Author: Ted Hegemann

Ted is the Chief Writer at Infinite Discs. He is responsible for the State of Disc Golf Survey articles and most of the "best discs" posts. Ted runs all kinds of local disc golf leagues and tournaments and tournaments in Northern Utah.

Introducing Yikun Discs

Infinite Discs carries over 55 brands of discs! We started this blog series to introduce you to some of the brands and molds that you might not be as familiar with. Each week we will spotlight a different company and tell you a little more about them. Because of Covid shutdowns our supply of discs was severely affected. Therefore, we may not have all of the molds from all of the brands we will talk about. But, it might put a few more molds on your radar for the future. This week we are on the road again to introduce Yikun Discs.

The East China Sea borders Japan, Korea, and the East Coast of China. On the shores of the Sea sits the port city of Ningbo, China. It is home to the Tian Yi Ge library. The library was built in 1561, and is one of the oldest in the country. Ningbo is also home to disc golf manufacturer, Yikun Discs.

Six Schoolmates

When six university schoolmates were introduced to disc sports while in school, little did they know it would lead to starting a disc business. The group started playing ultimate frisbee and became the first Chinese ultimate players. It was during their final year in school that they decided to start a company whose mission was to promote flying disc sports and introduce a healthier lifestyle to the youth of the country.

In 2010, Yikun got involved in disc golf after Eric Xu learned more about the sport from some European disc golfers. Since then, Yikun has launched the first PDGA sanctioned tournament and opened the first disc golf course in China. Yikun became the first Asian company to get approved by the PDGA, World Flying Disc Federation, and USA Ultimate.  They currently ship discs to over 40 countries.

First Mold For Yikun

The first disc golf mold approved by the PDGA for Yikun was the View in 2013. The View is an understable fairway driver. The next year they added the Wings and Claws, which are mid/hybrids and putters respectively. Since then they have added numerous mold to give disc golfers a variety of flight shapes.

Yikun currently offers four different plastic types. They have the Tiger line, which is their base plastic. Then they have three premium plastics: Phoenix line, Dragon line, and their Tortoise line, which is used on their overmold discs. The Phoenix line is a durable translucent plastic similar to Champion or Lucid plastic. Dragon line has more grip and is a little softer, similar to Gold Line. The Tortoise overmold plastic can be found on the Twin Swords mold, the Tomahawk, and the Meteor Hammer. The plastics they sell the most are the Phoenix and Dragon lines.

 

 

Coming Soon

Yikun tries to introduce new products to the market every year. Coming up this year or next, Yikun will be introducing two new plastics to the market. They be offering the Swift line and Soflex line. The Swift line is a light plastic, making it good for beginners. It even floats in water. Soflex also floats in water and is light, and is also very flexible.

In addition to the new plastics, Yikun also has plans for more new molds and some new accessories. The details of the molds aren’t available yet. However, Yikun indicates they will be releasing a new bag design. They will also be releasing an interactive electronic version of a basket.

 

Disc Golf In The Olympics?

Yikun has not started a sponsor program yet. Instead, they focus on growing the sport by making it available to school kids and hosting events. They would like to see enough growth that the popularity of the sport might make it a future Olympic event.

The philosophy of Yikun Discs is that disc golf is much more than a sport. They look at it as a lifestyle. And they believe it is a lifestyle that connects people from different nations and ideologies. Their hope is that more people will include programs with disc golf tournaments that promote international communications and cultural learning.  If we can make the world a little smaller and more connected through disc golf, that sounds like a pretty sport. And an awesome lifestyle!

Top Selling Yikun

Below is a chart of Infinite’s top-selling Yikun molds. It’s interesting to see all of their overmolds in the top selling discs. Taking first is the straight-flying midrange, the Tomahawk. In a tie for second is the overstable putter, the Hammer (Chui), and the high-speed, stable driver, the Twin Swords. Here are the top ten molds and the percent of sales.

Comment About Yikun Discs

We want to hear from you about Yikun Discs! Let us know about your experience with Yikun.

If you’ve thrown a Yikun Disc, which have you thrown?

If you haven’t tried one yet, which one would most likely make it into your bag?

Last Week: CHEENGZ

Last week we looked at CHEENGZ. We selected three random people who commented on that blog. Here are the winners:

Paul K

Justin H

Kevin

Congrats! We’ll ship your disc out shortly.

 

How Many Discs Do We Own

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2021 State of Disc Golf

 

 

Buying And Holding Discs

 

One of my favorite survey subjects to write about is questions about the numbers of discs that we own and how many we purchased the prior year. I’ve been buying discs regularly since I started playing. Like a lot of us, initially I bought discs like a lot of new disc golfers: because they were ‘high speed’, ‘long distance’, or ‘super long distance’. After gaining a little more experience, I started choosing my discs by their flight ratings. Then I moved into choosing plastic types that felt good in my hand. Finally, I started buying discs just to collect. (I’ll be doing an upcoming blog about disc collecting) Not everyone has the same reasons for buying or keeping a disc.

