Tag: disc golf

How Much Has Disc Golf Grown in 2019?

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I loved writing this topic about The 2019 State of Disc Golf Growth because I myself am new to the sport of disc golf. I have heard of disc golf before, but never actually had gone out and played disc golf. I decided to see how the sport has grown from 2018 to 2019. As a newcomer to the sport, I think this article was helpful to me to know what I can do as a new disc golf player to help generate more popularity for disc golf brands and for the sport.

Most of us are familiar with the popular hashtag #GrowDiscGolf).

The shared belief behind the rallying cry began with the first disc golf pioneers and became an integral part of the sport’s very personality as it spread to the next generation of new players, and then the next. The conviction that we have a duty to share the sport is encoded in the DNA of every die-hard player and has been for decades, long before the advent of social media.

The 2019 State of Disc Golf survey asked several questions that sought to measure and identify the details of this most singular aspect of the sport – a topic which is finally attracting some well-deserved attention. Disc golf’s continuous and quick growth is obvious as we had more responses than the year before. Disc golfers across the globe are doing their part to grow the sport and with an increase of almost 10% in responses in our survey, you let us know what you’re doing to grow disc golf.

GROWTH

In just the past three years we saw that nearly 14% of respondents had heard about disc golf for the first time. Compare that to when respondents actually played disc golf for the first time and that number is up to over 53%! We did see a slight dip in growth from 2017 (19.2%) to 2018 (17.4%).

Our survey also showed that disc golfers are doing an amazing job at sharing the sport with others. 85% of our disc golfers have shared equipment, ran a disc golf league, or helped install a course physically. Last year, this number was at 88%, so again a slight dip in growth, but players are doing an amazing job at sharing the sport with their friends and family.

DISC GOLF COURSES

Disc Golfers still have trouble growing the sport because the lack of courses available made to us. In our survey 63% said there were no permanent courses added to their area, and 30% said only one course was added to their local area. The number of courses added from last year to this year in our survey dropped about 10%! There is still growth being made but with well over half our respondents not having a new course built in their area means there’s still room to grow.

Most of our disc golfers do have access to multiple courses. 63% of our respondents said they have between 3-6 courses in their local area. The lack of new courses built
could help explain why disc golf didn’t grow as much in 2018 as in 2017. What improvements do you all want to see in the growth of the sport in the year 2019? What are you going to do to continue to help Grow Disc Golf? Comment below and let us know.

What improvements do you all want to see in the growth of the sport in the year 2019? What are you going to do to continue to help Grow Disc Golf?

 


 

 

Paul McBeth In the Bag 2019

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On the heals of his big win at the Waco Annual Charity Open where he threw a perfect -18 on his 2nd round, Paul McBeth has released his “In The Bag” video for 2019. Now you can see what Paul’s first year throwing Discraft looks like!

Thanks to JOMEZ PRODUCTIONS for producing the video and for capturing that great performance in Waco as well! Here is the video for you, followed by links to the discs that Paul McBeth is bagging this year:

So what discs are Paul McBeth throwing?

LUNA – Putter 

  • Speed: 3.0
  • Glide: 3.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Putt & Approach

 

ZONE – Putt and Approach

  • Speed: 4.0
  • Glide: 3.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Putt & Approach

 

 

DRONE – Mid-Range

  • Speed: 5.0
  • Glide: 4.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 4.0
  • Primary Use: Mid Range – Overstable

 

BUZZZ – Mid-Range

  • Speed: 5.0
  • Glide: 4.0
  • Turn: -1.0
  • Fade: 1.0
  • Primary Use: Mid Range – Straight

 

WASP – Mid-Range

  • Speed: 5.0
  • Glide: 5.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Mid Range – Various Flights

 

 

TRACKER – Fairway Driver

  • Speed: 8.0
  • Glide: 5.0
  • Turn: -1.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Control Driver – Moderately Overstable

 

 

PREDATOR – Fairway Driver

  • Speed: 9.0
  • Glide: 4.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 4.0
  • Primary Use: Control Driver – Overstable

 

 

UNDERTAKER – Fairway Driver

  • Speed: 9.0
  • Glide: 5.0
  • Turn: -1.0
  • Fade: 2.0
  • Primary Use: Control Driver – Straight

 

FORCE – Distance Driver

  • Speed: 12.0
  • Glide: 5.0
  • Turn: 0.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Distance Driver

 

KONG – Distance Driver

  • Speed: 12.0
  • Glide: 5.0
  • Turn: -1.0
  • Fade: 3.0
  • Primary Use: Distance Driver – Overstable

 

 

Watch These Discs In Use

Now, for your enjoyment, watch Paul throw these discs in his -18 round at the Waco Annual Charity Open. Obviously, he did not take long to adapt to his new bag of discs and makes great use of the different flight characteristics of his discs.

