Originally published at: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2020/03/05/ultiworld-disc-golf-mpo-power-rankings-march-5-2020/
Photo: DGPT – Alyssa Van Lanen
Welcome to the Ultiworld Disc Golf 2020 Power Rankings! Our rankings offer a fun alternative to the PDGA World Rankings and player ratings. Those metrics take a long view of the field, ours relies on the “hot take.”
Here’s how we rank our Top 25.
First, we use an algorithm to create an objective ballot. This formula combines standardized scores across Elite Series tournaments, multipliers for depth of field and tournament purse, and a decay function that emphasizes recent performance.
Next, the Ultiworld Disc Golf staff cast top 10 ballots. Our goal is to marry the “eye test” with cold hard stats.
Finally, we added a popular vote for 2020, which gives our subscribers a chance to cast ballots alongside the staff.
Staff and subscribers only consider results within the past two months. They prioritize performance at Elite Series events but may consider regional tournaments as well. Because our human voters only rank the top 10, the objective ballot covers the lower half of the rankings.
Let’s get to the results!
Power Rankings Top 10 are available to all Ultiworld Disc Golf readers. Want the entire top 25? You’ll have to be a subscriber.
1. Calvin Heimburg
Rating: 1041
Last Month: 10th place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 1st place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 1st place – The Memorial
Heimburg’s win at the Memorial was impressive, to say the least. Coming down the home stretch of the final round in Arizona, Heimburg was able to fend off hard charges from Eagle McMahon, Paul McBeth, Väinö Mäkelä, and Drew Gibson. Heimburg carded only three bogies over the weekend and hit 92% of fairways off the tee. His performance at the Memorial, plus his strong 10th place finish at Las Vegas has him sitting in pole position to start the season.
2. Eagle McMahon
Rating: 1049
Last Month: 2nd place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 2nd place – The Memorial
If not for a woefully missed triple mando and a water-bound C2 putt to save a penalty-3 on the final hole of the Memorial, McMahon would have forced a playoff with Heimburg. McMahon’s forehand was on display all weekend, and it looks like a weapon he has become more comfortable using.
3. Paul McBeth
Rating: 1060
Last Month: 1st place – Wintertime Open (A), 3rd place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 3rd place – The Memorial (DGPT)
The reigning world champ got off to a strong start with a seven stroke win at the Wintertime Open, which he sponsored. McBeth looked to keep things rolling at the Memorial, but things went off the rails in the third round. Even when he’s off his game, he contends and finished in third, which is where he sits with us.
4. Garrett Gurthie
Rating: 1031
Last Month: 6th place – Wintertime Open (A), 2nd place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 6th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 6th place – The Memorial
Gurthie already has three top-6 tournaments under his belt in this young season. His putting has left something to be desired, though. GG is 76% from Circle 1x, and 20% from Circle Two. If he is able to clean things up on the green, he’ll be a force to be reckoned with all season. Gurthie is in the top ten for the other major statistical categories, and his “albatrace” in Vegas was something special.
5. Simon Lizotte
Rating: 1040
Last Month: 5th place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 7th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 7th place – The Memorial
Two top ten finishes to start the season is nothing to sneeze at. At The Memorial Lizotte lost ten strokes to OB and seven strokes to OB in Las Vegas. Despite this, Lizotte is still third overall in birdie percentage at 63% over eight UDisc-official rounds.
6. Väinö Mäkelä
Rating: 1029
Last Month: 22nd place – Wintertime Open (A), 4th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 4th place – The Memorial
Mäkelä is the first Finn to crack our top ten thanks to a steady, strong performance at the Memorial. He went bogey free over the first two rounds at Fountain Hill and only went OB three times over the weekend. Mäkelä will play Waco before heading back across the pond, but we’re hopeful we’ll see him back stateside sooner rather than later. Mäkelä was solid across all aspects of his game, but shone when he had to play out of position. Mäkelä led the field in scramble percentage, and hit 41% of his looks outside the circle.
7. Drew Gibson
Rating: 1022
Last Month: 4th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 4th place – The Memorial
Did you see Gibson throw those Buzzz shots? Did you? Once he gets his bag figured out, and if he can keep his cool, he’ll be dangerous this season.
8. Nathan Sexton
Rating: 1035
Last Month: 1st place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 21st place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 21st place – The Memorial
Sexton defied the conventional wisdom that a massive arm is needed to win in Vegas, but it shouldn’t be entirely surprising. As has been noted, Sexton excels at open courses with OB a-plenty which allows him to let his top-tier sidearm do the work for him by avoiding OB and letting him pick his spots to be aggressive.
9. Philo Brathwaite
Rating: 1023
Last Month: 1st place – Samui Swine Classic VII (A), 2nd place – Asia Open (B), 2nd place – Wintertime Open (A), 8th place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 11th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 11th place – The Memorial
Brathwaite has six tournaments under his belt in 2020, with a win and three second-place finishes. His only finish outside the top ten was an eleventh place finish at the Memorial.
10. Austin Hannum
Rating: 1027
Last Month: 6th place – Wintertime Open (A), 11th place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 16th place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 16th place – The Memorial
Hannum also has six tournaments under his belt in this young season and only one finish outside the top ten. The Sooner has been on the cusp of breaking through to the top level for a couple of years now, let’s see if he can keep this strong start going.
Top 25 continues below.
11. Richard Wysocki
Rating: 1049
Last Month: 3rd Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 16th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 16th Place – The Memorial
Wysocki’s third place finish at Las Vegas was encouraging, especially as he returns from missing the conclusion of the 2019 season with Lyme disease, but it took him hitting an impressive 48% of his putts from circle two to make it happen. The putter was hot, but he looked rusty in Vegas, and wasn’t able to keep pace with the top of the field at the Memorial. Fingers crossed that his knee injury isn’t Lyme related.