Having been in the disc golf business for a few years, and a regular player for about 9 years, I’ve seen people whose opinions about buying discs run the gamut from people who only throw a couple discs, most of which were either found or were a gift, to those people who are constantly trying out new discs and eager to throw the latest, greatest mold. I’ve seen customers spend an hour in a disc golf store, pouring over the inventory looking for the new discs. And other customers who would be looking for a specific flight, but didn’t care about brand or plastic, and would usually take the first mold suggested.

 

How Many Do We Buy

 

This blog post will shed a little light on our buying habits for last year. And it will show how many discs we are keeping in our possession. We can then look back at past year’s results and see if those habits have changed. We will also look at the number of people who buy discs for collecting, and see if that number is trending.

Let’s start with how many discs we own. The answers in the survey maxed out at 200+. I think I’ve been selecting the ‘200+’ option for about five or six years. Part of that is because I started collecting years ago. (For next year’s survey, I would like to include a question of how many of our discs will never be thrown.) But, I also like to try new discs. Let’s see how many discs we have squirrelled away in our closets, bedrooms, hanging on walls, or hiding in the trunks of our cars.

The question we asked was, ‘How many discs do you own?’. Here are the results:

Nearly a quarter of us, 24%, have over a hundred discs! As the chart shows, about 43% of us carry between 21-60 discs. That seems reasonable to be, based on the disc golfers in our club. If you carry 15-18 discs when you play, keep some backups at home, and have kept discs that you no longer throw or have aced with and want to keep as a trophy, you would likely have between 21-60 discs.

Let’s see if that percentage has changed over the last couple of years that we asked the questions. Here are the numbers for 2019:

We can see changes in individual categories, so let’s clump some of the groups together and look at the data. Considering people who have 100+ discs, we see a little more than 26% of us own more than 100 discs. In contemplating why we would have fewer discs now than two years ago, I would have guessed that more of us were hanging on to discs and buying whatever we could. I figured that discs, like toilet paper, would be hoarded due to the diminished supply on the shelves. Disc golf suppliers couldn’t keep up with the growing demand and many molds would fly off the shelf as soon as we would put them online. But, the hoarder mentality didn’t kick in with discs last year.

The other range we talked about for last year was the 21-60 disc category. For 2019, this group was a little lower at about 40%. In 2017 and 2015, that range was similar, around 41%.

Here are the charts for 2017 and 2015:

 

Let’s turn our focus on how many new discs we added to our collection last year. Our survey question asked, ‘How many new discs did you purchase via retail (at a store or online) in 2020?’ Here are the results:

Nearly 46% of us bought between 10 and 29 discs last year. That’s about where I would fall. A disc or so per month is not bad (I keep telling myself). A small percentage of us bought zero new discs last year, while a slightly higher percent, 3.3%, bought 100+ discs! We were especially interested to compare last year to previous years to see how the pandemic and limited supplies affected our disc golf buying habits. Let’s compare last year to two previous years.

If we look at the three different groups of numbers mentioned above, in two of the categories we can see the numbers rose from 2017 to 2019, then fell in 2021. The ‘100+’ discs purchased category was different. It actually rose from 2019. Let’s look at people who bought less than 10 discs last year, the people who bought 10-29 discs, and the people who bought 100+.

 

Less than 10 discs 10 to 29 discs 100+ discs
2017 29.1% 2017 40.3% 2017 2.2%
2019 35.4% 2019 43.1% 2019 3.1%
2021 29.8% 2021 36.2% 2021 3.3%

 

Between the pandemic and the supply shortage, people were simply not able to have access to as many discs to buy. The unprecedented growth rate for the sport certainly contributed to the lower number of discs available to purchase. (To put the growth in perspective, there was a nearly 84% increase in new PDGA memberships last year! From 2016 to 2019, there was only a 34.5% increase!) To get a better idea about our disc buying for last year, let’s look at another question in the survey.

We asked people ‘How did Covid-19 affect your disc golf purchases in 2020?’ Here are the results:

In the survey, participants were able to select more than one answer, since more than one answer could apply. According to the survey, nearly a third of us purchased the same number of discs last year, regardless of COVID19. Nearly a fourth of us would have bought more had supplies not been affected. There were 26% of us that were able to spend a little more than usual, because there were playing more and had the means to do so.

Not everyone was in the same financial boat as those who bought the same or more discs. Nine percent of us were not able to buy as many discs, for financial reasons. It is fortunate that the number wasn’t higher.

Buying More Or Less Than Usual

 

It was interesting to me that during all of the supply shortages, over half of us bought the same number of discs or more than the year before. I wonder how many discs people were buying that weren’t the ones they wanted, but were available. One more statistic I wanted to check out was whether the number of discs we buy each year was increasing or decreasing. I picked a delineating number of 30 to compare. It looks like the number of people who buy less than 30 discs per year is decreasing, while those who buy 30 or more is increasing.

under 30 discs 30+ discs
2017 82.8% 17.2%
2019 77.4% 22.6%
2021 75.6% 24.4%

 

 

In examining all of these numbers in light of the strange year we had as a business, it’s interesting to see that, despite a supply shortage, there were a ton more disc golfers playing, while a majority of them buying the same or more than usual. It looks like the people that buy the most discs are buying even more. And those who buy the least are buying fewer.

