Summer is just around the corner, and that means disc golf tournament season is in full swing! To celebrate, we are having a BIG sale on tournament necessities. Check out what we have available for all your tournament needs:
Do your hands get sweaty while playing? Maybe it’s hot, or maybe you get nervous during competition. Either way, getting yourself a grip enhancer can help restore your hands and give you maximum grip so you can crush those drives and sink those putts.
Summer means sun, and you don’t want to worry about squinting through the bright sunlight when approaching the basket. Get yourself an Infinite Dad Hat to block out that pesky sun so you can clearly see the target.
Getting backed up during a tournament is not uncommon. There is usually a lot of sitting around. To save your feet from being sore, get yourself a tournament seat! It collapses down for easy carry and even has a strap to sling over your shoulder. This seat is made with excellent quality material, making it durable for any type of weather or terrain.
For long tournament rounds, there is nothing better than a disc golf cart. Carts relive the burden on your back and allow you to carry more discs, supplies, food and accessories. If you’re serious about tournaments, you need to invest in a cart.
Knowing the exact distance to the basket is very helpful when determining what disc you need to throw. The Apex Rangefinder is a very accurate piece of equipment with excellent reviews. It shows length in both feet and meters and has multiple modes to give you the most accurate measurement.
Sometimes we run into some bad luck or have a bad throw, and we need some extra length to get our disc from hard-to-reach places. Retrievers are a must-have while in a tournament so you don’t lose a disc you need. The Infinite Discs Retriever offers an extended reach of 16 ft. and has two hooked claws for maximum grip.
Infinite Discs Metal Mini: Add some solid gold to your bag, because this Infinite Discs Metal Mini is the real deal. You might not need to get a new mini ever again due to the durability and weight of this mini.
Infinite Discs Stress Mini: It can be frustrating to miss a much needed putt. But when you have this stress mini, it can help you move forward to play great on the next hole. It is also very helpful when you have some uncomfortable kneeling putts to make.
Infinite Discs Bomber Wood Mini: Get yourself one of these genuine hardwood Infinite Discs Mini. These minis feature an engraved Infinite Bomber logo on stylish rubber wood.
Mini Alpas Rubber Mini: The Mini Alpas is a rubber mini marker that takes after the shape an material of the Divergent Discs Alpas. This mini is made out of colorful, bendable silicone rubber- making it a fun way to mark your lie out on the course!
Infinite Flick Flyer Mini: These fun little mini discs are made out of silicone rubber and are shaped to fit in your fingers for long-distance flicking. You can use them to mark your lie during your disc golf round, or to kill a little time while waiting during a back up.
Make sure you capitalize on this sale while you can! It starts today (22nd) and ends next Friday (29th).
Once again, tournament season is upon us. We’ve already seen the top pros battle it out on some of the first big events of the year. For those of us that love to watch the pros compete, this is a great time. We have video of the tournaments that have already taken place, and the anticipation of our favorite locations yet to come. We’ll explore the State of Disc Golf survey results revealing our interest in watching and cheering for professional disc golfers in a future blog. For this week’s blog, let’s take a look at OUR participation in tournaments.
Playing Tournaments
Along with the pros returning to the tournament scene, those of us who enjoy participating in tournaments are also getting busy checking out the local and regional competitions. Not only have I signed up for several upcoming tournaments, I’ve also scheduled dates for when registrations open, to make sure I can sign up before they fill up. (I would like to explore how many tournaments reach capacity and how fast in future surveys.)
I’m somewhat hooked on tournaments and try really hard to make sure I attend my favorites. Not everyone feels the same about competing, which is why we asked questions about tournaments in our State of Disc Golf survey. We asked WHY you attended tournaments, if you did, and which kind you attended. We also asked what keeps you from playing in tournaments, and what it would take to make you start.
There are a variety of reasons why we play disc golf, and regardless of the reason, many of us enjoy the competitive side of the sport. There is something about our nature that makes us want to compete. I’ve noticed that for many of us, participating in an event fills that need, even if we don’t think we can win. Others DO want to win and will take steps to make that happen. Still others are completely fine playing casual rounds alone, just competing to beat their own records. Let’s see what the survey reveals.