 

TOP TWENTY TUESDAY – MARCH 12TH 2019

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Infinite Discs is happy to present another Top 20 Tuesday chart, looking back at the discs that sold the most during the last week. We break these charts down by plastics as well so you can see which plastic types are most popular for each disc. New discs will often spike in the chart as other top sellers shuffle position. It can be fun to see which discs keep up the pace.

Here we go…

Top Twenty Tuesday for March 11th, 2019

#1 – Champion Colored Glow FIREBIRD
#2 – Star DESTROYER
#3 – D-Line P2
#4 – Signature ESP BUZZZ
#5 – Star ORC
#6 – ESP BUZZZ
#7 – Star WRAITH
#8 – Champion FIREBIRD
#9 – Metal Flake Glow C-Blend PHARAOH
#10 – ESP FORCE
#11 – Jawbreaker ZONE
#12 – Star TEEBIRD
#13 – Signature Elite Z ZONE
#14 – KC Pro AVIAR
#15 – Star SONIC
#16 – P-Line P2
#17 – Classic Blend Burst WARDEN
#18 – DX AVIAR
#19 – Champion FIRESTORM
#20 – Signature Elite Z FORCE

With our first shipment of the Nate Sexton Champion Colored Glow FIREBIRDS last week, that disc noticeably demolished all of the competition, making even the trusty Star Destroyer look like a very weak spot #2. The other contenders in this week’s chart are familiar from previous charts, including three of the McBeth signature discs from Discraft and a couple version of the Discmania P2, among others.

This week we thought it would be fun to take a look at the chart of what was selling during the same week last year. In 2018, you can see that there were several new releases and special editions stealing the spotlight:

We’ll continue to show the previous year’s best-sellers from time to time, just for a walk down memory lane to see what was hot a year ago compared to what it hot today.

–> Each week we’ll invite you to leave a prediction for a certain chart position on next week’s TOP TWENTY TUESDAY report. The first three people to predict that chart position correctly in the comments will win a $10 gift card for the Infinite Discs website.

WINNER – The #11 spot this week ended up being a rogue entry with the Jawbreaker ZONE. While it was not previously on the chart, those sales must have been fueled by a big Discraft restock last week. Unfortunately, nobody guessed the Jawbreaker Zone, so we have no winners this week. But be sure to guess again fro next week’s chart!

GIFT CARD PREDICTION FOR NEXT WEEK:  Leave your comment below this blog to predict the #8 spot for next week’s chart.

State of Disc Golf 2019 Survey Demographic Overview

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Infinite Discs conducted its annual survey of disc golfers in the beginning of 2019 so that we could once again take a look at the growth and opinions held by those who play disc golf. It is always fun to see the changing trends and to weight the opinions of a large group of players. Infinite Discs has been conducting the survey since 2014 and as always, we thank those of you who contributed.

While some of the basic information that we asked, like gender, employment, location, etc. may only be marginally interesting on their own, those answers also help to analyze more interesting data from the other questions. We will continue to publish those results and analysis in the coming weeks. For now, here are the basics…

6542 Disc Golfers Participated in the Survey This Year

Of those surveyed, 93.6% were male, 5.9% were female, and the remaining .5% did not specify gender. That result is virtually identical with the 2018 results, showing no change in the balance of male vs female players who took the survey. While that may not translate exactly into the percentage of total players (these are simply survey participants), it does represent a continued disparity between males and females involved in the sport.

Married vs Single

The majority of players who took the survey this year are married or with a domestic partner while 35% are single and 5% or divorced, separated, or widowed.

Age of Survey Participants

While it appears that the bulk of disc golfers still fall in the age range from 29 to 50, we must also consider that few youth would know about or participate in a lengthy disc golf survey. It would still be nice to see the numbers grow in that younger age group below 18-years-old. There is a lot of growth potential in the junior high and high school age groups.

Employment Status

While there were some different “other” responses in the survey which specified occupations like bartender, caretaker, lawyer, frolfer, professional disc golfer, none of your business, etc., most responses fell into the basic categories indicated in the chart. We see that 76.2% of those surveyed are employed for wages, while 8.9% are self-employed, 7.4% are students, and 3% are retired with the remaining falling in other categories. I supposed it is great news that the unemployed percentage dropped from 2.5% in the 2018 survey to 1.7% in 2019’s survey.  The number of retired players also increased from 2.3% last year to 3% this year.

Most Popular States

We will reiterate that these results are drawn from those who participated in the survey. While it may not represent the entire disc golf scene, it gives a pretty nice snapshot of where there are more disc golfers. Plus, we realize that our survey is not shared nearly as much outside the USA.

For those of you who like a “heat map” of where survey participants live, here is map of the USA where the darker the state is shaded, the more people participated in the 2019 State of Disc Golf Survey. The lighter shaded states had fewer participants:

We also had a very healthy number of survey participants from Canada, Europe and Scandinavia. There was one survey participant from Africa.