As 2021 unfolds we will be scrambling to get as many discs as possible, while trying to keep up with the growing demand. It’s not a bad place to be in as a business, just challenging that we can’t meet the desires of our customers. As the supply levels out a little, we should have better data to see how many discs people are buying under normal circumstances. Then again, maybe ‘normal circumstances’ will never exist for a long time.

We would love to hear your thoughts on buying discs in 2020. Were you able to get the discs you wanted? If not, did you try new discs that were available? Let us know in the comments.

Feel free to email with suggestions or comments: ted@infinitediscgolf.com

Check out Infinite Discs here: www.infinitediscs.com

 

 

Introducing CHEENGZ

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CHEENGZ

Infinite Discs carries over 55 brands of discs! We started this blog series to introduce you to some of the brands and molds that you might not be as familiar with. Each week we will spotlight a different company and tell you a little more about them. Because of Covid shutdowns our supply of discs was severely affected. Therefore, we may not have all of the molds from all of the brands we will talk about. But, it might put a few more molds on your radar for the future. This week come back to the USA to check out CHEENGZ.

 

In the northern part of Georgia lies the city of Atlanta. Among its many suburbs is the city of Marietta, Georgia. Marietta is near the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park, site of an 1864 Civil War battle. And it is home to disc golf manufacturer, CHEENGZ.

Southern Folks

 

CHEENGZ was started in 2016 by canine disc competitor turned disc golfer, Troy Burns. The sound the disc makes when hitting the chains was the inspiration for the brand.  Troy came up with idea of spelling it ‘CHEENGZ’ during a round of disc golf. Troy and his wife, Karen, had been entrepreneurs since 1997, running a variety of businesses, from online marketing to importing chandeliers from the Czech Republic. With his new found love of disc golf, Troy initially started a company selling sportswear for disc golfers. He was bothered by the fact that companies selling shoes and apparel to disc golfers without promoting the sport.

© Karen Images 2016 Participant at a CHEENGZ parent/child event

In addition to selling apparel, Troy also wanted to use CHEENGZ to grow the sport. He set goals to add baskets to parks, and improve existing courses. One example of improving courses was Frog Rock disc golf course in Austell, Georgia. CHEENGZ helped the city buy and install 18 additional baskets and an additional tee pad, giving disc golfers plenty of options for play.

After the course improvements, Troy starting working to grow the sport by holding parent/child doubles disc golf tournaments. The clever format ensures that parents are involved in the sport with their child. Only the youth member of the team is allowed to throw from the tee pad. After the drive, the parents can then contribute to the team effort. The events were hampered by COVID19 restrictions last year, but are already being scheduled for this year.

 

Reconnecting With A World Champion

 

Hyperflite’s Peter Bloeme, 1976 World Championships

Although Troy was retired from canine disc sports, he went to the Skyhoundz World Canine Disc Championship where he reconnected with World Frisbee and World Canine Disc champion, Peter Bloeme. (Incidentally, Peter’s PDGA number is #123!) Troy ended up doing some video production for Peter and floated the idea of working together to make a golf disc. Much to Troy’s surprise, Peter told him he already had one!

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Bloeme had been involved in disc sports since he was a kid. Along the way he got involved in canine disc sports, and eventually started manufacturing his own dog discs under the name, Hyperflite, Inc, along with business partner Jeff Perry. Hyperflite is in Roswell, Georgia. The two men had designed two molds several years ago, a dog disc and a disc golf disc. After growing uncomfortable with

Hyperflite’s Jeff Perry with KD

their business manufacturers overseas, they had the molds shipped to them in Georgia, and began manufacturing the Z-Disc (dog disc).

 

 

Dog Discs to Disc Golf

 

Once Troy found out the disc golf mold existed, he had Hyperflite make a prototype and really liked how it flew: straight! It was a 100g prototype, but flew straight and never faded. He knew at that weight it would be great for kids and beginners. And if he could get the weight above 170g, it would be great for anyone in disc golf. He had a heavier prototype made and it flew straight as well. On December 30, 2020, Hyperflite received PDGA approval for their mold. That mold became the I-One.

Hyperflite, Inc. has been producing dog discs for a couple decades, so it was not a big leap to make disc golf discs. They started manufacturing in 2000 with their mold, the K-10 a 8.76” disc. After that they released the Pup disc, a 7” diameter disc similar to the K-10, but made for smaller dogs. That mold was excellent for kids with smaller hands, so Troy rebranded it the Kidzee for younger kids learning to throw.

 

Other Products And Events

 

Some new products available soon from CHEENGZ are the Puttmaster and their new card game, Cheat Sheetz. Cheat Sheetz are used while playing casual rounds to make the round a little more interesting. Puttmaster is a game that teaches accuracy as a first skill for disc golfers. It is a freestanding pole marked with three scoring zones. Players get points based on where they hit.

Coming up for CHEENGZ is a really fun, family-friendly event, the Flying Disc Festival. Troy wants to

Puttmaster

give kids under 16 and their parents an opportunity to participate in a disc golf event that focuses on the fundamentals of disc sports: disc golf, accuracy, and freestyle development with a new game called KwikFlik™. The game of KwikFlik™ is played on a field by two players who throw discs back and forth and earn points in the process. There is a link to their website, which has information about the Flying Disc Festival and the rules of KwikFlik™.

