What Discs Did Paul McBeth and Ricky Wysocki Throw in the First Round on Tour With New Sponsors?
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
Course Par: 59
Round Score: 50 (-9) (two penalty strokes)
Hole by Hole Breakdown:
- Predator, Luna, Luna
- Undertaker, Luna, Luna
- Force, Luna
- Wasp, Luna
- Kong, Luna
- Luna (OB), Luna, Luna
- Drone, Luna, Luna
- Predator, Zone, Luna, Zone (tap in)
- Force, Zone, Luna
- Undertaker, Luna, Luna
- Force, Zone, Force (tap in)
- Undertaker, Luna, Undertaker (tap in)
- Wasp, Luna
- Force, Luna
- Predator (OB), Luna
- Predator, Luna
- Kong, Luna, Luna
- Force, Luna
Total Disc Molds used: 8
Most Used Disc Mold: Luna (50%)
Most Used Driver: Force (13% of total)
Most Used Midrange: Wasp, only thrown twice.
Round Overview:
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
Course Par: 59
Round Score: 48 (-11)
Hole by Hole Breakdown:
***updated from earlier post due to new info
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (orange)
- KC Roc, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (orange)
- Destroyer, KC Aviar?? (not filmed), KC Aviar (orange)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white)
- Monster, KC Aviar (white)
- KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (white)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white)
- Firebird, Pig, KC Aviar (white)
- Destroyer, AviarX3, AviarX3 (tap in)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (white)
- Firebird, Pig, Firebird (tap in)
- Max, KC Aviar (white)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (orange)
- Destroyer, KC Aviar (white)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (orange)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (orange)
- Firebird, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (white)
- Destroyer, KC Aviar (white), KC Aviar (white)
Total Disc Molds used: 8
Most Used Disc Mold: KC Aviar (54%)
Most Used Driver: Firebird (23% of total)
Most Used Midrange: KC Roc, only thrown once.
Round Overview:
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!
Paul has seem to lose that touch forehand that he did have with Innova. The Zone appears to be that disc. Well, it is the 1st tournament and watching the beginning of round 3, he is still in top 10. Still Paul McBeth.
Loooooove this data!!! Great post
Great post, love the idea. It seems to me Paul is putting with way more hyzer, I wonder if he won’t make as many long ones because of this. So, was the Pig Ricky’s Harp replacement? I saw him throw one short forehand in one of the rounds that definitely would have been a Harp in previous years.
Pink is I am told a CryZtal Sparkle, or possibly a normal Z Sparkle Undertaker for Paul McBeth
Thank you! I will update the post!
Great post – would love to see this more!
Love this format of article. It’s very cool to see a breakdown of what players throw during a round. Thanks!
As a data analyst, I’d like to offer a feedback though (i wouldn’t do this unless I genuinely liked what you are doing and want to see more). The “most used” disc report is fairly uninformative. Naturally, players are going to throw their putters at least once on every hole, besides “tap in”s which aren’t really throws and should be disregarded. If they miss they will putt again, so the “most used” disc is probably going to be their putter. Also, when a mid range was only thrown a few times that doesn’t really qualify as “most used” for me. Better metrics might be to define “most used distance disc” as being the most frequently used disc out of the sample of discs intended to go 300+ feet, and most used approach disc as being the most frequently used disc out of the sample of discs intended to be thrown between 66-300ft. Then disregard any throw inside of circle 2 because it is putt that is almost certainly going to be their preferred putter, which we can obviously see from the list of throws, (which by the way is fantastic.)
Please keep these blog posts up.
Thank you (and everyone) for the great feedback! Unfortunately we won’t be at every event this year, but I will try to put together a few more posts like this one here and there throughout the year. Also for what it’s worth, I have heard CCDG has been doing a great job of tracking what discs the pros are throwing on the rounds that they film. So if you love this kind of info, be sure to tune into their videos!
Great post! I would love to see this data for all players on all rounds, but getting the top players is a fun start!
thank you for posting this information
I’d even go farther and say they the NT and DGPT should require players to pre-report their bag so that they can gather stats on discs being thrown. It’s definitely in the best interest of the manufacturers to have those stats available for the general public.
I really enjoyed seeing this info as well! Thank you!
This was exactly what I was looking for.
Really wish the commentators would make it imperative info to include in the videos.
Does look like the Pig is the new Harp.
But I don’t think anything is Paul’s new FD3 yet.