DGPT is borrowing another concept from other professional sports: the play-in tournament. Major League Baseball recently added a Wild Card play-in game; the NBA also introduced two 4-team play-in tournaments to set its 16-team bracket last year. This year, the DGPT will offer six players in both MPO and FPO the chance to earn the final two spots in the Tour Championship: the next two players in the standings, then any players that won an Elite Series event or Major but didn’t directly qualify for the Tour Championship, and then any additional slots allocated to the next players in the standings.
All together, it stands as an inflection point in pro disc golf history, a changing power balance and new focus at the elite end of the sport.
– Charlie Eisenhood
Is this the Year of the Dark Horse?
Gregg Barsby holds a scorecard during 2018 Pro Worlds. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen – PDGA
I first met Gregg Barsby in the car park at Delaveaga prior to the Pro Worlds in 2011. He approached me while I was flipping through racks of discs at the fly-mart and said, “hey man, I’ve got a few discs in the car to sell, they’ll be cheaper.” I followed the future world champ back to a little wagon-style car with its best years well behind it, by a decade or more. In the back was a jumble of clothes, a sleeping bag, and boxes of discs. Barsby’s tour included 31 tournaments that year. He would finish 16th that week in Santa Cruz and earn $575 in prize money on his way to $11,923 for the year. The few discs he sold me and anyone else would have supplemented that prize money, but I had to assume that he attended those 31 tournaments through a combination of sleeping in that car, couch surfing, and the kindness of strangers. If you talk with any pro about touring in those years, they make it sound like a lot of fun. But it’s not an ideal environment for peak athletic performance.
In the past half decade, the sport’s top players have begun to leave that lifestyle behind. Some travel with managers, they either fly-in and out of events, staying in quality accommodation, or travel in mobile homes that would make any van-life YouTuber envious. There are still a few zeros less in their paychecks than those of tennis players or golfers, but, in recent times, our handful of top performers have had a similar touring lifestyle to other pro athletes. This year, they will be joined by quite a few more.
As the increase in prize purses and sponsorship money trickles down to the second and third tiers of the sport, many other disc golfers are leaving the ramen noodles, Walmart carparks, and austere lifestyle behind to embrace a level of preparation that matches the very best in the game. Even a one percent improvement is the difference between being on the podium and not over a 72-hole tournament. I sense that the tide is rising right across the sport.
I wonder which players, then, will take the opportunity and become 2022’s dark horse? It might be Bradley Williams, who has been working hard in his offseason, especially on his putting stroke. Or will Ezra Aderhold break though? Maybe Missy Gannon will build on her stunning win in the DGPT Championship and carry that form through 2022? Or what about Gannon’s podium mate from that tournament Nathan Queen, who spent some of his winnings on some rolling tour hardware. Matt Orum will be touring full time this year (though he’s currently out for this weekend after getting his appendix removed). Has Madison Walker put her injuries behind her? Maybe Holly Finley will continue her relentless drive to the top?
What about the Europeans? Will Linus Carlsson or Eveliina Salonen show us that the game over there has grown in isolation and leapfrogged the US?
This list could go on, but the odds are that 2022’s dark horse won’t be on it. Gregg Barsby himself was a dark horse in 2018 when he won the World Championships. That’s the thing about dark horses: they always surprise you.
– Kingsley Flett
The Europeans Are Back
Kristin Tattar at the 2021 Great Lakes Open. Photo: DGPT
No need for a blurb here when we’ve got an entire series about the return of European disc golf to the world stage. Things get off to quite the start with the FPO feature card in round one of Las Vegas Challenge tomorrow: the top four highest-rated women in the world — Paige Pierce, Kristin Tattar, Eveliina Salonen, and Henna Blomross — will tee off on the same card. It’s the highest-rated FPO card in disc golf history. Really.
– Charlie Eisenhood
Power Players
Unfettered, infinite, and totally ethical growth is what capitalism is all about, but what is disc golf capitalism all about?