Tournaments: Yes or No
Let’s look at the first tournament-related question, “Did you play in at least one disc golf tournament or event in 2021?”
Although over half of us say we played in a tournament, I expected that number to be higher. Since there are so many casual tournaments and events, which bring out people who ordinarily wouldn’t play in more serious tournaments, it just seems like there would be more of us competing. We’ll look at why people don’t compete later, but for now let’s look at the types of tournaments we attend.
What Kinds of Tournaments?
Of those who indicated that they did play in a tournament in 2021, we asked which type of tournaments they played: sanctioned or non-sanctioned. Of the 4,476 people who played a tournament last year, 75% played in a non-sanctioned tournament, and 81% played in a sanctioned tournament. Here are some graphs showing how many of each type of tournaments we attended.
Why We Compete
Personally, I like the social aspect of competing. There are a lot of people in other areas that I only see at tournaments. It’s great to reconnect with them. And to compete against them. Most of us have a few reasons for playing tournaments. Let’s look at the survey results to see what some of those reasons are.
About 3/4ths of us enter a tournament for the competition. Seems kind of obvious, but that still leaves about 27% of us who don’t care about competing. The second most popular response is to try new courses. A third of use listed that as a reason for competing. Although I agree with the response, and it is definitely on my list, It surprises me that the percent is that high. Most of the tournaments that I play in are at courses I’ve already played. It’s kind of rare that I compete on a course I’ve never played before.
I like the third most popular reason people list for playing in a tournament, which is for the prizes or payout. Over 73% of us want to compete, but only a fraction of that number are doing it for the winnings. It makes me think that these same people would be competing with their buddies in a casual round if they weren’t playing at a tournament. Our species likes to compete!
No Thanks!
When I talk to people about tournaments, the number one reason people give for not competing is because of their skill level. They assume that everyone else at a tournament will be better and/or more experienced. I expected that to be a top reason selected in the survey. It turns out that it was the second most popular. The number one reason is because of time, or the lack of free time. Most sanctioned tournaments are at least two rounds, which is a big time commitment. We asked the people who said they don’t play tournaments what reasons they have for not playing. Here are the survey responses.
This Year VS The Past
As I mentioned near the beginning of the blog, the data showing the number of people who did and didn’t play tournaments in 2021 surprised me. I see tournaments filling incredibly fast and I see newer players getting into the tournament scene, so the ratio seemed odd. To confirm my suspicion, I pulled up the results of prior surveys to see how they compare to the most recent survey. Here are the results of the question about tournament play for the years 2015 and 2019:
Clearly, we’ve seen more interest in playing tournaments in the past. The pandemic undoubtedly played a part in the lower numbers. It also contributed the larger number of newer players. We know from the survey results that a good number of people didn’t play because they don’t feel like they are good enough. However, if you look at how fast many tournaments fill up, it is evident that there is a large number of people that want to compete, despite the percentage of people who don’t want that experience.
It is the fact that we do fill so many tournaments that I don’t worry about people who don’t want to play them. Not only are tournaments not in danger of going away, the bigger problem might be that there aren’t enough to go around. Whether or not future TDs need to consider some of the reasons people have given for not attending tournaments remains to be seen.
We would love to hear about YOUR tournament experiences and what you see tournaments looking like five years from now. Post below and let us know your thoughts.
What a year we have had and we are only halfway through! Synthya, Leomax, and I have been laying low at our house hoping things get somewhat back to normal. We have been focusing on our family, house projects, and NADGT. We hope everyone stays safe during these uncertain times.
Throw at the Stone
This last weekend I played my first complete event of the season, a B tier called The Throw at the Stone in Macon, GA. I didn’t know what to expect since I had not played since March where I had to DNF at The Memorial due to the flu.
Before the first round I was nervous like it was my first ever event. I did what I could to focus that energy into a positive energy. They had me teeing off in the last group at 2:00 p.m.. The first hole is a blind par four 495 foot turnover with a very difficult angle and very thick schule to lose your disc in. I walked up and ripped it on the inside and cut the distance of the turn and placed it 8 feet from the pin for an eagle. After that it all clicked and I went on to shoot -21 on the 27 holes. I had the lead by 7 throws over Matt Dollar and Bryan Gort.
