Originally published at: https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2021/06/21/ultiworld-disc-golf-mpo-power-rankings-us-edition-pre-worlds-2021/
Photo: DGPT
Ultiworld Disc Golf’s coverage of the 2021 PDGA Pro World Championships is presented by Skybreed Discs, a top online retailer and preferred vendor of the 2021 Ledgestone Insurance Open, and Aria Discs, a new disc golf brand making discs designed for beginners.
Tomorrow. Tuesday, June 22, 2021. The PDGA World Championships resume after a one-year hiatus. After the long COVID winter, which witnessed an unprecedented disc golf boom. After a compelling first half of the 2021 season featuring big names and first-time winners. The anticipation is palpable, hanging thick in the air despite the altitude in Ogden, Utah.
Eagle McMahon is on a tear. He knows how to play where the air is thin. He may be the best all-around putter on tour. Is it his year? Ricky Wysocki seemed like a lock for the top seed during the run from Belton to Goat Hill and is obviously still a front runner. He won the Utah Open in 2017 and 2018 and finished runner-up at the last two installments. Does he get his third ring? Speaking of hardware, will Paul McBeth add the sixth stone to his Thanos gauntlet? His ability to manipulate the disc may be unparalleled, and there are a lot of lines to shape at Mulligan’s Creekside and The Fort. Calvin Heimberg is looking for his first Elite Series dub on the season, and Adam Hammes is hoping to keep his hot streak alive in the Utah heat.
They’re ready to play. We’ve got ’em ranked. Who else is in our top 25? Here’s how they stack up heading into the Pro Worlds.
Note: while COVID travel restrictions remain in place, this list considers players based in America. We will break out an international top 10 once the season gets underway across the pond.
Methodology: We combine an algorithmic objective ranking with subjective ballots submitted by UWDG staff. The algorithm uses a standardized scoring model to compare elite events, awards competition and cash bonuses, and features a decay function that gradually phases out past results. For the second regular season ranking, staff considered the following criteria: 1. results from the 2021 Elite and Silver Series events, 2. UDisc and PDGA statistical measures, 3. the previous UWDG Power Rankings, and 4. their super subjective vibes, gut feelings, and premonitions heading into Pro Worlds.
MPO Power Rankings
Full breakdowns for each player continue below.
1. Eagle McMahon – Back-to-back wins at OTB and Portland, preceded by back-to-back second place finishes at 303 and DDO have McMahon taking the box from Ricky Wysocki for the first time this season in our power rankings. McMahon hasn’t missed the podium since Texas States back in late March and is naturally considered one of the top contenders to take home the 2021 PDGA World Championship. McMahon should be able to take advantage of the course at Mulligans, but will he be able to play well at the Fort? Fairly or not, questions persist regarding his woods game. While McMahon has only finished worse than third twice this season, both his 47th place finish at Waco and eighth place finish at Texas States were on wooded courses.
2. Richard Wysocki – Wysocki hit a little bit of a speed bump in Santa Cruz where he finished 14th at the Masters Cup, but there is no doubt that he his continuing to have an absolutely stellar season. He finished second to McMahon in Portland, and at the Utah Open, finished second to Emerson Keith. If you haven’t yet been able to watch the coverage on Gatekeeper Media, this is an excellent opportunity to preview what the courses, and Wysocki, have in store for us at Worlds. Boy is it going to be exciting.
3. Paul McBeth – McBeth only has one Elite Series win so far this season, the DDO, and two additional podium appearance on the main stage — a second place finish at the Portland Open and a third place showing at Texas States. This has decidedly been an off year by McBeth’s standards, and he certainly knows it. Even still, there is no player in the game who is better at putting on a show when it matters most, which should make McBeth a man to be feared in Utah.
4. Calvin Heimburg – Like McBeth, Heimburg has had a great year so far, but only has one win to show for it, which came at a Silver Series event, and only two podium finishes at Elite Series events. Like Wysocki, he stumbled at Masters Cup. Like McMahon, he is searching for his first World Championship. Unlike everyone else, Heimburg has been able to consistently perform at an exceptionally high level regardless of the course type or conditions.
5. Adam Hammes – *Mugato voice* That Hammes, so hot right now. Hammes’ win at Masters Cup was no fluke, as proven by his remarkable win at the Resistance Discs Open where he pulled out a big win in ugly conditions. If anything, his 18th place finish at Portland is looking like more the exception than the rule. Like Heimburg, Hammes has a proven track record of high performance on every style of course, and is a not-so-darkhorse-pick for putting a 1x after his name this week in Utah.
6. Kevin Jones – Jones has put together back-to-back top 10 finishes for the first time this season with a third place finish at Masters Cup and a fourth place finish in Portland. Jones very nearly won in Portland, and looks like he is peaking at the right point in the season.