12. Emerson Keith
Rating: 1024
Last Month: 2nd Place – Lone Star Classic (B), 14th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 11th Place – Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 11th Place – The Memorial
Keith’s third place finish at World’s in 2019 put, well, the world on notice. So far this season he’s passed the test in local events, but hasn’t cracked the top ten when facing off against top-level competition…yet.
13. Jeremy Koling
Rating: 1026
Last Month: 6th Place – Ballantyne Hotel Open (B), 7th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 7th Place – The Memorial
Two top ten finishes for Koling to kick of 2020 has got to feel good for the Big half of Big Sexy. Jerm bagged an ace on hole 13 in the second round at the Memorial and hit 84% of his putts.
14. Cale Leiviska
Rating: 1035
Last Month: 4th Place – Wintertime Open (A), 11th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 7th Place – Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 7th Place – The Memorial
Mr. Airborn Disc Golf hasn’t been setting the world on fire to start the season, he’s just been playing solid golf. Leiviska only carded four bogeys in Vegas, and two at the Memorial. At the two Elite events he has played, he has a 51% birdie rate against a 4% bogey rate. These numbers won’t necessarily challenge the top of the pack, but avoiding big numbers will keep him in the top ten conversation.
15. Oskari Vikström
Rating: 1015
Last Month: 7th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 24th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish- 24th Place – The Memorial
Big numbers in the final rounds of Vegas and The Memorial hurt Vikström. If the second Finn to crack our top 15 can avoid the bogey schneid in the future, he should be able to put together a good season.
16. Chris Dickerson
Rating: 1041
Last Month: 1st Place – The Pasture Open (B), 1st Place – Ballantyne Hotel Open (B), 1st Place – Hilton Head Invitational (B), 1st Place – Frozen Finger Shoot-Out ( C ), 1st Place – The 2020 Old City Open (B)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: N/A
Dickerson, as usual, is dominating the scene in the southeast but hasn’t made any appearances at an Elite event. In fact, we won’t see him mix it up with the touring field until Jonesboro. There is no doubt that the two time, back-to-back reigning DGPT Champion is among the best players in the world, but his decision to stay local and rack up the W’s makes it hard to rank him higher than some other players who, frankly, aren’t of Dickerson’s caliber.
17. James Conrad
Rating: 1035
Last Month: 4th Place – 2020 Asia Open (B), 33rd Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 33rd Place – The Memorial
Conrad played well in Southeast Asia, but, as he has said on more than one occasion, the courses at the Memorial are not his favorite types of courses to play. Things got off to a tough start in Arizona. The reigning USDGC Champion went OB on hole one and took a double bogey on the second hole. Conrad didn’t string together more than two birdies in a row until the final round, but by then the damage was done. He’ll be back on top soon enough.
18. Nate Perkins
Rating: 1019
Last Month: 2nd Place – 2020 Asia Open (B), 17th Place – Wintertime Open (A), 59th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 11th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish- 11th Place- The Memorial
Perkins has game but struggles to keep it consistent. He always plays well at WACO, so he should be excited to right the ship in his native Texas.
19. Nikko Locastro
Rating: 1022
Last Month: 23rd Place – Last Vegas Challenge (A), 24th Place – The Memorial
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 24th Place – The Memorial
We’ll chalk up Locastro’s lackluster start to 2020 to learning a new bag. He is outside the top ten in all of the major statistical categories, but we should see those numbers improve as the season progresses.
20. Adam Hammes
Rating: 1030
Last Month: 2nd Place – Wintertime Open (A), 21st Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 21st Place – The Memorial
Hammes’s 1030 rating is a career high. He performed well at the WTO, and played mostly solid at the Memorial, but as is so often the case, big numbers sunk his chances for a better finish. In Arizona, Hammes took triple bogeys in the second and final rounds. We all saw how good he can be when he is feeling it when he nearly took down the Hall of Fame Classic in the fall of 2019 and can be confident that he’ll be climbing the rankings soon.
21. Eric Oakley
Rating: 1017
Last Month: 8th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 24th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 24th Place – The Memorial
Oakley looked strong in Vegas, but, and stop us if you’ve heard it before, couldn’t avoid taking big numbers in Arizona. (Tip: DON’T TAKE BIG NUMBERS IN AZ!) Oakley’s second round was especially tough, with 5 strokes lost to OB resulting in two double bogeys and two regular old single bogeys.
22. Chris Clemons
Rating: 1026
Last Month: 21st Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 36th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 36th Place – The Memorial
Clemons’s stock and expectations were high coming into 2020, but so far the lefty hasn’t given us a reason to be bullish. It took until the middle of 2019 for Clemons to start consistently threatening or finishing in the top 10.
23. Kevin Jones
Rating: 1037
Last Month: 6th Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 33rd Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 33rd Place – The Memorial
I’m starting to sound like a broken record, but big numbers kill rounds at The Memorial, and Jones had at least one double bogey or worse each round in Arizona.
24. Gregg Barsby
Rating: 1025
Last Month: 30th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 30th Place – The Memorial
One event, a 30th place finish. That sums it up.
25. Noah Meintsma
Rating: 1016
Last Month: 9th Place – Wintertime Open (A), 32nd Place – Las Vegas Challenge (A), 11th Place – The Memorial (DGPT)
2020 Best Elite Series Finish: 11th Place – The Memorial
If Meintsma can, like so many young players, show some consistency at big time events, he’ll be a threat on tour.
Want to see how the voting shook out? See the complete objective voter tallies for MPO.