Watch this blog for more 2019 State of Disc Golf Survey results!

TOP TWENTY TUESDAY – MARCH 5th

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Infinite Discs is happy to present another Top 20 Tuesday chart, looking back at the discs that sold the most during the last week. We break these charts down by plastics as well so you can see which plastic types are most popular for each disc. New discs will often spike in the chart as other top sellers shuffle position. It can be fun to see which discs keep up the pace.

Here we go…

Top Twenty Tuesday for March 5th, 2019

#1 – Star DESTROYER 
#2 – Swirly S-Line CD3
#3 – Signature ESP BUZZZ
#4 – ESP FORCE
#5 – Classic Blend Burst WARDEN
#6 – ESP BUZZZ
#7 – D-Line P2
#8 – 400 D1 MAX
#9 – Swirly S-Blend PHARAOH
#10 – S-Line TD RUSH
#11 – Star WRAITH
#12 – 750 Spectrum H2 V2
#13 – XT Mix NOVA
#14 – Apex ALPHA
#15 – 750 Spectrum M3
#16 – Metal Flake Glow C-Blend PHARAOH
#17 – Champion FIREBIRD
#18 – DX AVIAR
#19 – Champion THUNDERBIRD
#20 – I-Blend PHARAOH

The first thing you may notice on this week’s top 20 chart is that the Star Destroyer reclaimed its top position. With the sold out Paul McBeth putter, the top spot was surrendered. McBeth still held onto the #3 with his signature ESP Buzzz.  The #2 spot was claimed by a new plastic release for the Discmania CD3 in Swirly S-Line.  The Classic Blend Burst WARDEN surged to the 5th spot this time, gaining a little momentum with a slew of different stamp designs to choose from.

You’ll also notice a strong entry into the charts for Prodigy as they released their D1 Max distance driver last week, along with a slew of pro signature discs. The Kevin Jones H2 V2 and M3 both hit the charts as popular sellers and are being restocked due to demand.  Also, three different plastic blends of the Pharaoh distance driver hit the top 20 this week as it continues to gain popularity as a trusty long-bomber.

Here is a chart showing how many times different brands appeared in the Top 20 this time:

–> Each week we’ll invite you to leave a prediction for a certain chart position on next week’s TOP TWENTY TUESDAY report. The first three people to predict that chart position correctly in the comments will win a $10 gift card for the Infinite Discs website.

WINNER – There were a lot of people who guessed the #6 spot for this week. In fact, too many. As we’ve declared in the post every week, the first three people to guess right would win the gift card. So, according to the time stamps on the comments, we congratulate Javan, Drew, and Dustin for guessing the ESP Buzzz (not the Signature ESP Buzzz) as the #6 disc on the list.

GIFT CARD PREDICTION FOR NEXT WEEK:  Leave your comment below this blog to predict the #11 spot for next week’s chart.

4 Takeaways from the 2019 Las Vegas Challenge

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The Las Vegas Challenge is a wrap! And tomorrow the first Disc Golf Pro Tour event of 2019 kicks off in Arizona with the Memorial Championship Presented by Discraft. So the season has officially kicked off, and we wanted to take a look back at 4 takeaways from the LVC.

1. Calvin Heimberg—Remember My Name!

He isn’t Heisenberg, but he is going to still make sure you remember his name! Calvin Heimberg went into the final round with a 6 stroke lead on the field. After struggling on the front 9, he birdied 8 out of the 9 final holes of the tournament to comeback and win his first NT event by two strokes. Some of you may recognize his name from a handful of tour events last year including a top 3 finish at Maple Hill, but he has mostly stayed local in Florida. But now that he is done with school, it looks like he will be on tour full time this year, and if LVC was any indication, we may be seeing this 1041 rated 23 year old on the top of the podium a few times this year.

2. Paige Bjerkaas Shows She’s the World Champ for a Reason

Paige Bjerkaas may have surprised folks when she claimed the world championship in 2018, but her impressive performance at LVC shows that it isn’t a fluke. She has put in the work and shown that she is worthy to be in the conversation as one of the best women to play the game right now. She finished her final round tied with Catrina Allen for first place after missing a putt from inside the circle. Instead of shutting down mentally, she laced a beautiful drive on the first hole of the playoff that set her up with a 40 ft jump putt that she banged home for the birdie and the win. We are excited to see what she has in store for us for the rest of the year.

3.Paul McBeth and Ricky Wysocki Still Need to Adjust to New Discs…Maybe…

The McBeast and Raptor Ricky played their first tournament with brand new equipment from new product sponsors. Their first round on the Infinite Discs course was filmed by JoMez, and when you review the film, they both looked a bit shaky at times, especially on the putting greens. So naturally, the easy conclusion is they must be needing to get used to their new discs, right? Well, that might be true, but at the same time they both managed to finish in the top 10. If there was a struggle due to new discs, it wasn’t too significant, and both competitors should be 100% very soon.

