💸 Internet distance comes at a price
$300 for 300ft, 2022 official rules, Off-season activity, and Innova airs it out
Hello and welcome to week 5 of the off-season.
This week Andrew Presnell spoke with Brian Earhart on his podcast, The Flight Diary. They discuss his long stint in competitive soccer (D3 college), coaching and teaching as his day job, and finally his come-up in disc golf. Presnell is one of the few road warriors left. He plays more than triple the number of tournaments on the Pro Tour. To him, it’s not about the money he can make but about the competition in tournament play. Even if it means driving 12 hours through the night to play in a B-tier, he’ll make it happen.
$300 for 300ft
Are lessons with a pro worth it? Do you even have pros in your area offering lessons?
Disc golfers in the Charlotte, NC area are not only spoiled by the amazing courses, but by the number of touring pros calling it home in the off-season. One of those transplanted Charlotteans is Paul Ulibarri. His latest project is the Ulibarri Leadership Institute (ULI; very clever). He offers individual lessons, a casual round, or a group round for a fee. A 1-hour “disc golf lesson” with Ulibarri himself costs $300. Someone on r/discgolf reviewed the lesson as invaluable, and Ulibarri was an invested coach who made the process enjoyable and fruitful.
It’s common to hear in ball golf that private lessons are worth it. The instructor will immediately be able to tell what’s wrong with your swing and the steps to fix it. It can feel like your game dramatically improves. Why not the same for disc golf?
If $300/hr is too rich for your blood, then there are several pros out there offering cheaper lessons. Notable ones include Bradley Williams, Scott Stokely, and Brian Earhart. Reach out to your local pro to see what they might offer.
Official Rules of Disc Golf
The PDGA makes changes to their official rules every year. The changes usually don’t impact gameplay significantly, and this year is no exception. Here’s a quick breakdown of what might matter to you:
A disc supported by the basket in any way is counted as in, except if it comes to rest on the very top of the basket. That means Paul McBeth’s famous basket wedged birdie would be an ace in 2022.
Mandatory rule - Instead of observing the path the disc takes past the mando, the instant the disc passes into the restricted space (defined by the mando object and TD specified line), then the player has missed the mando.
Out of Bounds - Watch this short clip. It explains it better than I can.
The reason for the change was to prevent the player from being punished twice for their mistake.
PDGA B-Tiers now require players to have an active PDGA membership in order to sign up. They hope this will help players have an easier time signing up for those bigger tournaments.
Contracts Watch
New
Cole Redalen is a young player who played for Discraft in 2021. He’s now sponsored by Infinite Discs for 2022. He recently partnered with DGPM, and they worked to get him a new sponsorship. Infinite and DGPM are making plenty of moves this off-season.
Andrew Presnell extends his current sponsorship with Discraft for 1 more year. This will be his 4th year throwing their discs.
Michael Johansen has been with Discraft since 2008. He will continue to be with them through at least the 2024 season. They agreed on a 3-year extension.
Andrew Fish doesn’t tour full-time like many of the top pros, but he’s still considered a contender during the east coast swing. Fish re-signed with Discraft for the 2022 season and plans to “make it rain” next year. #marylanddiscgolf
Nick Carl - Best known for being a good friend of Paul McBeth and co-host of the Nick & Matt show. Carl announced on this week that he signed a 1-year extension with Discraft. He’s been on the Discraft Underground team for a few years now but got the bump up to the Tour Team mid-2021.
Predictions - BIG things are coming
Ricky Wysocki - Will he or won’t he? When will we know? The hints keep dropping for Wysocki to leave Innova.
Commentary from owner of RidgeRoller On Sunday, the owner of RidgeRoller announced that Wysocki will no longer be sponsored by them in 2022. Wysocki is known for pulling a cart around the course, and he had a signature bag with them in 2021. Could this mean he’ll follow Ulibarri and have a signature cart with ZÜCA? Dynamic Discs is closely tied with ZÜCA carts. That’s one more hint that Wysocki could move to DD.
Kyle Klein posted a story on Instagram that he has some big news to share in the coming weeks. There’s no way he’s leaving Discmania in 2022, but maybe he’ll be announcing signature discs or even a signature jersey. Avery Jenkins shared the same story on his Instagram. Like I said, there’s no way he’s switching yet… His current 2-year sponsorship is through the 2022 season.
Does Chris Dickerson feel married to the Prodigy brand? Dickerson feels like a player that should make a move or at least re-negotiate his contract. He’s said many times that he doesn’t play the full tour (west coast swing), because it doesn’t make sense financially. Why does a player that consistently finishes in the top 5 and has a USDGC title not play the full tour because of his sponsor?
Moves Made
Gregg Barsby - Contract extension with Innova (3 years)
Matt Orum - From Prodigy to Westside Discs (2 years)
Eric Oakley - From Dynamic Discs to Infinite Discs (1 year)
Gavin Rathbun - From Discmania to Dynamic Discs (2 years)
Kristin Tattar - Contract extension with Latitude 64 (4 years, worth $500k)
Drew Gibson - Contract extension with Infinite Discs (1 year & lifetime deal for signature line of discs)
New Plastic
Innova decided they weren’t going to hide the fact that they’re releasing the Discmania FD in their own lineup. Last week they released the Dark Rebel (the Original FD). It remains to be seen whether this new disc will be a direct FD replacement, but some say it almost looks like it has the same profile as a 2nd run FD. Regardless, the disc sold out on Innova’s Pro Shop the same day.
The Dark Rebel also seems to be doing a bad job of hiding something else.
Speaking of interesting stamp art… The stamp leak from last week was real, and Eagle McMahon’s new Cloud Breaker 3 releases December 15th across all distributors. The DD3 will feature Discmania’s new Special Blend S-line plastic. It will be slightly softer than their new C-line plastic, while providing more grip, extreme durability, and an extra 500ft of distance.
Løft Discs opened their Kickstarter for their new 14-speed distance driver last week, the Bohrium. The total backing has reached ~10x their original goal of $11,290. The Bohrium boasts a rounded rim that allows for slightly overstable flight, improved grip, and pain-free grenades (new sponsorship KJ USA?). There’s lots of criticism going around on why an established disc manufacturer needs to continue to use Kickstarter as their way to fund a new disc release. Remember to speak with your wallets folks.
Random Triples
Paul McBeth has finally surpassed Ken Climo as the all-time top earner with inflation factored in. UDisc revisited their top earners of all time analysis, and 2021 was a great season for all pros. It was the year that the most money was earned than ever before in disc golf.
Ever wondered what the top pros looked like 10 years ago? Disc Golf Monthly has a whole archive of rounds with commons names. Shout out to my local course, Patapsco Valley State Park.
Simon Lizotte’s podcast, Simon Says, starts tomorrow. He asked his followers to “Text me your biggest disc golf dilemma or crazy situation.” He’ll be going live and giving advice. Hopefully he’ll answer mine: How do I stop buying new discs?
Meme of the Week
Thanks for reading today. Go out and lose some discs this weekend!
- Charlie