🍂 Beautiful Vermont disc golf

Distance Tweaks, DG Rich, and 12 Claws

Sep 15, 2022

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. The only newsletter that filters through the overlapping discs in your bag.
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If you missed the PA recap, then I got you: The Most Underrated Round Ever

Let’s get into it.

Green Mountain Championship

Disc Golf Foliage View — Source: Smugglers’ Notch

PREVIEW (9/15-18)

Close your eyes and imagine your perfect disc golf day. The temp sits in the low 70s, leaves are changing, and the courses are immaculate with a resort-style feel.

Welcome to Jeffersonville, VT. GMC at Smugglers’ Notch Resort is the destination that makes your dreams a reality.

Players have anticipated this event all year. They get beautiful courses paired with resort accommodations that kick off the final stretch of the Tour.

Not only that, but this is the 1st playoff event. And starting today, players will spend 4 days reacquainting themselves with the highly-rated Brewster Ridge & Fox Run Meadows courses.

Everyone will be taking notes as this will be the location of the 2023 Worlds. Back in 2018, we saw Gregg Barsby & Paige Shue (Bjerkaas) take home their 1st World titles at Smuggs.

LAST YEAR RECAP

MPO/ Play began at Brewster Ridge, and it was a crowded leaderboard. There were 15 players within 3 strokes of the lead after one round.

But that all changed over at Fox Run where Chris Dickerson created separation with a -12 (1092 rated). He pulled ahead of Ricky Wysocki by 2 and Andrew Presnell by 3.

Dickerson continued stretching his lead in round 3 with a -13 (1088 rated) back at Brewster. His lead of 5 strokes carried him into the final day.

In dominating fashion, Dickerson beat Wysocki by 3 strokes and the rest of the field by 11. The Limestone Laser won his 1st and only DGPT Elite Series event that weekend.

FPO/ For the women, it played out similarly. After a solid 1st round, Hailey King almost dropped out of contention with a +6 (937 rated) at Brewster.

But she found her pace at Fox Run and shot an unimaginable course record at -9 (1052 rated). She catapulted herself into the lead with 4 strokes over Sarah Hokom.

In the final round, King allowed Hokom to catch up with only 3 holes to go. But using her distance advantage, King fought off the FH specialist and beat the rest of the field by 10 strokes.

PLAYER TO WATCH

StatMando @statmando

Paul McBeth has won the event immediately after Worlds each of the last 7 times, regardless if he wins Worlds or not. Paul McBeth's next registered event: Green Mountain Championship - where he has finished podium each of the last 3 years, with a win in 2019.

Karl Lafrolf @KLafrolf

Paul McBeth has podiumed in all of the events that immediately followed his previous World's wins: 2012: Pittsburgh Flying Disc Open (2nd) '13: Greater Hartford Open (2nd) '14: Memorial (1st) '15: Memorial (1st) '19: MVP Open (1st) Will the streak continue at GMC? @Paul_McBeth

You’ll be able to watch live all weekend on DGN. Or on next-day coverage from JomezPro, Gatekeeper Media, and GK Pro.

Big D in the Arena

Have you always wanted to be a “US Distance Champion”? On Monday, October 3rd USDGC is holding the 2022 US Distance Championship at Winthrop University.

Registration for the contest is open to the public this year and has triple the typical prize money. It’ll be free for all USDGC competitors and $50 for the public.

If you do elect to add “US Distance Qualifier” to your resume, then you have 18 days to hit the field and figure out how to throw farther than Double G, Simon Lizotte, or David Wiggins Jr.

Luckily, Aleksi Tuomela from Sketches For Humanity ran a genetic algorithm to find the “perfect” distance form. He found 2 interesting tweaks that aren’t typically recommended:

Rounding can theoretically create more torque
Moving the off-arm backward right before release adds power

The prime example of Big D is none other than Garrett Gurthie. He reaches back with the disc slightly “rounded”, and he slams his off-arm behind his back at the very end of the throw.

Today’s Edition is Sponsored by Powergrip USA

Originally in Finland, Powergrip is the world’s 1st disc golf retailer to operate on 2 continents. The largest store in Europe has finally brought its talents to the US.

Save 10% on every order this month with code PLYRSMTGSEP22. Happy shopping, my friends.

Random Dubs

1️⃣ Not to be overshadowed by USDGC, the MVP Open at Maple Hill released details on “disc golf’s richest ace contest.” Two weeks before USDGC, 8 men and 8 women will attempt to make a $1M shot.

At 6PM on Thursday 9/22, the men will have 3 throws each to drain a basket 600ft from Hole 1’s tee pad. The next day, the women will get the same chance at 450ft.

Those selected will come from a fan vote and UDisc’s soon-to-be-released Precise Power Index (PPI). The Million Dollar Shot will be live on DGN and post-produced by Gatekeeper.

2️⃣ Rumors back in June were finally confirmed by the DGPT. The 2022 Tour Championship will not be returning to Hornet’s Nest in Charlotte, NC.

Since the start of the bracket-style Tour finale, it’s been held at this historic public park for 3 years. The park is going through an infrastructure project and cannot handle the event.

Fortunately, Charlotte is a disc golf mecca, and just down the road is Nevin Park. The heavy wood-style golf will remain present, and some locals say it’s a better course.

But this exposes how little the Tour might have control over. Is it time to look into a private course and cement a finale location for the foreseeable future?

Meme of the Week

Greatest of All Trolls (Source: u/TBKustomDyes)

Thanks for reading today. Get out and be The Champ this weekend!

- Charlie

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