🦫 Beaver State Downpour
🦫 Beaver State Downpour
Make Moves, Italian Knock-off, and Mythbusters
Hello and welcome. This is The Players Meeting, where we bring you the best disc golf highlights each week. Like Sportscenter, for frolfers.
Email Read Time: 5 Minutes & 03 Seconds
If you missed the BSF primer, then I got you: DoubleG’s Jerky Empire
Let’s get into it.
Beaver State Fling (Silver Series)
RESULTS - 🏆 GARRETT GURTHIE & VALERIE MANDUJANO
MPO/ It was wet and mentally taxing in Estacada, OR. Players described Friday as a “car wash” with mini lakes and streams forming on fairways.
Despite the conditions, Corey Ellis went bogey-free for -9 (1063 rated). He was followed by 8 other players at -7.
On Saturday, Garrett Gurthie blew through the West course with a staggering -11 (1080 rated). Ellis fought through early mistakes and bad baskets to stay 1 back of Gurthie’s lead.
Then came Championship Sunday. Joel Freeman made a charge with 10 birdies and an ace (👇). But Gurthie kept it clean all 3 rounds to secure the victory.
Playing with a lot of confidence, the drives and putts were still clicking since last week. And DoubleG fulfilled the promise of getting his “1 in a row” win.
FPO/ Starting early Friday, players saw ideal scoring conditions for the East course. Sarah Hokom took advantage with a hot -6 (998 rated).
Moving to the West course, Catrina Allen worked her magic with -7 (1011 rated) to separate herself from Ohn Scoggins & Valerie Mandujano by 4.
The final round slogged along until Hole 6 where Allen’s bogey caused a 3-stroke swing. Mandujano continued the push and took over the lead.
Allen tried her best to make up for her early mistake, but the title slipped away like her putter in the rain. From 4 back to 4 ahead, Mandujano took it down for back-to-back wins on Tour.
STANDOUT PLAYER
Cole Redalen - Back in his home state, the 17-year-old got his game clicking. He recently dropped his EV-7 sponsorship and went back to the Luna as his putter. Coincidence?
With sub-par finishes at most DGPT events this year, he took 8th at PDXO and now 4th at BSF. Let’s hope the young Drew Gibson mimic can continue this trend outside of Oregon.
HIGHLIGHT
Chasing down GG, Joel Freeman aced Hole 13 with a 400ft skip off the road.
Payday for Latitude 64°
The never-ending conversation of bringing outside money into disc golf saw movement this month. Epic Games sponsored PDXO’s coverage, and 2 European private equity firms effectively acquired Latitude 64°.
Founded in 2005, Lat64 is the leading disc manufacturer in Europe. And over the years, they’ve #mademoves to cement that title:
Partner/manufacturer to Dynamic Discs and together co-own Westside Discs forming “Trilogy”
Manufacturer of Discmania’s Evolution Line and assisted in their new factory
Signed Kristin Tattar to the biggest public contract for an FPO player
Became co-owner of Kastaplast with plans to upscale the cult-favorite brand
What could this mean for Lat64 and disc golf?
Sharing with Ultiworld, David Berglund - CEO and co-founder - said the main motivation was to enable them to do more at once. They want to expand R&D, bring digital platforms (e.g. Disc Golf Valley) more mainstream, and grow the sport further. Not to forget, they likely got a well-deserved payday.
Will this happen to US equivalents? Probably not… But this acquisition is not something to be overlooked.
While the gap between US & EU pros has been slowly shrinking, the gap between manufacturers may soon be a thing of the past.
Fresh Plastic
Insights by OTB Discs… Where the discs are VIRTUALLY IN YOUR HAND.
🛸 OTB’s Highlight: Special Blend Buzzz
Oh boy, another Buzzz. But this isn’t just a commemorative disc with a special stamp… It’s a Special Blend with a special stamp. Discraft is hyped up on this plastic.
It’s brand new and unnamed but similar to the 2020 Tour Series (Z-Swirl) with a sparkle additive. This somewhat stiff blend also got used for the OTB x Paige Pierce Nuke from last month. Watch her impressions here.
Digging deeper into OTB’s wealth of knowledge, there’s been chatter that Trilogy’s new Ice Plastic looks/feels the same as Discmania’s “Italian” C-line. After handling thousands of these, they tend to agree.
If true, it’s not much of a surprise with both factories neighbors in Sweden, and it means you don’t have to wait for Discmania’s limited releases. The popular Justice and Raider are easily available in Ice.
Random Dubs
1️⃣ In the off-season, Simon Lizotte released a DGN series (Finding The Lines) documenting him and Avery Jenkins designing a course in Nashua, NH.
The build has since begun, but recently concerns about its completion have surfaced. Like many new public courses, local citizens’ complaints could be the cause of the delay.
Sign the petition in support of the new DiscGolfPark. Yeah, I know… Change.org petitions probably do nothing. But if there’s a chance and you could feel good for a day, then it’s worth a shot.
2️⃣ If you saw a 50 min video from Overthrow DG and swiped past it, then here’s the myth they debunked:
For BH, you should not pull the disc in a straight line. The disc goes out (reach back), in (power pocket), then out again for release (tip of the whip).
Anyone who throws 500ft does this even if they preach throwing in a straight line. Watch their entire form review with Christine Jennings… It’ll be more relatable than you think.
Tweet of the Week
Thanks for reading today. Get out and practice awkward putts this week!
- Charlie
What'd you think of this today’s edition?