With Peter’s connection to the canine disc community, he was able to arrange for an exhibition from the local Dog and Disc club. That will introduce a lot of people to that sport. The first Flying Disc Festival is scheduled for May 29, 2021 at Frog Rock. The event will be filmed to produce a media kit for promoting future Festivals.

Helping You To Grow The Sport

 

CHEENGZ would also like to encourage other people to hold their own Flying Disc Festival. They are willing to teach and help anyone interested in holding one. Troy is happy to be giving people an opportunity to participate in disc sports. When he was growing up, he never even got to see events like those that Peter Bloeme won. With the Festival, kids will even get to participate! That will do amazing things for our sport!

Cheat Scheetz Card Game

Supporting Disc Golf

 

CHEENGZ doesn’t have sponsored players yet. They are too new for that. They do have disc golfers that love their molds, but no official sponsored players yet. Besides, they look at their role as more of a sponsor of the sport. Their focus is to grow the sport and introduce young people to disc golf. With that goal in mind they will continue to offer events for families with kids.

Troy is optimistic about disc golf in the future. He believes the sport will become more diverse and courses will be more common. He thinks the growth trend will continue, forcing more communities to explore options for disc golf courses, including pay-to-play courses. And CHEENGZ and Hyperflite will be there encouraging and contributing to the growth. Troy and Peter both agree that they are in this business for the sport. Our growing sport can certainly benefit from people who have that motivation.

 

 

See Infinite’s selection of CHEENGZ discs here:

https://infinitediscs.com/category/CHEENGZ

Check out CHEENGZ website here:

https://CHEENGZ.com/

And Hyperlite’s line of dog sport products here:

https://hyperflite.com/

Check out some Bounty Aces here (Check out the CHEENGZ website for Bounty details):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Q_mPQq3DAE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s5jllrbk510

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zztmw1WTuq8

Comment About CHEENGZ

 

We want to hear from you about CHEENGZ! We’ll give a CHEENGZ disc to three random commenters. To be eligible, answer one of the questions below:

If you’ve thrown a CHEENGZ disc, how did you like it?

What disc in your bag would the CHEENGZ I-One replace?

We will choose the winners and post them next week when we feature our next disc golf brand.

 

Last Week: Fourth Circle Discs

 

Last week we looked at Fourth Circle Discs. We selected three random people who commented on that blog. Here are the winners:

Sean N

Brian F

Doug D

Congrats! We’ll ship your disc out shortly.

 

 

 

How Do We Like To Play Casual Rounds

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2021 State of Disc Golf

Casual Rounds

 

It’s a sunny day with a perfect temperature. You grab your bag and head out for a casual round of disc golf. What is your round going to look like? Will you play with some buddies? Will you play a solo round? Will you meet up with your brother, who rarely plays, and when he does he plays with only two discs, and one of them is even cracked, yet he still manages to beat you more often than not, even though you play year ‘round and several times per week? (True story)

This week’s blog will look at how we like to play casual rounds, and how we interact with other disc golfers who are playing or getting ready to play. We will also look at who we prefer to play with and how we feel playing with strangers.

Personal Preferences

 

The first survey question we asked you to check all of the boxes that applied to you regarding casual rounds. We offered the following choices:

  • I play disc golf whenever I want, whether anybody wants to play with me or not
  • I prefer to play disc golf alone
  • I prefer to play disc golf with other players
  • To me, disc golf is a social sport and it isn’t the same when played alone
  • To me, disc golf is a personal challenge, and other players are not important in my rounds
  • Playing disc golf has been a great way for me to make new friends

 

Here are the results:

 

It’s nice to see that most of us (78.8%) just like to get out and play, regardless of who we are with. Even if that means playing a solo round. Other people are fine playing with someone or not (32.8%), as long as they are playing. I would have thought that most of us would pick at least two of the choices. However, the survey results indicated something different. Over a fifth of us just gave one answer

 

Challenging Ourselves

 

Of those people who indicated they view disc golf as a personal challenge, they attend tournaments and events at a nearly identical rate as everyone who took the survey. I would have thought that the drive to push oneself would translate into more of a desire to compete against other players. But, the numbers indicate that they are satisfied just to push themselves. Here is a graph we posted last week showing the overall percentage of us you played in tournaments or events last year:

 

 

Joining a Group

 

The next survey question asked how we felt about people asking to join the group we are on in the middle of a casual round. It is not surprising to see that nearly 3/4 of us either don’t care or actually like it when people join us. I’ve seen that a lot in disc golf, and I like it. A few of us, about 18%, either don’t like it or are really bothered by someone jumping in the group. I suspect that with many of those who are bothered are just concerned about the group size. Socializing is fun, but slowing the game down because you picked up a couple more people can be frustrating. Most of us only have so much time to play and it’s nice to get as many holes in as we can. Here is the chart:

 

 

The next scenario involves us showing up to play, and getting invited to join another group. A little over 3/4 of us either like or love when we’re invited to play with an existing group. About 9% of us don’t like it or hate it. That is similar to the number of us who prefer to play alone (see the first chart, above). Here is the graph about being asked to join a group:

 

 

A Round in Progress

 

For the next couple questions, we asked how likely it was that we would ask to join someone who is playing. The first question asked if we would be comfortable asking to join if we know them. An overwhelming majority of us would be comfortable with, or at least neutral, asking to join someone if they were already playing.

