Originally published at: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/05/01/mailbag-putting-circles-restarting-pro-disc-golf/
Welcome to Ultiworld Disc Golf’s brand new mailbag! You don’t necessarily see my byline around here too much — I am more often behind the scenes as the publisher, but I’m still here as a co-host of the Upshot podcast with Jamie Thomas and I generally report from Worlds and USDGC every year.
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Q: Listening to last week’s episode of The Upshot has me rethinking an idea that’s been kicked around for a while.
I think we could add a third circle and I think all three circles could or should be different sizes. Circle 1 at 5m or 16.4’ would be the new gimme/bullseye range. Almost 100% of MPO putts will be made in this range. I bet FPO is also above 95%. Circle 2 is at 15m or 49.2’ would be a good place to start referencing putts that begin to offer a challenge. Also, no moving past your lie in this new Circle 2. That means step putts move back out to 50’. Then circle 3 is at 30m or 98.4’. These are malleable but they’re on another level.
Now I’m not married to or convinced these are the right distances. Maybe 5m, 15m, and 25m is better. That’s up to someone else.
Lastly, this is where I’m supposed to point out other sports have different layouts on their courts, fields, etc. on the pro level vs. what ams play on.
– Bailey M.
A: So, as I said on the podcast, I am 100% into the idea of more granular information about putting (and shots in general).
Let me expand on your idea a bit.
You still need a ‘tap-in’ range — right now, that number is set at 3.3m (or about 11 feet), but I think that should just be simplified to 3m (~10 feet). Hardly ever does a player miss putts from this range, and I think it’s bad to have those stats crowding the actual putting percentages. This mirrors the current C1x.
So then we can set circle 1 at 5m instead of 10m. That gives us a narrow band — from 3m to 5m (~10 feet to 16.5 feet) — of what we should just call Circle 1 putting. Lots of putts come from this range.
Then we set Circle 2 at 10m (~33′), which is currently the boundary of circle 1. Then we set Circle 3 at 15m (~49′) and Circle 4 at 25m (~82′).
From a logistics side, you could draw or flag Circles 1, 2, and 3, or still just draw two circles: C1 and C3, which creates no additional work for TDs. Inside of C3, no step or jump putting.
Why add this additional complexity? Certainly, I am in favor of keeping things as simple as possible, but our current putting buckets are too big. There is really a massive difference between a 12 foot putt and a 30 foot putt, but those are both included in C1x. That doesn’t make sense. Nor does using this more confusing but more useful C1x stat. Circle 1 putting should automatically exclude tap-ins. Make a separate C0 or Bullseye putting stat.
So now we are splitting Circle 1 into two much more meaningful bands: C1 (close putts that aren’t gimmes) and C2 (testers). Then you have C3 (long but makeable putts with the additional challenge of requiring an actual putt, eliminating the questionable step putting from the edge of the current Circle 1) and C4 (long-range bombs).
I think these bins more neatly separate different levels of difficulty in putting and provide deeper insight into the skills of pros at various distances. Just look at how many distance categories there are on the PGA website!
As we improve statistics keeping to include actual distances on every putt (not just crude approximations like we have now), creating various bins will be far easier. But as a first step, let’s add some more circles and start being better able to appreciate the skill differentials between players.
Question of the Week: As it stands, the professional tour is scheduled to restart competition on July 5th at the Disc Golf Pro Tour’s Portland Open. Do you see that happening? If not, when do you think we get back, and for which tournament? Finally, what’s going to happen with the 2020 Majors?
– Lisa B.
A: This week, a number of states have begun to loosen stay-at-home orders to allow for the reopening of some businesses — and plenty of disc golf courses. That’s obviously a good sign, and it means that lots of people who are doing serious social distancing will be able to play at their local courses again soon with the green light from local authorities.
Unfortunately, the step up to professional competition — even if it’s done without fans — is likely to be a far slower process. It is very difficult for me to imagine a world in which the Disc Golf Pro Tour gets out in front of the PGA Tour with tournaments.
Right now, the PGA Tour is scheduled to get back to the course on June 11th. The Guardian reports that the Tour is looking to get a million COVID-19 tests to be able to test players, caddies, and officials to be able to resume competition.
“We are going to need to be able to test players, caddies and other constituents before we return, but we need to do so in a way that’s not going to take away from the critical need that we’re currently facing,” PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan said. “And we feel confident based on the advice that we’re getting from medical experts that we’ll be in that position.”
Will the Disc Golf Pro Tour adopt similar standards? It seems like it could be far more challenging for the DGPT to acquire tests, even if it were financially feasible.
I’m not so sure that the standard can be that if a course is open, then a DGPT event can take place there. You have to be able to assure safety and manage potentially serious PR risks if you are going to restart competition.
“Safety, for the players and for the fans, trumps everything,” Dr. Anthony Fauci told the New York Times. “If you can’t guarantee safety, then unfortunately you’re going to have to bite the bullet and say, ‘We may have to go without this sport for this season.’”
A Golf.com analyst thinks that the PGA Tour is going to ultimately push back their June and July events. The PDGA has already done just that, postponing or canceling Majors and National Tour events through the end of July.
As much as I want to be optimistic, I think that an early July pro disc golf event remains very unlikely. My target is late August or early September, which maybe means MVP Open at Maple Hill and then Green Mountain *cough* World *cough* Championships.
I think that’s a solid scenario, all things considered. Get a warm up at Maple Hill and then play Worlds, continue on the east coast with the last two NTs, USDGC, and the DGPT Championship. Integrate those events under a single points roof and still pay out a combo DGPT/NT points bonus.
This strikes me as the most likely scenario, with a notably lower likelihood for both starting up in July or not playing at all this season.