A groundbreaking win — and a jumbled POTY race

August 2, 2022 by Christopher Wiklund in Analysis, Opinion with comments

Alright, folks, it’s been a minute, but we, just like the DGPT, are back in action after a pause for a couple majors.

Nathalie Ryan’s first career DGPT win comes two months after she made history as the first publicly out, trans athlete to podium at a DGPT event when she took second at the OTB Open. Her win in Michigan is the first time a publicly out trans athlete has won a DGPT event.

Ryan has found herself as the perhaps accidental face of the trans community in disc golf and has conducted herself with dignity and grace both on and off the course. Ryan initially found herself at the center of the discussion of trans athletes in disc golf early in the season and has continued to persevere and compete at a high level all season long.

Ryan may be disc golf’s first civil rights leader, and the DGPT, PDGA, and a handful of players have proven their commitments to equity and decency with their actions over the weekend. Three cheers to them, and hats off to Ryan.

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Since joining the DGPT circuit back in 2018, the Great Lakes Open has traditionally marked the beginning of the final leg of the touring season, by which point at least a handful of players in both divisions have begun to separate themselves from the pack as the tour turns towards the East Coast and Rock Hill. This year, however, no single player in either division has been able to string together a consistent run of wins or, at least in MPO, top level finishes.

Personally, I have loved every second of it.

The open season has the lovely side effect of allowing us to more closely examine the meaning of and what should be considered when discussing Player of the Year.

In Ye Olden Dayes of Yore, we could just open a spreadsheet and see who got the most wins, if anyone has multiple majors, and just do a quick lil bit of objective consideration and go from there.

That is unlikely to be possible when voting time comes for the ‘22 season. Unless someone decides to make the tail end of the season their time to shine, and there is absolutely no reason to think that will happen, we will probably have two of the least winningest players of the year in disc golf history — and that is fine.

As Paige Pierce reminded us (of course, after she won), winning isn’t…