In recent years, we have seen a transition occur in the power dynamics between players and their manufacturers. Before 2019 or so, manufacturers were clearly in the driver’s seat when it came to the business side of the game. Players simply couldn’t support themselves on tour without their manufacturer sponsors who provided a stipend, gas money, plastic, and winnings bonuses. There were only a handful of companies involved in professional disc golf, and because of this, they dominated a relatively small market and could dictate the terms of their support without much consequence.
That has changed dramatically. At least at the top levels of the game, players are more valuable to a manufacturing company than the other way around. If the Luna was released as a regular putter in the existing Discraft lineup, would it have been as much of a cash cow? Probably not. Slap McBeth branding on it, and you have a major hit. MVP discs had a cult following but not a huge share of the market or conversation, then James Conrad makes The Shot and they sell more plastic in a couple days than they had over the course of the entire previous year. The PDGA tried to set up a new major with a new format, then the players complained and the PDGA backtracked and capitulated to the players’ demand for a more traditional format.
It seems right now that disc golf capitalism is perhaps a little more Marxian than we realized, where labor (the players) are indeed entitled to and obtaining the fruits of their labor. Fans will spend money on discs and merch, not because they necessarily need the product itself, but because they want to support their favorite player. Whether the plastic is molded in Michigan or California doesn’t really matter to many, but supporting an individual player does matter to fans.
Players and companies who have understood the paradigm shift have been the most successful over the past couple of years, Discraft is the perfect example. In their ads we see Brodie Smith, Paul McBeth, and Paige Pierce in the warehouse, with nary a mention of the actual product. They have been extremely successful in recent years. Innova has let players walk rather than pay them, and their advertising tends to be very product forward. Could they see some sales slippage?
In 2022, there will be new discs released, new merch to buy, new gizmos and gadgets to stuff your bag with, and you will purchase it not because it’s a DD product or a Prodigy doodad. You’ll buy it because you want to support Kona Panis and you like Kevin Jones.
– Chris Wiklund
#ContractYearCalvin
Calvin Heimburg. Photo: DGPT
Let’s take a look at the top five rated players in the world: Ricky Wysocki, Eagle McMahon, Paul McBeth, Calvin Heimburg, and Chris Dickerson.
Paul got paid. Ricky got paid. We don’t know how much Eagle gets paid, but he’s definitely getting paid. Chris Dickerson just bounced from Prodigy so that he can get paid (a Buzzzworthy offseason, no doubt). Further down the ratings leaderboard, Kevin Jones got paid.
Now it’s Calvin’s turn to get paid. Heading into the final season of his current contract with Innova, he’s surely doing just fine for himself, but, if he has a great season, he is going to have some serious suitors in the 2022 offseason. He knows this. The effort going into his social media has picked up quite a bit in recent months, and his game looks sharp: he was the standout player at the All-Star Weekend two weeks ago, showing off his powerful distance in the skills challenge and then finishing first (and beating Eagle) in the singles round.
He’s been one of the best players on tour for two years now, but his 2021 performance was a bit down compared to 2020. Take a look at his stats from the last two years:
There’s the obvious caveat that there were a lot more tournaments on a lot more course in 2021 than in 2020, but you can still see the slight percentage reduction in performance across categories (and relative rankings).
Could a contract year be just the ticket to push Calvin to new highs? You could hardly ask for more motivation heading into a season.
– Charlie Eisenhood
FPO Players to Watch
Stacie Hass at 2021 Junior Worlds. Photo: Kevin Huver — PDGA.
We spend a lot of time evaluating which players in the bottom half of the top 25 will elevate their status and challenge the stalwarts in the top 10. I want to highlight a few players I’m watching to break into the top 25 in 2022.
Let’s start with Holyn Handley and Stacie Hass, the latter my way-too-early frontrunner for DGPT Rookie of the Year Handley would be on my shortlist, too, but she is ineligible after playing four Elite Series/Majors in 2021. Hass was runner-up at Junior Worlds in 2021, and has since raised her rating 27 points to 912. Roll back the tape on the 2021 CCR Open—the kid can bomb. She also converted 76% of her C1X putts in her six UDisc rounds last year. Both are planning extensive U.S. tours.
