🐐 The age old question

Baaa, Ace Holes, and Animorphs

March 10, 2022

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. Your twice a week tour guide for all things disc golf, in 5 min or less.

This is the tournament preview edition. If you missed the early edition, then I got you covered: The McMorial Championship

Let’s get into it.

What is a GOAT?

The debate for who’s the GOAT is the perfect sports topic. It can be discussed countless times based on countless criteria.

Andrew Fish, StatMando, and Foundation DG found new ways to discuss the Greatest of All Time in disc golf.

With the help of StatMando, Fish researched the current One True Champion in MPO and FPO. To put the OTC in simple terms (and to disservice Fish’s work):

  • The 1st OTC started as the winner of the 1982/1983 Worlds and has continued since

  • The title transfers to a new player if the OTC doesn’t win their next event

  • The winner of that event becomes the new OTC

So currently the OTCs are Paul McBeth and Heidi Laine. But Ken Climo holds the all-time highest amount of OTC claims (almost double McBeth). And the same is true for Juliana Korver on the FPO side over Elaine King in 2nd.

If this interests you, read Fish’s whole article. This quick summary doesn’t do it justice.

Along different lines, Foundation’s debate night had a listener call in with a take. Instead of McBeth vs. Climo, we should refine the discussion to be player vs. course.

If there was a pro-level course that didn’t drastically change, then there could be a course record metric. This would only work for future discussions, but you could claim the course record holder as the GOAT.

WACO

PREVIEW (3/11-13)

It’s finally here. Without the highest-rated player, we’ll see Ricky Wysocki and Paul McBeth battle it out for the 1st time this year.

BUT the Waco Annual Charity Open plays 3 rounds only on the Brazos Park East course (The BEast). And because of the course’s wooded holes and OB features, the winners aren’t always the usual contenders.

This tournament is spectacular to watch every year. You’ll see record-breaking perfect rounds (McBeth), inspiring drives (Lizotte), and clutch throw-ins 👇.

LAST YEAR RECAP

MPO/ This was the infamous Nikko Locastro step-putt on hole 17 that shifted the momentum in his favor. He beat Cale Leiviska by 3 strokes to average a 1058 rating.

FPO/ Kona Panis dominated this event by 12 strokes over Ohn Scoggins last year. The other players seemed out of sorts, but it is The BEast.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Simon Lizotte is joining the tour for the 1st time after the birth of his son, Emmett Lizotte. New dad strength is a known thing in other sports.

So maybe Lizotte will be bringing his new dad strength or purpose to Waco. His seriousness in competition has always been questioned.

If Lizotte had the drive to win, then he has everything else to win each week.

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

$1M Ace Hole

Following the 10-year deal, Steve Dodge (Maple Hill GM & DGPT founder) announced that this year’s MVP Open will host THREE $1 million ace contests.

After Thursday’s round (9/22), the top 6 FPO players in AccuDistance (new UDisc stat) plus 2 fan vote-ins will have 4 shots each to drain the pot. It will be on the 450ft Hole 1 layout.

The next day (9/23) MPO players take on the same ace contest, but the basket will be pushed an extra 150ft making it 600ft. If an ace gets rung up on Thursday, an MPO contender can still get the 2nd $1M.

And as a finale, the 4 closest MPO & FPO throwers from the 2 previous days will get another 4 shots on Saturday (9/24). There will be filmed coverage for all 3 days.

Dodge will be spending $5k per day to insure this event. And as a consolation prize, there will be a $500 award for CTPs.

He plans to have this competition recurring each year. If someone aces this 1st year, he’ll be paying way more on insurance.

Stat That

Cutting edge analytics by StatMando. THE disc golf stats platform.

In anticipation of Waco, the brilliant guys at StatMando dug this stat up:

Ricky Wysocki only has 6 career finishes outside the Top-10 in Standard DGPT Elite events. 3 of those 6 have come at WACO.

  • 49th (2020)

  • 13th (2018)

  • 11th (2021)

Take a look at his final round in 2021:

Wysocki went 12-under on 14 holes AND 9-over on the other 4 holes. Like I said earlier, The BEast is an unpredictable & wild course.

Random Dubs

1️⃣ Shed Zone is a relatively unknown disc golf comedy talk show hosted by the Economos brothers & friends. It’s a hilarious off-the-cuff channel filmed in a shed (sometimes outside) with best friends throwing down about pro disc golf.

Their episodes discuss player spreads filled with topics and humor that many don’t get into. It’s a nice change of pace if you want to feel like you’re hanging out in a Massachusetts shed.

2️⃣ With so many post-production YouTube channels, it’s hard to catch all the rounds. A Redditor created a site to aggregate all links in one organized place. Check it out.

Meme of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and play a league this weekend!

- Charlie

What'd you think of this today’s edition?And any thoughts on 2x TPM.