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Tournament Talk: In The WACO Of Pandemic

Originally published at: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/03/17/tournament-talk-waco-pandemic/

Photo: DGPT –Alyssa Van Lanen

So it looks like we’re going to be without1 disc golf for, well, who knows how long.

As painful and difficult a decision this was originally for the PDGA to make, the decision looks more and more justified, as public health and limiting the spread of the COVID-19 virus is obviously the most important thing. It is incumbent on every single one of us to put aside our pride and pastimes, and to do our part by limiting our time in public.

Please, stay home. Putt on your own, throw into a blanket in your basement, watch and support your media of choice. Just stay home.

At the very least, no mob golf.

Unfortunately, the rapid spread of the virus and our national reaction to this has taken some of the spotlight away from what we saw at the Waco Annual Charity Open this past weekend: Colton Montgomery taking down the biggest win of his career, and Eveliina Salonen taking her second career DGPT victory.

Montgomery came off the chase card to win his first DGPT event in spectacular fashion with a 1078-rated final round. Montgomery started the day four strokes back of leader Paul McBeth but was able to make up the difference and then some, going nine down over the final nine holes thanks to two eagles. Montgomery hit 100% of his putts from inside the circle, and 40% from Circle 2.

Montgomery said he wanted to leave it all out there, and maybe that’s an approach he should take more often? The… intestinal fortitude… Montgomery showed on hole 18 with the headwind over the 400+ foot water carry should be enough to earn him a shot at the WWE title.

In FPO, Salonen got out to the early lead and never gave it up. The Finn posted a 62, 2-under par each round. Salonen was the only player in FPO to finish the event under par, and her compatriot Henna Blomroos finished the event in second at even par .

Continental divide

What is perhaps most telling about how things went down in FPO is how significantly the Europeans out performed the Americans. Salonen and Blomroos were nine strokes and five strokes, respectively, clear of their American counterparts. Sarah Hokom and Catrina Allen shared third place while Paige Pierce missed cash entirely with a 9-over par showing.

Check this out: going back to the 2019 Memorial, every event that either Blomroos, Salonen, or Kristin Tattar has attended, one of the three has made the podium or won the event. The three women have consistently outpaced and outplayed American counterparts, and for players like Rebecca Cox, Kona Panis, or other FPO touring fixtures, the uphill climb to the podium just got that much more difficult.

Pay the man

Off the course, this was the premiere of the Disc Golf Network’s paywalled coverage. By putting Brodie Smith on the feature card, they made a shrewd, if not controversial, move, which was almost certainly designed to draw subscribers in.

If the numbers are to be believed, the DGN has 6,500+ subscribers which has to be beyond expectations after two events. Even ambitious expectations. It would have been nice to see the general uptick in subscribers during WACO without Smith to better gauge the direct impact once he was added to live coverage, but it doesn’t really matter. Same goes for subscriber melt, as the DGPT suspension is on after this week as well, meaning we wouldn’t be able to judge people tuning out after Smith’s round versus those wishing to pause their subscriptions due to lack of livestreams.

On the course Smith acquitted himself well on a track that can severely punish players who lose their composure. Plenty of wind and (digital) ink has been spent on Smith and so all I’ll say here is that, scorecards don’t lie, and I’m curious to see how he continues to progress, if he continues to progress.

Fan-demonium

Since spectators were not allowed at the event for the second round, it’s hard to make any sort of judgement or call on how the WACO staff did with managing the crowd. I guess we’ll have to imagine Schrödinger’s spectator exists in a superposition of being simultaneously struck with a disc, and standing safely away from the fairway.

We did see some folks on the early holes, especially hole 3, having to perform some acrobatics to avoid discs. This is an area that, for safety as well as optics, the DGPT and PDGA need to continue to address and work on improving. On the one hand, many people pay top dollar for the privilege of having Jayson Tatum crash into them as he dives to keep a ball inbounds, but we aren’t there yet.

Hey, DGPT, free idea: if you want to stand in a high-risk area, say within 25 feet of OB, it’ll cost you a little extra and you sign a waiver. Just a thought. Other tournaments have passes to view wooded holes, just stretch that idea a little further.

Looking ahead, we have naught but uncertainty and hopes. There is not telling how the suspension of the Elite Series will impact any of this. Professional disc golf has been on some steady growth the past couple of seasons, with very few true tests of its ability to endure through significant hardship. The DGPT has been focusing on working towards financial sustainability, and the suspension of activities certainly can’t be helping that effort.

Similarly, most players depend on their payouts, merch sales, and sponsor bonuses to help them stay afloat and be a viable career option for them. It is almost guaranteed that we’ll see some players never return to tour, and that some will be forced to remain more “local” for at least the remainder of this season. Like so many people across the world, our players, media folks, and organizers are operating on margins so thin that they can barely be called margins at all.

Wash your hands. Stay home. Support your favorite professionals, media teams, merch companies in whatever way you can. Be healthy and be safe.

Quick Hits

  • For reasons that escape me, Par Save, GK Pro, and Gatekeeper do not seem to get the same level of love from the INTERNET people as they deserve, and the viewership numbers bear it out. The disc golf community needs to put their eyeballs where they’re keyboards are and step up viewership outside of Jomez and CCDG. This is an oversimplification, but maybe not a gross one. What’s holding you back from watching more coverage? Time? Commentators? Let us know.
  • McAnkle looked much more comfortable in the woods throwing touch shots than he did throwing big power shots. Something worth keeping an eye on. Of course he did have that par streak during the wooded holes over the final round which allowed Montgomery to pass him.
  • Speaking of Par Save, the Perkins and Pierce commentary team is excellent. Mixed doubles commentary is great and is something that maybe should become the standard.
  • Montgomery smashes a disc. Specifically, hybrid drivers. If you want to know more about how you can get max efficiency out of a disc, Brian Earhart’s The Buzzz podcast touched on disc selection and learning, worth a listen.
  • How about Philo with the flicks!
  • Wash your damn hands.

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