The second day the course pins got a little harder, the wind blew a little stronger, and I had a little less game then the day before. I couldn’t find a way to make any birdies and by the time I got to the 8th hole I only had a two stroke lead with 19 holes to go. I battled back and forth with Dollar over the next few holes and got it back up to 3 shots with just over half the round completed. Then I noticed on live scoring that not only was Dollar three back but Sean Goddard was on fire, -14 through 19 holes, and only two strokes back as well. So I focused in and birdied 5 of the next 7 tricky holes. Dollar lost focus and Goddard put on the breaks and my led grew to 7 strokes again. I ended up winning by 10 strokes over Goddard and Jamie Kiep, last years champion.
I really enjoyed playing with card mates and playing the course, it was fun. I wanted to thank James Luppino and the Macon Aces for putting together a great event, especially during these uncertain times. The Macon Aces are the closest Disc golf club to Synthya and I, and they are hard workers. I also wanted to thank Wes Campbell and Richie for their help.
I reached my goal and kept my streak 20 consecutive years with at least one B tier or higher MPO win alive. I wasn’t sure I would get the chance to do so, but I did and I am grateful.
I want to thank all the competitors, event sponsors, volunteers , and my sponsors Infinite Discs and Propull Disc Golf as well as Synthya for pushing me to play this event and then giving me the time to do so. I love you.
It is Glass Blown Open weekend! GBO is considered one of the best events in disc golf every year. It is run well, and leaves players of all divisions happy and satisfied with their tournament experience.
Often times tournament directors wonder how to make their tournaments better and how to keep their participants happy and excited about their events. This year in the 2019 State of Disc Golf Survey we asked disc golfers questions about their tournament experiences, what they like or don’t like to see in tournaments, and what motivates them to participate in disc golf events.
This is especially pertinent to our sport, because disc golf fans aren’t just fans, they are players. Like we always say, part of what makes disc golf so great is it is very cheap and easy to play. Well, it is also very easy to get involved in local leagues and tournament play including PDGA sanctioned and unsanctioned events.
And for the most part, if we are serious enough about disc golf to take a lengthy survey, we play competitively. Of those who took the survey, we were split 70/30 with 70% of survey takers participating in at least one disc golf tournament or event in 2018. We then asked that 70% how many PDGA sanctioned events they participated in over the last year. The responses were interesting:
Particularly, I think it is interesting that the option that received the most selections was zero, showing that a good portion of disc golfers who are active in competitive disc golf may not be involved with the PDGA at all. Also these individuals may just participate in local specialty events like the Discraft Ace Race or Trilogy Challenge. Of course, we asked what specialty events folks participated in during 2018.
We shouldn’t be surprised to see the Trilogy Challenge as the most popular event. It has been established as a great value event that attracts both competitive and casual disc golfers. We can also see that local putting leagues have become very popular in the disc golf community. It is interesting that just 33.33% said they participated in none of these events, as it shows how popular these specialty events have become in recent years. Also, because I mentioned it previously, only 9.97% of those who said they participated in a disc golf tournament said that they didn’t participate in a PDGA sanctioned event nor in any of these specialty events. It just goes to show that there are still popular local events that do not affiliate with the PDGA.
This ties into our next question in the survey: How many tournaments did you participate in that were not PDGA sanctioned? here were your responses:
With this data, we see that slightly more people participated in tournaments that were not PDGA sanctioned than people who participated in tournaments that were PDGA sanctioned. For those of us who are involved in mainstream PDGA events, it can be easy to forget that tournaments that are not sanctioned still draw a lot of participants, and are a great resource for casual players who are wanting to work their way into the competitive disc golf world.
Motivating Factors for Playing Disc Golf Tournaments
So what motivates us to participate in disc golf tournaments? We asked, and here is how we responded:
At first I was pretty shocked to see that Payouts/Prizes and Player Packs were the lowest two motivators. Those are often the two motivators that Tournament Directors try to appeal to the most when they are promoting their events. But does this data mean that we should focus on something different in our promotions?