4. An Improved and Competitive MPO Field=Soooo Much Fun to Watch

After a crazy final round that featured crazy comebacks from the likes of Eagle McMahon and Eric Oakley, folks who don’t have a horse in the race left LVC feeling very excited. These competitors have put in the work all offseason, and the competition up top is going to be stiff this year. Most will agree that Ricky and Paul are still in their own tier at the top, but after that, it gets messy and crowded. We are going to see some competitive disc golf this year with lots of disc golfers finishing tournaments just one or two strokes behind the weekend’s champion. We are excited to watch it all play out.

 

What did you all think of this year’s event? Are there any takeaways that we missed out on? Please let us know in the comments!

Final Two Days of Stamp Wars 2019

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The Stamp Wars 2019 journey has been a fun one, from the submission process in November 2018, to the voting in December, to the final sell-off of the top 5 designs in February. Now the end is near!

There are only two days left until March and that is when we’ll declare the winning stamp based on which one sold the most. Here is where the stamps rank right now, based on sales:

#1 – OCTO CATCHER

#2 – THE MAN THE BOG AND THE FROG

#3 – DO NOT ANGER THE ENTS

#4 – SECOND PRESSING

#5 – SHARK CHAINBUSTER

“Octo Catcher” is holding onto the lead, but at the moment of this posting is only 10 discs ahead of “The Man, The Bog, and the Frog.” We’ve also seen a lot of recent action from “Do Not Anger the Ents” which is only 15 discs behind 2nd place, and 25 discs behind the 1st spot.  “Second Pressing” with its vinyl record design is 12 discs behind 3rd place, and “Shark Chainbuster” is taking up the rear.

The winner of this final round will be determined by which stamp has sold the most by Friday, March 1st. The winner will receive another gift card from Infinite Discs and will also show up on additional discs during the 2019 season.

Thanks for supporting this fun event!

TOP TWENTY TUESDAY – FEBRUARY 26TH

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Infinite Discs is happy to present another Top 20 Tuesday chart, looking back at the discs that sold the most during the last week. We break these charts down by plastics as well so you can see which plastic types are most popular for each disc. New discs will often spike in the chart as other top sellers shuffle position. It can be fun to see which discs keep up the pace.

Here we go…

Top Twenty Tuesday for February 26th, 2019

#1 – Paul McBeth Prototype Putter 
#2 – Plasma FIREBALL
#3 – Star DESTROYER
#4 – ESP FORCE
#5 – Signature Swirly S-Line P2
#6 – Signature ESP BUZZZ
#7 – Metal Flake Glow C-Blend PHARAOH
#8 – ESP BUZZZ
#9 – Plasma AXIS
#10 – D-Line P2
#11 – Champion FIRESTORM
#12 – Signature Titanium UNDERTAKER
#13 – Star ROADRUNNER
Champion Color Glow WRAITH
#14 – Signature Elite Z FORCE
#15 – Signature Elite Z ZONE
#16 – Swirly S-Blend PHARAOH
#17 – ESP VULTURE
#18 – DX TEEBIRD
#19 – P-Line P2
#20 – Classic Blend Moonshine JUDGE

You can see by the chart that the Paul McBeth putter (LUNA) took the top spot by a large margin. Considering how much he threw it in the Las Vegas Challenge (see his first round throws here) it is not surprising that the putter had a big spotlight on it.  Other McBeth signature discs, and Discraft in general, ruled the chart last week.

The Axiom Plasma Fireball was a new plastic release that pushed that disc to the number two spot. Fans of the limited edition Axiom and MVP releases tend to break down the doors on the weeks when those are released. You’ll see the MVP Plasma Axis also made the chart for the same reason.

The Infinite Discs Pharaoh moved into two spots on the chart with both the Swirly S-Blend and the popular Metal Flake Glow C-Blend taking the #7 and #16 spots.  The Innova Star Destroyer moved from last week’s #5 spot back up to #3.

Here is a chart of how many times each brand showed up in the Top 20 this week, with Discraft almost taking half the positions:

–> Each week we’ll invite you to leave a prediction for a certain chart position on next week’s TOP TWENTY TUESDAY report. The first three people to predict that chart position correctly in the comments will win a $10 gift card for the Infinite Discs website.

WINNER – It looked like we’d hit a 3rd week without a winner, but one person nailed it, and with a disc that hadn’t hit the previous chart as a new release. Les predicted: “Discmania swirly s line Simon Lizotte Sky God 2 should roll into the #5.” That was right on! Congratulations Les!

GIFT CARD PREDICTION FOR NEXT WEEK:  Leave your comment below this blog to predict the #6 spot for next week’s chart.

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