I’m also keeping an eye on Leah Tsinajinnie. 2022 will be her second full season on tour. It would not surprise me to see her break into the 900-club before the Champions Cup. The ultimate frisbee convert finished 30th in DGPT points and 25th in PDGA NT points last year. Norwegian Lykke Lorentzen plans to visit the states several times this year in addition to playing on the European circuit. Lorentzen was my pick for Breakout Player of the Year in 2020 before the pandemic shut down international travel. Her work ethic is strong, and she spends just as much time in the gym as she does in the field.
Finally, Estonian Keiti Tätte will make her stateside debut this year (though she won’t debut at LVC as planned due to illness). She’ll be in good company, touring with Kristin Tattar and Silver Lätt. If somehow you haven’t seen her long throw-in for birdie at the European Disc Golf Championship, do yourself a favor and check it out. Based on her 937 rating, she is tied for 25th best in the world with Juliana Korver, Ella Hansen, and Alex Benson.
– Patrick Aubyrn
Brodie v. Stokely
Photo: Brodie Smith
Last year in our season preview, I set the over/under line for Brodie Smith’s ratings increase at 1015. He started the 2021 season at 999. He was able to eclipse that number and finished 2021 with a 1017 player rating, where he currently sits to start the 2022 season.
I believe Brodie is still at a point where fans consider him a new player and new to the tour. He was determined to not just be another celebrity or athlete that plays disc golf but to be thought of as a professional disc golfer and that alone. The transition took time but seems to have come to fruition.
As Brodie starts his third year on tour, a veteran of the sport, Scott Stokely, starts his very first year on the Disc Golf Pro Tour. Stokely has been playing in the Men’s Open division longer than Brodie has been alive but has not played in anything higher than a B-Tier in the open division since 2016. He was once rated in the 1020s with his all-time high at 1023.
Stokley is currently rated 992, and he has been in that general neighborhood for most of the last 15 years, with a few peaks around 1010. He has not been rated as high as Brodie is now since the year 2000.
So the question. Who will have a greater ratings jump in 2022: Brodie Smith or Scott Stokely? Secondary questions would be who will have the higher average finish at shared events? And who will have the highest single finish out of all the events they both play?
Scott Stokely
They are both currently signed up to play 11+ events with six in common, both starting in Vegas with the season opener this weekend. I’m sure more will be added for both players as further phases of the DGPT open up.
If I was setting over /unders for each player I would say:
Brodie Smith: 1025
Scott Stokely: 1010
My thinking is that it should be much easier (and faster) for Stokley to bump his rating higher with a 992 starting point, and Brodie is just now reaching that 1020 log jam of players. Getting to that 1025+ region is a different tier in the sport.
Perhaps the question on even more people’s minds: who will win more skins? Both Brodie and Stokely will be playing in the big money skins match at Eagle’s Crossing in April, with at least $11,800 on the line. They’re going up against Calvin Heimburg and Eagle McMahon. Maybe the question is whether they will win any skins at all.
– Darren LeMay
Load Management
The idea of “load management” was popularized by the NBA in the last few years as teams and players started to change how they prioritize the grind of the regular season against the possibility of being healthier and having more energy for the playoffs. Increasingly, players take games off for no reason other than getting some additional rest. This idea was already common in some other sports, such as baseball, where starting pitchers only take the field every fifth game because pitching is so taxing on their throwing arm.
This year has already started with a significant story around load management focused on Eagle McMahon and the health of his right shoulder. He hurt it last October, right before the DGPT Championship, and has been rehabbing it since. Months later, he says his backhand is pain-free, but he’s still not fully comfortable throwing forehands. Two weeks ago at the All-Star preseason event, he showcased a lefty backhand that was a better replacement for his forehand than most of us expected, and he’s also adjusted his tournament schedule to skip the Texas swing, which features courses that require a lot of forehands. His shoulder issues follow after his Discmania teammate, Simon Lizotte, had an elbow injury that first took him out over a year ago and is still affecting his shot selection.