 

 

I wondered if there may be a correlation between the numbers of disc golfers in an area and the comfort level in asking to join a person or group. In the county that I live, there is a core group of regular disc golfers and we all pretty much know each other. Nearly all of us would be comfortable asking to join any other of us, unless we wanted to play alone. I can see in more populated areas where people might not know the people in a group, and would not feel comfortable asking to join. The next question addressed that very scenario, and it appears that my theory may be correct. The results were nearly reversed from the last question, with over 90% of us feeling neutral to very unlikely to ask to join strangers in a round of golf. Here are the totals:

 

 

Who Do We Want To Play With?

 

The last few questions concerning playing with people revolved around who we would prefer to play with. We asked people to pick on a sliding scale if we like playing with certain groups. The first chose was asking if we like playing with friends and family. Over 99% of us indicated that we would be at the very least neutral when it came to playing with them. Most of us like to play with family and friends. Here are the results:

 

 

Next we asked how people felt about playing with casual acquaintances. As you might suspect, the numbers weren’t quite a favorable as playing with friends and family. Still, nearly 80% of us are perfectly fine playing with people that we don’t know so well. And the number of people who aren’t so happy to play with casual acquaintances was a bit higher than the last question. Check out the numbers:

 

 

Finally, we asked how we felt about playing with strangers. I’m guessing that the wording of the question affected the results. If you are playing with people you know, and prefer it that way, you may be much more likely to let a stranger join the group. Some people may not feel comfortable striking up a conversation with someone they don’t know, if it’s a one-on-one situation. But, in a group they would be perfectly fine adding someone else to the conversation. Still, a third of us are happy to play with a stranger. And a third of would prefer to play with people we know. That leaves a third of us who are neutral. Here are the numbers.

 

 

Do These Seem Correct?

 

When I see the numbers from the survey my first thought is always, “Do these numbers seem accurate based on my experiences?” Most of the results of these questions pretty much do look like what I see. If not in my local club, at least what I see in the great northern Utah/southern Idaho disc golf scene. Which leads me to believe that the disc golf experience I’m having is similar to what many of you are having. Which is cool to me. It makes me feel like I’m part of the disc golf family.

Check back next week for more survey results.

Introducing Fourth Circle Discs

38 comments

Fourth Circle Discs

 

Infinite Discs carries over 55 brands of discs! We started this blog series to introduce you to some of the brands and molds that you might not be as familiar with. Each week we will spotlight a different company and tell you a little more about them. Because of Covid shutdowns our supply of discs was severely affected. Therefore, we may not have all of the molds from all of the brands we will talk about. But, it might put a few more molds on your radar for the future. This week we travel overseas and around the world to introduce you to Fourth Circle Discs.

Southern Hemisphere

 

Along the east coast of Australia lies the state of Queensland. Within that state you’ll find the cities of

Brisbane and Gold coast. And between those cities you’ll find Logan City, home to Fourth Circle Discs.

Although the first disc for Fourth Circle wasn’t approved until June of 2018, the company had been around for a few years before that, in another form. Its founder, Rhys Kruger, had been running disc golf events and started a business as an event management company in 2014. Those events led to the beginning of the top tier tournament, the Gold Coast Classic.

The New Beginning

 

A year after it was started, Rhys had the opportunity to start selling discs after an existing retailer moved out of the area. He started out selling Innova Starter sets. Slowly, his inventory grew to include other brands. Then, things changed a bit in 2017 when he broke his hand.

Rhys was playing in a tournament in Finland when he hit a tree while throwing. He was a sponsored player, representing RPM Discs. Although he had already been thinking about manufacturing discs, and talking to a local player about it, the down time with a broken hand gave him an opportunity to get serious about the idea. It was during that time that Rhys decided to turn his knowledge of disc golf into a manufacturing company. And Fourth Circle Discs was born.

 

The Beginning: Taipan

 

The first mold out of the gate for Fourth Circle was the Taipan. Initially, the disc was made in Finland by Prodiscus. However, the goal was to have them made in Australia. Rhys was looking around for a local manufacturer when unforeseen circumstances sped up the decision. Rising shipping costs along with unfavorable exchange rates forced his hand and Fourth Circle began producing discs in their home country.

Dingo

 

The second mold released by the company was the Dingo. It was approved and released last year. It was the first mold to be made in Australia by Fourth Circle, and it was definitely a learning experience for them, and for the manufacturer and tooling company. The mold was intended to be an overstable midrange, but they ended up with a disc that was too overstable. After some tweaking with the mold and the process, they ended up with a disc that they are thrilled with. It has a good amount of wind-fighting glide and a strong finish at the end of flight.

Fourth Circle learned from their mistakes and when they started producing their third mold, things turned out much better. That mold is the Firehawk, and it has been very popular. The fairway driver is popular among beginners because of its -2 turn and mild fade. More experienced players will appreciate its shot-shaping flight.