7. Drew Gibson – Gibson may be quietly having the best season of his career. He has only finished outside the top 10 four times, and outside the top 15 once this season. Gibson plays well in Utah, which bodes well for Worlds. He finished 8th at the Utah Open in 2018, and seventh in 2017. He will be fighting off an injury, however, that caused him to drop the Portland Open.
8. James Conrad – Conrad is another player who chose to play the Utah Open two weekends ago and perhaps unsurprisingly, he struggled at Mulligans, but played great at The Fort, only missing the hot rounds by a single stroke. Luckily for Conrad, he gets three rounds in the woods this week.
9. Kyle Klein – Klein finished third at the Utah Open and looked comfortable doing it. He’s had mixed results at Elite Events this season, but clearly has the potential to pop off and do something magical this week.
10. James Proctor – If you didn’t know, now you know: James Proctor ain’t no slouch. Proctor joined up with the tour at OTB and finished 15th, shook off the rust, and has three straight top ten finishes including second at Masters Cup. Proctor isn’t someone we see a ton of on the road, but everyone in the Pacific Northwest knows how much of a baller Proctor really is.
11. Nikko Locastro – “Future World Champion” says it all, don’t it? Okay, okay, we get it. Old news. In all seriousness, Locastro is undeniably a Worlds contender. We know he can carve lines in the woods (see: WACO) and we know he can manage the golf courses (see: rest of the season, basically). Also, he’s got that major champion pedigree.
12. Chris Dickerson – After the DDO he went home to snack on some local A-, B-, and C-tier’s, winning four in a row. Prior to that little stretch, Dickerson had only missed the top 10 at a DGPT event once. He certainly knows how to win on any style course and is probably among the favorites for winning worlds despite his low ranking here.
13. Paul Ulibarri – Uli is fond of saying that Worlds is one of the only events that actually matters to him, and every other event is really just a warm up. Lets see how warmed up he is. The last time Uli played this event was 2018 when he finished fourth.
14. Benjamin Callaway – Back-to-back top 10 finishes, and only missing the top 10 once since DDO makes Callaway a tempting sleeper pick for Worlds.
15. Ezra Aderhold – Aderhold has righted the ship a bit since stumbling through the first chunk of the season after barnstorming the LVC, but hasn’t really sniffed the podium since the first event of the season. The Fort will represent our first real chance to see how Aderhold fares in the woods.
16. Thomas Gilbert – It’s easy to forget that this is Gilbert’s first year with Prodigy, and so maybe he deserves a little more slack than has been cut for his lackluster finishes this season, but maybe he’s turning things around. A 10th place finish in Portland is his best of the season and if he catches fire, Gilbert has the tools to make a run up the leaderboard in Utah. It’s not birdies Gilbert has trouble getting, it’s too many bogeys.
17. Jeremy Koling – Koling is having a sneaky good season. The tour veteran and former USDGC champ only has five finishes outside the top 15, and only one of those was outside the top 20. The courses in Utah fit Koling’s game as well, with accuracy and line shaping at a higher premium than raw power has been all season this far. Koling’s best finishes this year have been at similarly designed courses.
18. Chris Clemons – Clemons hasn’t broken the top 15 since early April, and only made the top 10 once this season. That being said, Clemons historically fares better once the tour starts to turn back East, and Utah is east of Portland, so let’s see if the lefty can make a run.
19. Joel Freeman – Freeman would probably be a hit higher up the board had he not skipped a couple elite events. Freeman has more finishes inside the top 10 (7) than outside the top 10, and only three finishes outside the top 20 all season. Freeman placed eighth at the Utah Open, which is nice, but was 14 strokes back of the winner.
20. Brodie Smith – Smith keeps plugging away and consistently grabbing top 25-ish finishes. He snagged a 13th place finish in Portland, his best Elite Event finish to date. This will be Smith’s first Major tournament.
21. Austin Hannum – Hannum is either finishing in the top 10, or outside the top 20. He is a feast or famine type player, but does tend to show up at the biggest events. The only thing hotter than his Twitter takes is the weather in Utah this weekend, and Hannum is a player who prides himself on physical fitness and athletic preparation, which may give him an advantage.
22. Andrew Presnell – Presnell opted to skip the California segment of the tour and so our algorithm punishes him. That being said, Presnell has only missed the top 15 twice this season at Elite Events, and will be coming into Worlds riding a hot hand. Presnell finished ninth at DDO and has three wins and second place finish at local A- and B-tiers, with a 13th place finish at Portland thrown in for good measure.
23. Gavin Rathbun – The last of les enfants terrible in our rankings, Rathbun has been a bit erratic of late, with three straight finishes outside the top 20. This will be Rathbun’s first World Championships.
24. Garrett Gurthie – GG has had a season similar to Hannum. He has either been in the hunt for the win, or well out of contention. GG may be the most underrated woods player on tour, and between Mulligans and the Fort, maybe… just maybe…
25. Simon Lizotte – Lizotte is back on tour and so he is back in our rankings. In limited action on tour, he’s got a seventh and 13th place finish, which averages to tenth so, there ya go.