After a little more thought, it could be argued that these low numbers are a bit misleading. First of all, who receives a player pack? For most PDGA sanctioned tournaments, only players in amateur divisions receive a player pack. Professional players usually do not receive a player pack, so most survey takers who play in the pro divisions likely aren’t motivated by player packs. And the inverse sometimes applies to Payouts/Prizes for larger events. Sometimes in order to generate larger payouts for pro divisions, TDs will make their event “Trophy Only” for their amateur divisions. This means that there are no prizes besides maybe a trophy for amateurs. These events though will often provide a more generous player pack in an effort to try and “make up” for not offering prizes. So for amateurs who are accustomed to playing in trophy only events, they would naturally not be motivated by payouts and prizes that they don’t normally see anyway.
However, all of the other motivating factors can be found at pretty much any tournament regardless of division. I think it is also worth noting that we enjoy exploring new courses when we go to tournaments enough that almost half of us listed that as one of our motivating factors. I know some smaller local tournaments have found success in using a variety of layouts and pin positions for tournaments to try and change up their course to make it feel new and different for their local players.
But at the end of the day, what most motivates us to go to tournaments is the competition, fun, and social aspects found in tournament play. So TDs should make sure to foster a fun and social environment. Obviously the nature of tournaments themselves make them competitive, but TDs can still look for ways to improve that competitive atmosphere for all divisions. TDs can also add small mini competitions like distance or putting competitions in between or after tournament rounds. Even a ring of fire offers all competitors a chance to experience some competition. I remember as a young player winning prizes in a ring of fire that included some of the best local disc golfers. It was fun to be able to say I beat them at something, even if it was as simple as a ring of fire.
We also asked survey takers to rank by importance certain aspects of tournament play. Specifically, we asked, What aspects do you consider when selecting tournaments? Here is how we responded:
I think this might be the most interesting bit of data so far today. It shouldn’t be a surprise that a well run event is what we consider to be the most important thing when we are selecting tournaments. I think this is especially important for TDs who are running events on new courses or temporary courses. It is insanely frustrating to play in an event when you aren’t 100% sure of the rules or if all OB areas are not clearly marked.
But I am kind of shocked to see that the three options that received the most “Not Important” votes were Awards/Trophies, Good Payouts, and Player Pack value. If you are an amateur who hates that the big event in your area is a trophy only event, then don’t show the TD this info. Over a quarter of tournament goers consider the Awards/Trophies in your tournament not important, and only 4% less consider good payouts not important.
From this data, what people want the most are well run and organized events that stick to the schedule and give them an opportunity to compete and enjoy each others company. So instead of trying to appeal to players by giving them the biggest player pack or payout, spend some of that time/money and turn your event into a social and competitive gem in your area.
Payout vs. Player Packs
Part of why I was surprised that payouts and player packs were the most unimportant factors is because they are part of a pretty common debate in disc golf circles–where should tournament money go? Should TD’s provide a generous player pack, or instead focus on bigger payouts across all divisions? We asked for your opinion, and here is how you responded:
We shouldn’t be surprised that the top answer here, with almost half selecting it, is a mix of both, because everyone wants more of everything right? But when we look at those who answered just one or the other, people who favor a big player pack doubled the amount of people who prefer a big payout. This doesn’t surprise me, I think that all players benefit from a large player pack regardless of skill level. So if you are in a good position as a TD, try to create a high value for both the player packs and the payouts. But if you need to choose one or the other, most disc golfers would prefer that money going toward a generous player pack.
Another common debate within disc golf culture is how to divide tournament payouts. In other words, how deep should a tournament payout? If a tournament has a big purse that is paid out to a high percentage of the field, that means the top finishers aren’t paid as much as they would be if they paid out a smaller percentage of the field. The inverse, of course, is a shallow payout that makes for higher payouts for the top of the field. So, we asked disc golfers which they preferred, and here are the responses:
Similar to our last chart, we see that most people prefer moderation. But then the split after that is pretty even with a slight preference toward shallow payouts or even trophy only events. But for the most part, the standard 40%-50% payout is what most people want to see.
Tournament Stamp or Stock Stamp?