As we see the calendar get packed more and more tightly with tournaments, including a full European swing, it will be interesting to see if load management gains popularity in disc golf circles and which players cite it as part of their decisions about which tournaments to attend — and which shots to throw.
– Ben Murphy
The Big Switch
Eagle McMahon throws a left-handed drive at the 2022 All-Star Weekend.
Speaking of that lefty backhand, one of the most talked about shots at the 2022 All Star Weekend was Eagle McMahon’s 360-foot park job on hole 12. Normally no one would notice Eagle parking an average par 3, but he threw it left-handed and brought gasps of surprise from DGN commentators Nate Doss and Terry Miller. Eagle is also not the only player experimenting with throwing backhands on both sides. Bradley Williams has also been developing his left-handed backhand during the off-season (nicknamed “Fritz”) and has shown its increasing effectiveness on his social media.
This might just be a way for players who are injured to be able to rest their elbows and shoulders from the stress of a power forehand, but it could also be a sign of a future approach to the game. With the difficulty many golfers have found in getting pro distance from their forehand and the injuries that some players with cannon forehands have suffered, is there a chance that “switch throwers” are going to become a thing in disc golf?
Backhand throws generate more spin (hence more distance) than forehands, so there’s a tangible reason for players to try to develop a backhand on both sides. Don’t expect a sudden sea change amongst current touring pros, but the young players still learning the game? They might have reason to start getting that off-hand field work working.
– Steve Andrews
Live Coverage: More Split Streams in 2022
Based on public statements from Jeff Spring and chatter I’m hearing behind the scenes, it looks like we will see more split streams for MPO and FPO this year. Recall last season the women teed off after the men most of the time, meaning the beginning of their round overlapped with the end of MPO. This approach was, in part, an earnest attempt to increase FPO viewership. The DGPT and DGN banked on retaining MPO viewers for the final nine holes or so of FPO; however, the tradeoff was that viewers interested primarily in watching FPO missed roughly 50% of that coverage.
At LVC, we’re seeing the first evidence that the Pro Tour will prioritize splitting the streams this season. That brings us back to the previous model, which had the women on the course first. In Vegas, the first FPO card is going out at 7:00 AM local time with the feature cards teeing off at 8:44 AM and 9:00 AM. As someone who often watches the women’s coverage to the exclusion of the open division, I applaud the change. I am certain the women’s field writ large enjoyed the afternoon tee times: for one thing, it usually meant better weather (remember that cold and snowy Jonesboro Open round from 2018?), but arranging tournament schedules to facilitate uninterrupted coverage of the FPO division is the right move on balance. Women’s disc golf is compelling in its own right without having to ride the men’s coattails.
On a related note: does this mean Catrina Allen has an early season advantage? Famous for rising in the five o’clock hour to hit the gym, the A.M. tee times won’t necessitate changing her alarm. I expect many of her competitors may take some time to adjust to the early wakeup call. The Europeans might also enjoy the early starts, as it will be the middle of the afternoon across the Atlantic.
– Patrick Aubyrn
Is Drew Gibson’s Play Style Sustainable?
Drew Gibson at the 2021 Ledgestone Open. Photo: DGPT
Gibson ended the season with a significant bang, threatening for wins at the DGPT Championship, USDGC, and Idlewild during the back end of the season. Additionally, he flashed a more dynamic putting game, even if you take away his supernova-hot run to keep pace with Nathan Queen in Charlotte.
Gibson may be the best midrange thrower in the game, but his audacious play style flies in the face of how others might play if their strongest asset was their midrange game. Gibson finished the season 96th in OB percentage, and frequently displayed no fear in putting himself in tough positions so long as he was also getting strokes on holes few others were touching. This led to highs and lows: for every Pro Tour Championship, there was a GMC, where he finished T-71st. It will be interesting to see if the putting strength continues, and if Drew’s brash, DeChambeau-esque strategy will pay dividends.
– Cam Guidry
Velediaz Ascendent?