 

The Latest From Down Under

 

The Firehawk and Dingo are control driver and midrange. The Taipan is Fourth Circle’s high speed driver. It is a speed 13 disc with no turn and a pretty big fade. This year the company got approved and is ready to start selling their fourth mold, the Huntsman is an overstable putter, similar to the Infinite Myth, Challenger, and Aviar-X. Infinite is ordering the mold and will make it available as soon as we receive them. The new Huntsman is currently available for

presale from Fourth Circle Discs.

After years of selling discs, Rhys noticed that people would often buy a disc based on the name. That knowledge influences the names he chooses for his molds. When it came to picking mold names, Rhys wanted to pick names meaningful to Australians, and memorable to anyone checking out the discs. He also likes to find names that, to him, really ‘fit’ the disc. The Huntsman and Firehawk didn’t get those names until he held the discs in his hand.

 

Australian Animals

 

All of the molds are currently named after animals found in Australia. A Dingo is a wild carnivorous canine native to Australia. The Firehawk is a bird of prey that hunt near wild fires to catch insects that are fleeing the fire. They have actually been seen carrying burning sticks to spread the fire to get food. A Taipan is a fast-moving, highly venomous snake endemic to Australia. The Huntsman spider is also found in Australia.

The Firehawk has been the most popular disc for Fourth Circle Discs. The company had to make a second run of the mold just two months after the first run. Even with that success, Rhys anticipates the new mold, the Huntsman might surpass those sales, based on how much hype the mold has received so far.

Fourth Circle Plastics

 

The plastics offered by Fourth Circle are premium plastics that are both very durable, but feel different and offer different levels of grip. Their Ekka plastic is similar in feel and durability to Star or Gold Line Plastics. Iron Plastic is translucent and similar to Champion or Lucid Plastics. The Huntsman presale is in Ekka Plastic.

With their beaded putter, the Huntsman coming out this month, Fourth Circle can focus on a few molds that are currently in the works. They are planning on releasing a less overstable high-speed driver, a stable to overstable fairway driver, and a straight to understable midrange.

 

Supporting The Locals

 

Fourth Circle Discs is currently focusing on sponsoring local players while they establish guidelines for future team members. Darnley Pearson was the first player sponsored by Fourth Circle. Todd Nowack and David Bandy are two more players on the team. Also, Ken Summers from Perth is on the team. After years of playing, Ken moved up to Open and Open Masters. He has helped promote Fourth Circle and disc golf by running events and helping new players get into disc golf.

Rhys (left) with pro Darnley Pearson

 

The future is looking great for Fourth Circle Discs. And it will be busy! In addition to working on new molds for the company, they will be adding apparel and another hot stamping machine to the mix. Then they can make full disc stamps, while they add molds to their collection.

Rhys and Fourth Circle Discs are happy to be an Australian owned and operated company. That fact, along with their unique naming strategy helps them get brand recognition around the world. The company is helped by being run by a touring player, since that gives them insight into the pulse of the disc golf scene. Steve Rico, another touring player that runs a disc golf company, is an inspiration to Rhys. Rhys is a fan of Steve and Legacy discs, and what they have grown into. Fourth Circle is working hard to emulate that success.

Check out Infinite’s selection of Fourth Circle Discs here:

https://infinitediscs.com/category/Fourth-Circle-Discs

Check out Fourth Circle Discs website here:

https://www.fourthcirclediscs.com/

 

Comment About Fourth Circle Discs

 

We want to hear from you about Fourth Circle! We’ll give a Fourth Circle Discs mold to three random commenters. To be eligible, answer one of the questions below:

If you’ve thrown an Fourth Circle Disc, which one(s) did you throw, and how did you like it?

If you haven’t thrown a Fourth Circle Disc, which one would you most like to try?

We will choose the winners and post them next week when we feature our next disc golf brand.

 

Last Week: Lone Star Disc

 

Last week we looked at Lone Star Disc. We selected three random people who commented on that blog. Here are the winners:

Bob M

Jason B

Paul T

Congrats! We’ll ship your disc out shortly.

 

What Do We Think About Tournaments?

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2021 State of Disc Golf

Tournaments

 

One of the categories that I look forward to the most when it comes to looking at the survey results is that of tournament play. I’m always interested to see what tournaments people play, why people do or do not play, and what it would take for people to sign up for a tournament. I played my first tournament after playing disc golf for about a year. I was hooked! For me, it wasn’t so much for the competition as it was a social event that happened to revolve around disc golf.

Since then, I found that there are a lot of people who like tournaments, but a large number of people who have no interest in tournaments. For some, it’s the strict rules. For others, they are completely happy just hucking with friends in a casual round. There are cost issues, time issues, and travel issues, among the other reasons people don’t play. The survey covers a lot of those things, so let’s jump into the results.

Covid19

 

Once again, Covid19 had a huge impact on the tournament scene last year. Thankfully, it appears that we may have a nearly normal tournament year this year. (I am so looking forward to Worlds!) But, the survey results definitely reflect the dismal year we had last year. We’ll start with the question about whether or not we played in a tournament or other event last year. Here is what we found.