Now for one last tidbit of info for our Tournament Directors–How do we feel about tournament stamps compared to stock stamps in the player packs? Specifically, we asked,”As a player pack item, would you prefer a tournament stamp on a disc you don’t throw or a stock stamp on a disc of your choice?” This also gets to players having more of a choice in their player packs. So how much do we value that choice? Here is how we responded:
This one is pretty even across the board with people saying that it depends on the tournament and stamp coming in at the top just barely. And then there is a slight favoring of tournament stamps, which I think makes sense because it is always nice to have a more unique disc in my opinion. So if you run a good enough tournament with a nice stamp design, you can win over the neutral folks and make everyone happy, which is the goal of every TD.
But for those who prefer to have more choice in their player packs, be sure to check out a Next Generation event this year. Dave Feldberg has partnered with Infinite Discs to provide multiple options for player packs, allowing participants to choose the discs and brands included in the packs.
Why Disc Golfers Don’t Play Tournaments
Now, so far we have discussed the preferences of those who said they participated in tournaments this year, but for those who didn’t participate–why not? What kept these people from involving themselves in their local competitive disc golf scene?
As you can see, far and away the top reason why people don’t participate in disc golf tournaments is because they don’t have enough time. Again, it shows that our sport draws competitive people, even if they don’t have time to participate in organized disc golf competitions.
And for the 29.57% of folks who didn’t play in a tournament this year because they don’t think they are good at disc golf, I have a couple of thoughts. First of all–welcome to the club because a good portion of us who play competitively also don’t think we are good at disc golf. But more importantly, if you want to improve your disc golf game, I think one of the best ways to do it is participate in your local leagues and tournaments. I remember being scared showing up to my first league, and I played awful. But the people on my card were very encouraging, and I learned so much as I kept showing up and watching disc golfers who were better than me and how they attacked the course. So don’t let your fear of not being good enough stop you. Once you set that aside and start showing up to leagues and other events, I know your game will improve. I saw it happen in myself, and I see it happen all the time.
And finally, our last stat nugget–for those who didn’t play in disc golf tournaments, what would help in convincing them to show up to future events?
I am surprised to see that over half of people who said that they didn’t play in a tournament said that them getting better at disc golf would convince them to show up to future events. So maybe it is an issue not people thinking they aren’t good at disc golf, but rather they just don’t think they are good enough. Again, refer to my earlier discussion of how participating in competitive disc golf will improve your game. I believe that nobody should ever feel like they aren’t good enough to participate in disc golf tournaments or leagues.
We also see that time/location changes could help almost half of those who didn’t participate in disc golf events show up in the future. Of course, this is a hard thing to get right since everyone’s schedule is different.
Let Them Play With Their Friends
Another piece of interesting information is that 45.87% of folks said that they would play more if they could play with their friends rather than strangers. While it isn’t always ideal, most tournament directors allow people to request being on the same card as their friends. Even if they don’t advertise this, any TD will tell you that there are plenty of disc golfers who have no problem asking anyway. But maybe if TDs are trying to draw more casual players to their events, they can make sure they know that they will be allowed to play with their friends.
So we covered lots of data in this one! What stood out to you that I might have missed commenting on? Do you have any advice for Tournament Directors? Please let us know in the comments!
And last but not least–thank your TDs! A Tournament Director is often a thankless volunteer position. These people donate their time and energy to create a positive event for their disc golf community. They grow the sport and are trying their best to be a positive influence in their communities. So thank you TDs!
Our second week of the professional disc golf team competition was another exciting one. Eagle McMahon dominated the tournament averaging 1077 rated rounds while making Fountain Hills look like a beginner course. Fellow Discmania teammate Simon Lizotte was not far behind him. The domination by the “crush brothers” earned enough points for Team Discmania to claim the win for the men’s side of the team competition.
On the women’s side, Finnish sensation Evalina Salonen extended her final round lead by shooting an incredible 1015 rated round; securing the win for Team Innova over a surging Paige Pierce and Team Dynamic Discs.
Team Innova won the overall competition when combining both results for both the men and women.