Macie Velediaz at the 2021 TPWDGC. Photo: DGPT
Dynamic Discs announced Macie Velediaz’s one-year extension two weeks before revealing marquee signees Kona Panis and Valerie Mandujano. It feels like she’s been lost in the shuffle somewhat following those later announcements, but don’t sleep on her. Of the three, Mandujano boasts the highest rating at 950 with Panis clocking in a point shy at 949, but Velediaz is not far behind at 942. She only played six Elite Series tournaments in 2021 and finished in the top 10 four times: third place at the Dynamic Discs Open and the Music City Open, fourth at the Jonesboro Open, and seventh at the Throw Pink Championship. The Tennessean also boasted the fifth highest birdie rate in 2021 per UDisc statistics and was top six in all driving categories. If she can shore up her short game and bring down her OB rate, her stature will rise quickly. I want to see her raise her C1X putting percentage by 5% up to 67% (see: Eveliina Salonen, Maria Oliva, and Kristin Tattar) and lower her OB rate by 1.5% to around 11% (see: Valerie Mandujano, Ohn Scoggins, Ellen Widboom).
Velediaz seems unfazed by the limelight in her press appearances, but one can’t help but think those numbers will improve with more time on tour, which should increase her comfort in high pressure situations and on coverage. Her 2022 tour schedule includes all of the US Majors, nine DGPT stops, and two Silver Series, more than double last year’s slate.
– Patrick Aubyrn
What Will Ricky Wysocki Be Bagging?
Ricky Wysocki at the 2018 Tyyni. Photo: Marika Salmi
In The Bag videos may serve as an engagement machine for pros, but with so many players making a big switch this year, they’ll likely hold more water than normal when it comes to predicting the 2022 season. How Catrina Allen replaces her F7 or Dickerson his FX-2 both are interesting questions, but, for my money, I want to see how Ricky Wysocki’s bag shakes out after his move to Dynamic Discs. With two world titles under his belt with Trilogy, it’s likely that he has some old favorites he’s excited to dust off. However, there’s so much more to explore in the Trilogy lineups than when he last represented them. Harp vs. Slammer, Defender vs. Rive — we saw Ricky reach for the less heralded Innova Whale last season in big moments, what will he settle on for his putting putter in 2022?
Wysocki was a cut above in 2021, and while I’m a firm believer of archer over arrows, it’s still a focal point of at least the early stretch of the season. He talks about his plan for Las Vegas Challenge in today’s Upshot Interview Series.
– Cam Guidry
The “Grassroute” or Commercial Takeoff?
The Disc Golf Pro Tour is now the official pro tour of the PDGA.
For as long as disc golf has been around, it has had a well-deserved underground, grassroots reputation, but since its inception as an organized sport, it has also been a commercial venture. After all, the DGA and PDGA were founded by a department head of a 1960s toy company. Until the last two years, the spread of elite competitive disc golf has largely been in pockets around the United States and Northern and Eastern Europe with a national and international tour to connect everyone in the Frisbee Family diaspora.
The 2021 COVID outdoor sports boom brought exponential growth for disc golf on a level unheard of in the sport’s history, and the Disc Golf Pro Tour capitalized on several broadcast opportunities, but the last two years wasn’t without friction. The PDGA is a slow-moving machine by nature, as a non-profit with a board of directors elected by the player base, and was roundly criticized for poor handling of National Tour tournaments and Majors compared to DGPT stops, but elite tournaments will now be operating under the proven methods of the for-profit Pro Tour.
There has always been a push and pull between the sport’s executive level and the local player/organizer base. The grassroots nature of disc golf’s growth over the last 50 years is at a turning point with the tour unifying under the DGPT banner and more eyes on the sport than ever. The DGPT is still working out some kinks in their processes, but it is now the biggest growth engine disc golf has seen since Headrick’s network of regional pros. Disc golf’s elite players will enjoy a higher level of tournament administration proven by the DGPT in the past two years, but does this signal a larger move away from the grassroots spirit that brought many into the sport where top pros are easily accessible to and, in some cases, rely on fans to bolster their bags with out-of-stock discs?