The survey question read, “Did you play in at least one disc golf tournament or event in 2020?”. Over half of us indicated that we did play in at least one event. There were a few tournaments that were played before Covid19 really affected things, a few at the end of the year, and a smattering of events throughout the year. That added up to a decent year for disc golf events. Not what we hoped for, but it could have been much worse. Here is a graph of the results:

 

 

To put things in perspective, here is a graph of the previous year’s tournament/event attendance. Attendance was down from 66% last year. I was expecting it to be a bigger drop.

 

 

Sanctioned Tournaments

 

Along with data about how many of us are playing competitively, it is also interesting to see what kind of tournaments people do play. Since the overall percentages were down for event attendance, it will be interesting to see if sanctioned versus non-sanctioned tournaments were affected more. A ‘sanctioned’ tournament is one that approved by the PDGA. There are additional requirements for the tournament, and PDGA rules are supposed to be enforced. Nearly 40% of the people who took the survey played in a sanctioned tournament last year. That is down 13% from last year. Here are the charts:

 

 

Of the people who played in a sanctioned tournament last year, 59% played in three or fewer tournaments. That is up significantly from 45% for 2019. Again, not surprising. Even with restrictions and cancellations, a very lucky 2% of us played in twenty or more tournaments last year! That was down 5% from the previous year.

 

 

Non-Sanctioned

 

When I checked out the non-sanctioned tournaments for last year it was apparent that something wasn’t right with the data. According to the survey, only 4% of us played in a non-sanctioned tournament last year. In 2019, over half of us played in non-sanctioned tournaments. Even with Covid19 throwing a wrench in our season, that 4% number couldn’t be right. I checked the raw data and it turns out that some of the results were missing for that question. I’ll see if the data can be recovered and post the info later.

Why Tournaments?

 

Now we know how many of us play in tournaments, let’s look at why we play. For most of us, there are multiple reasons we play. Nearly 25% of us like the competition. That is the number one reason. That leaves 75% of us that play for other reasons. It’s good to see that the next most popular answer is that we like to play tournaments for fun! Along the same lines is the number three answer, for social reasons. I’m surprised that category wasn’t higher because so many tournaments that I go to are like reunions. It’s always great to see our disc golf family again at tournaments. Here is a graph of reasons why we play:

 

 

Why We Don’t Play

 

On the flip side of that coin are the reasons why many of us don’t play tournaments. For 2020, you can probably guess the number one reason why people didn’t play. Yep, tournaments getting cancelled due to Covid19. The second most popular reason is that we don’t feel like we’re good enough to play. Nearly 20% of us chose that as one of the reasons. If you are one of those, I would recommend giving it a try. Play in a lower division and just relax and have fun. It is always more fun if you win something, but playing in a tournament helps you meet new people and gives you the tournament experience. Then the next one won’t feel quite as intimidating. Here are the results:

 

 

Tournament Persuasion

 

Looking at what things would motivate people to play, we see the number one answer is that people would play if they were better. That aligns with the previous graph results. The next most popular response is that of convenience. Finding tournaments on the days we can play, and at a location that is reasonably close would make a lot of people more inclined to play. Bigger player packs would also motivate a lot of people, nearly 40%. Here are the survey results:

 

 

Check back next week for more State of Disc Golf results!

Introducing Lone Star Disc

54 comments

Infinite Discs carries over 55 brands of discs! We started this blog series to introduce you to some of the brands and molds that you might not be as familiar with. Each week we will spotlight a different company and tell you a little more about them. Because of Covid shutdowns our supply of discs was severely affected. Therefore, we may not have all of the molds from all of the brands we will talk about. But, it might put a few more molds on your radar for the future. This week we are back in Texas to learn about Lone Star Disc.

Back to Texas

 

About 40 miles north of Houston lies the city of Conroe, Texas. It is the county seat and boasts a population of about 92,000 people. There are a handful of disc golf courses in the city. And one disc golf company: Lone Star Disc.

Lone Star Launched in 2020 by Travis Dillard and his family. Travis and his brother, Synjin, have been playing disc golf recreationally for the past 20 years. As their interest in the sport grew they started to consider manufacturing their own discs. Lone Star Disc is veteran owned and operated, and their family helps run the business.

First Approved Molds

 

The first two molds that were approved for the company were the Penny Putter and the Middy. A month later, the Mockingbird was approved. The Penny Putter is a straight-flying beadless putter with little turn and a nice fade at the end. The Middy is a good wind fighter with a flight similar to a Roc3, but with a little more glide. The Mockingbird is an understable control driver. It has a little turn, but a dependable fade. In addition to those three molds, Lone Star also has a good mid/approach disc with the versatile Harpoon. They also have the Mad Cat, which is a straight control driver with a moderate fade at the end. The Mad Cat is also one of the hot sellers for Lone Star Disc.

Just last month the PDGA approved the next mold in the Lone Star lineup, the Bowie. It is the company’s foray into high-speed discs. The Bowie is a speed 13, overstable driver. Excellent for forehand drives, especially in a headwind. Beyond that, they have an understable Mid and a more stable high-speed driver in the works.

Plastic Types

 

Currently, Lone Star offers a couple different plastic types: Bravo Plastic and two firmness’s of Victor Plastic. The Victor plastics are used in their putters. Victor 1, or just ‘Victor’, is a much softer blend than the Victor 2. Both Victor Plastics are grippy and fairly durable. The Bravo Plastic also comes in Glow Plastic for some molds.

