📺 Binging 1,400 hours of disc golf

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. I’m the Nick Cage of disc golf: I hunt down treasure so you don’t have to.

Email Read Time: 5 Minutes & 45 Seconds

In preparation for the new season, TPM just switched email platforms to make the newsletter better. Nothing changed besides some format tweaks and a different “From” address. Now, let’s get into it.

MORE LIVE THAN EVER

Free final rounds, limited live coverage, only 40k DGN subs… Apparently all these things no longer spark joy for the DGPT.

They excitedly released their 2023 Live Media Plan, and boy is it going to be a busy year. Here are the cliff notes:

• Live coverage expanded to all Silvers plus select Euro Tour events aka The McBeth Memoirs

• Elite Events and Majors will have FULL-day coverage with the addition of “Tournament Central”

  • Budget SportsCenter: highlights, interviews, and analysis

  • Airs 30min before FPO, spans the break between broadcasts, then closes out post-MPO

  • Adds ~1h45m of live content each day with a part on YouTube

• The Final Round of all events will no longer be free. It’ll be 1st Round only, so pony up for DGN or wait for JomezPro

• DGN rates increased to $12.99/month or $129.99/yr. The PDGA discount is still worth it

With over 240 live rounds, there are not enough hours in the day. But the Pro Tour is pushing its moneymaker (DGN) to its limits and betting on itself to deliver a product worth paying for.

So you can either whip out your wallets and plan your watch parties or hit the course and wait for post-produced. How this will impact JomezPro is still unknown, but it’s clearly another stepping stone towards more changes come 2024.

Regardless, TPM has your back so you don’t miss anything worth knowing. It’s going to be a long year, my friends.

DGPT ALL-STARS

PREVIEW (2/17-19)

For the 2nd year, the DGPT is hosting the top 12 players in MPO & FPO at El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, AZ. The format is unchanged - Ryder Cup styled with skill comps (putting, accuracy, distance), doubles, and singles play.

Due to injuries and unknowns, 3 FPO heavy hitters will be absent (Tattar, Pierce, & V. Mandujano). Regardless, last Friday’s virtual draft was a bit scattered but ended with mostly even teams on all sides.

You should expect shots that never get air time during the season and similar vibes to GK Pro Skins. The “flip” will most definitely play all weekend.

LAST YEAR

2022 also had its absentee list full… McBeth was on vacation, Wysocki chose practice instead, and Tattar couldn’t make it in time.

But even without their star power, the All-Star event was a spectacle. It had Locastro’s skip ace, big bombs, and probably McMahon’s greatest putt in 2022.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Lucky for us, we’ll get to see TWO All-Stars slinging new plastic. And since Lizotte has fed us vlogs already, Gannon Buhr will be the center of attention.

He’s had a seemingly quiet off-season… Gained 25lbs and dropped his sponsor of 6 years - Prodigy. Here’s what we know now:

• He’s a notorious Prodigy hoarder and has been selling off valuable discs on FB

• Best friends and caddie recently switched to Discmania (Gavin Babcock and Matt Schlabach)

• Had 1 year remaining and an unknown buyout on his existing contract

• Discmania is the only manufacturer that follows him on Instagram

Y’all ready for The Crush Boy Chronicles: Part 46? Because Discmania still has aces up its sleeve and is flush with cash.

So dust off your DGN app for Buhr’s reveal, cause this event won’t be on YouTube. All-Stars starts at 3PM ET on Friday (2/17).

FRESH PLASTIC

Sponsored by Powergrip USA… A PRETTY GOOD disc golf shop.

👉 Powergrip’s Highlight: Clash Discs Softy plastic
You know what they say… Drive for show, putt for dough. So if your putt hasn’t been clicking lately, then maybe it’s time to try out a new disc.

Thankfully, Clash just released their Softy plastic for all 3 of their putters. It’s the Goldilocks of baseline plastic - not too hard, not too soft, just right with added durability and grip.

• Softy Popcorn (3|3|0|1) - most fans’ go-to putting putter, great for any style of putt, like Firefly/P2

• Softy Butter (2|3|0|1) - Got Big Meaty Claws? This takes the greatness of Popcorn and makes it slightly deeper with a rounder profile

• Softy Mint (4|3|0|3) - surprisingly stable for baseline, freshen your breath and replace your BT Medium Harp

And for all you MVP bandwagoners, there’s a fresh restock at Powergrip USA. Grab the elusive Crave, Octane, and Pyro (Lizotte’s latest crush) before they’re gone.

RANDOM TRIPLES

1️⃣ While it wasn’t a flashy helicopter off-season, Wysocki had a few things change:

• New house in Scottsdale, AZ

• New hobby in Pickleball

• New sponsor with Insect Shield

• New tour manager - from Ari “Woo Girl” Hyer to Fern Leal (previously Emerson Keith’s)

Ari wrote the book on DG tour managers and now she’s moving on. So for all the woo-haters with bleeding ears, you can unmute your 2023 Wysocki coverage.

2️⃣ From DGPT to MLB, Dylan Cease and Paul McBeth have become close friends. Now, McBeth is helping the White Sox pitcher with his passion project - Cactus Rock DGC.

On The Nick & Matt Show, Cease described the championship-level course as “no joke” and explained the unique terrain he found in Tuscaloosa, AL. He wants these 60 acres to join the ranks as a bucket-list course.

A year ago, Cease described his dream to build an epic course and host the top 30 pros with a $300k winner-take-all tournament. So far, half his dream came true, now we wait for rest.

3️⃣ After yesterday’s ratings update, an unknown Swede became the highest-rated player in the world at 1066. It was clearly a mistake, and the PDGA already fixed it.

Here’s the backstory:

• He never showed up to the tournament round where he got the 1066 rating

• His card mates gave him par+4 every hole thinking he’ll show, but they gave up halfway

• The score was submitted and the TD forgot to remove it from the event report

Mistakes aside, there’s a new highest-rated player at 1059 - Matthew Kelley earned it at a 1-round flex start back in 2021. So step aside Manabu Kajiyama, Matt’s coming for you… Once he renews his membership.

MEME OF THE WEEK

Thanks for reading today. Get out and make memories this weekend!

- Charlie

Decided against buying a disc this week? Support TPM with a fraction of that.

The Players Meeting: a UDisc-approved newsletter with the latest disc golf content in a 5-minute read.