Will the influx of new players who are often unaware of disc golf’s history change the culture of the game writ large? The 2022 season will be a bellwether for how much of disc golf’s grassroots kinship is sacrificed in the name of growth, and what influences will remain from the tight-knit group born of the PDGA’s transition from a profit-focused business to a player-run non-profit.
– Gabe LaBounty
The Next Rookies of The Year
Micah Groth could be in the running for 2022 Rookie of the Year. Photo: Hayden Henry — PDGA.
5-time world champion Juliana Korver raised eyebrows when she won the 2021 DGPT Rookie of The Year award. So much so that the DGPT felt they needed to change the qualification rules. Under the new rules, the DGPT Rookie of the Year will go to the MPO and FPO players with the highest point total who has not played in more than three DGPT Elite Series, National Tour, or Major tournaments in a single previous season. Players who have competed in two or more Majors in a single previous season are also ineligible.
These new rules narrow the field of which players are most likely to win the DGPT ROY in 2022. The more events a player attends, the more chances they have to amass the tour points needed to win, so the first place to look for contenders is this list of tour card recipients. Of the 84 men and 37 women who were able to get tour cards, I counted only seven players that would qualify for Rookie of the Year. In MPO, those players were Micah Groth, Issac Robinson, Kristo Raik, Lauri Lehtinen, and 2021 European Disc Golf Champion Niklas Anttila. For FPO, I found Aria Castruita and Keiti Tätte.
There is still a good chance someone without a Tour Card can place high enough at DGPT and Major events to win ROY. For example, 1035-rated Linus Carlsson does not have a tour card yet announced a pretty extensive tour in the US for the early part of 2022 and said the DGPT (and Majors) are his focus. Another contendor for ROY, Iceland’s Blær Örn Ásgeirsson, told me he had already registered for many of the early season tournaments before the tour card became available.
While the Europeans are probably the favorites to win the MPO Rookie of the Year award, perhaps a young American can follow the Gannon Buhr path to stardom. Buhr, the 2019 PDGA Junior World Championship, took the pro tour by storm in 2021 en route to his ROTY award. Micah Groth seems like a good candidate after his win at the 2021 NADGT-National Championship and third-place showing at PDGA Junior Worlds. On the FPO side, Aria Castruita has a very promising future after her wins at both PDGA Junior Worlds and the NADGT-National Championship. Stacie Hass, who finished second at 2021 PDGA Junior Worlds, also seems to be preparing for a full tour.
Either way, it is very unlikely we will have another ROY who comes into the season with a Hall of Fame-worthy resume. Sorry, Des Reading and Scott Stokely!
– Jesse Weisz
Who Will Finish the Year at #1 in the World?
Paige Pierce at the 2021 Ledgestone Open. Photo: DGPT
This is a question every year, of course, but it’s been a while since we’ve really seen the full field of elite disc golfers all competing together at the biggest tournaments. Paige Pierce finished at #1 despite a poor finish to her 2021 season, but she wasn’t at her sharpest for much of the second half of the year and was outright beat by Kristin Tattar twice, despite Tattar not playing many events. The race for the top spot in FPO feels more open than ever before after years of dominance from Pierce.
MPO, too, is intriguing. Multiple top players have new bags, some top pros are playing more extensive tours, and the ascendance of young talent like Calvin Heimburg, Eagle McMahon, and Kyle Klein seems poised to topple the Paul/Ricky era.
Could this be the year? People thought Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal would be mothballed a long time ago, too, and those guys keep winning majors. Ricky comes into the season at #1, and McBeth was the best player at the Majors in 2021, despite getting Worlds ripped away from him from 247′ away.
But their grasp on the top spot is no longer assured. Eagle McMahon is only one rating point behind Wysocki and is two ahead of McBeth, and Heimburg and Chris Dickerson are not far behind. Adam Hammes and Klein are surging. And who knows just how good the Europeans will be after two years off the tour?