A Pro On Board

 

Despite being a fairly young company, Lone Star Disc is sponsoring a pro for the 2021 season. Tanner Girouard, PDGA #88077, will be out on his first DGPT season. Tanner is a ‘local’ from the Houston area, and has been a huge supporter of the vision being created by Lone Star. He ha

s numerous wins in his career and will now match his skills with the best in the world on the tour.

In The Future…

The folks at Lone Star Disc are excited about their future in the sport. Their molds that are currently available are just the beginning, and they have big plans moving forward. They want to design more molds that fly like they are meant to fly. And they want to have a big enough variety of molds and flights so that people can throw exclusively Lone Star, and have all of the flights covered. And they are shooting for next quarter to roll out the next molds.

The sport of disc golf has been growing at a fast pace for quite a while. Lone Star believes that trend will continue. With more people playing and experiencing the awesome feeling of watching the beautiful flight of a well-thrown disc, the more people will share their love with friends and family. That love, along with the growth of live tour coverage will expose even more people to the sport. And as disc golf grows, Lone Star will be there to provide the disc molds that people want!

 

Check out Infinite Discs’ selection of Lone Star molds here:

https://infinitediscs.com/category/Lone-Star-Disc

 

Comment About Lone Star Disc

 

We want to hear from you about Lone Star!

If you’ve thrown a Lone Star disc, which one(s) did you throw, and how did you like it?

If you haven’t thrown a Lone Star disc, which one would you most like to try?

 

Last Week: Elevation Discs

 

Last week we looked at Elevation Discs. We selected three random people who commented on that blog. Here are the winners:

Ben K

Jon W

Frederick B

Congrats! We’ll get your disc shipped out shortly.

How did Covid-19 Affect Disc Golf

One comment

2021 State of Disc Golf

How did Covid-19 Affect Disc Golf

One of the the things we included in this year’s survey was the thing that affected nearly everyone in the world: Covid-19. We wanted to see how the pandemic was affecting disc golf for everyone, since we’ve know how it’s affecting people’s lives in other ways. From a broad perspective, disc golf is one of the many sports and activities that are nearly perfect for the restrictions and guidelines that we witnessed during the past 12 months. Since the pandemic didn’t affect every region the same, and since local governments were allowed to write their own rules, to a degree (at least in the USA), we saw a variety of different restrictions that affected how we play disc golf. Let’s start with how much we played, then we can look at how Covid-19 affected that.

Let’s Play Disc Golf

We asked people how many rounds per month they played on average in 2020. Over half of us played between 5-14 rounds per month. That might sound a little low, but that is the average. If winter months bump that number down to 3-5 rounds, that bumps the summer months up to 16-18 round. That’s four or so rounds per week, which seems like a good average. Here are the numbers, broken down by the number of rounds:

Graph showing rounds of disc golf played ruing the covid boom

Covid Affecting Disc Golf Play

Now let’s throw Covid-19 into the mix and see how that affected how often we played. We asked “How did Covid-19 affect your options to play disc golf?” Since some areas closed down even outdoor facilities, many of us didn’t even have the option to play. In other areas it was business as usual. In fact, nearly a third of us played more casual rounds in 2020 than in recent years. According to survey results, about half of us played as many or more rounds than usual. There were a small number, about 14%, that indicated that they didn’t get to play some casual rounds because of Covid-19.

When it came to leagues, about 15% of us said they missed some leagues because of cancellations or closures. That was a surprising number for me because of all the leagues that were cancelled in our greater area. Even more surprising, even though a larger percentage, is the number of people who said didn’t get to play in some tournaments because of cancellations and closures. A little more than a third of us indicated that they had to miss a tournament. I would have thought that number would have been a lot higher.

Open or Closed Disc Golf Courses

One aspect affecting the number of rounds we played last year was whether or not the courses were even open. Nearly half of us weren’t able to play certain courses at times throughout the year due to closures. While others remained open all year. Here are the numbers:

Graphs showing courses shut down because of covid

Another option in the question about courses staying open or not was to indicate if you stayed home even though the courses were open. There were 767 people, or about 12% of the total respondents that indicated they chose to stay home. Some also said that courses around them were closed, but that they still stayed home. We should have phrased the question better to give a more accurate picture, but the number is still valid. I was curious about the makeup of the 767 people, so I cross referenced their age groups to see if the demographics were lopsided. The results were surprising. Here is a graph of the age groups who opted to stay home:

I would have thought the age based higher-risk groups would have had more people who would prefer to play alone, and not even on a course. But, the numbers look almost exactly like the graph of age groups from the first blog in this series. Here is the graph of the number of people who took the survey, by age groups:

Ages of surveyed disc golfres

That’s all for this week. Check out next week’s blog for more data, graphs, and information about the 2021 Disc Golf Survey. Check out previous posts here

Week 1 – Demographics: https://blog.infinitediscs.com/state-of-disc-golf-2021/

Week 2 – When did you start playing: https://blog.infinitediscs.com/when-did-you-start-playing/

 

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