Get the discount code for the winning teams brand and
With another dominating performance by Team Innova, they are clearly #1 in the overall performance after two weeks. Team Discmania may have a chance to secure a few more victories on the men’s side of the competition if the Crush brothers keep finishing in the top positions. Team Prodigy and Discraft have the talent to compete on any given week, we just haven’t seen any top finishes yet.
On the women’s side, it appears that the real competition will be between Team Innova and Team Dynamic Discs. Prodigy, Discraft, and MVP all have talented players, but just don’t have the number of top tier players to earn enough points to compete throughout the overall season.
While some of the employees at Infinite Discs were discussing “Disc Golf Teams,” we thought it would be fun to find out who really has the best disc golf team — from an on the course competitive standpoint.
Our intern Ethan has created a website that shows team results for the different disc golf pro tour and national tour events using a point system similar to cross country and swimming.
To put something on the line, and reward the winning “team” we are also giving a 10% off discount code for the winning team’s brand the week following each major tournament.
Results from the Las Vegas Challenge are in. If you want to find out who won, and take advantage of this weeks discount code, check out the new team competition website atDiscGolfTeams.com
The 2019 Las Vegas Challenge kicks off the 2019 tour, and The MPO and FPO divisions played their first round on the beautiful Infinite Discs Course at the Wildhorse Golf Club on Thursday. One of the feature cards of the MPO division was the “Champions Card” which featured four previous champions of this event–Philo Brathwaite, Paul McBeth, Ricky Wysocki, and Eagle McMahon. This card was filmed by JoMez Productions, and can be watched on their excellent YouTube channel that just reached over 100K subscribers.
This round was highly anticipated in the disc golf world, because it gave us our first chance to see the two best disc golfers in the world play disc golf for the first time on tour with discs from their new sponsors. Just in case you have lived under a rock over the last few months, Paul McBeth and Ricky Wysocki announced that they will be changing up their bags due to new sponsorship agreements. Paul McBeth is now sponsored by Discraft, and Ricky Wysocki is now sponsored by Innova.
So I have decided to collect some of the information that everyone is concerned about–what discs are they throwing now? Below is a breakdown of every disc that both Paul and Ricky threw during their first round on the Infinite Discs course. I personally am not at the event, so as you will see there were a handful of discs that I am not positive about. But if you know which discs they are, please let us know in the comments.
So here is the data!
Paul McBeth’s First Round at LVC on the Infinite Discs Course
Paul had a decent round overall. The disc I felt he was the most accurate with was his Forces. He didn’t have to break it our a ton, but he seems to have really figured that disc out already. The disc he struggled with the most was his putter, the Luna. It is common to see these pros need some time to adjust when they change up their bag, and that’s all I’m going to credit this to. There were several long runs that we’re used to seeing Paul hit or at least draw metal on, and it just wasn’t there this round.
Ricky Wysocki’s First Round at LVC on the Infinite Discs Course
Ricky played a solid round overall. He seemed to be really comfortable with his green Champion Firebird that he was throwing off the tee all day. Similar to Paul, he seemed the most uncomfortable with his putter. He hit a few long putts, but he kept switching back and forth from a white putter to an orange putter. I am almost positive that they are both KC Aviars, but if I get news contrary I will update this post. He also fell victim to a vicious strong side spit out on hole 17 that may have impacted his confidence on an inside the circle putt on hole 18 that he left short.
All in all, it was just fun to watch disc golf again, and it is always fun watching these two professionals go at it on the course. I am excited to see how this event finishes out, and I am very excited to see these two get more accustomed to their new equipment throughout the season. I’m sure we are going to see some memorable moments from these two on this year’s tour.
What did you all take away from watching their first rounds? Did I make a mistake on my disc identifications? Please let me know in the comments!
Infinite Discs is a major sponsor at this years Las Vegas Challenge presented by Innova Champion Discs. We are the course sponsors for what is now known as the “Infinite Course.” To help us continue sponsoring professional disc golf events such as this, consider purchasing some of our Las Vegas Challenge fundraiser discs here.
What a year we have had and we are only halfway through! Synthya, Leomax, and I have been laying low at our house hoping things get somewhat back to normal. We have been focusing on our family, house projects, and NADGT. We hope everyone stays safe during these uncertain times.
