🪓 Cascadia is a place of the heart

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. The only newsletter where it’s better to miss by a lot than a little.

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If you missed Cascade’s preview, then I got you: The Lost Performance

Let’s get into it.

TOUR COVERAGE
Cascade Challenge (Silver)

RESULTS - 🏆RICKY WYSOCKI & KAT MERTSCH

The Tour’s 1st event in the state of WA brought great vibes. It wasn’t too hot or too cold, and pros attacked the Shelton wetlands. Here are the storylines you should remember or you may have missed:

1 - WA’s best course got its tastefully tight lines shredded.

Players dusted off their mids and putters to attack the gaps found on every hole. The Shelton Springs course required a different style of golf than what we’re used to on Tour.

Affectionately labeled “bomb & scramble” or “rip it & reassess” by commentators, pros pushed the fairway as much as possible off the tee. Getting immediate distance opened up options and decreased the number of trees to the basket.

As a result, C2 putts were abundant, and players stepped up to the challenge. There were 7 who averaged 50% or higher for their C2 makes, whereas other recent events saw less than half that.

It’s believed there will soon be someone who averages 50% from C2 throughout the season. That’s the next step in the evolution of the pro game, and those who did it this weekend show the most promise.

1. Andrew Marwede - 73% (11 for 15 in C2)

2. Gannon Buhr - 65% (11 for 17 in C2)

3. Matt Bell - 60% (6 for 10 in C2)

2 - Another unique repeat winner in FPO.

With the least competitive field of the season, the odds were in favor of a new, unique winner being crowned. But Kat Mertsch decided to play last minute and happily took her axe trophy like Paul Bunyan.

She continued to grind away with minimal mistakes and averaged 80% from C1, as others missed putts and gaps. This was her 2nd win in less than a month from her 1st at Jonesboro.

As for Handley & Hansen, they still have the 1st DGPT win monkey on their back. With the Portland Open in 2 days, the big arms have a good chance of breaking the seal like Mertsch.

3 - Raptor Legs is back, baby!

Just 7 months ago, it would come as no surprise to see the Master Scrambler win at this technical track. But since then, Wysocki has already missed 7 events due to a Lyme flare-up.

Now, Raptor Legs is officially back with his 1st win of the season while firing on all cylinders. It’s impossible to win on such a stressful course if your physical and mental games are not on.

With this being his 23rd DGPT win, he had a warning to everyone on Tour… he’s feeling 100% and has lost time to make up for. Look out young guns, cause Wysocki isn’t going anywhere.

4 - It was a revolving door of names at the top on Sunday.

On Friday, James Conrad did his best DJ Khaled impression and said “Another One”. He destroyed the course with a record-breaking -14 rated at 1096.

This came in as the 3rd highest rated of the year just behind Hammes’s 1105 at Memorial and his own 1101 at Jonesboro. But inconsistency continued to plague him, and he went on a roller coaster of birdies and bogeys removing his winning chances.

On Sunday, the leaderboard made my head spin. At times, it seemed like McMahon or Bell could snatch the win from the 4th card. But Wysocki’s experience came through and secured the comeback story.

As for a standout, 17-year-old Evan Scott secured his best finish with a highlight 50-footer. The South Carolinian is on his 1st full touring year and hadn’t cracked the top 20 yet. His stock continues to rise along with the other teenagers.

HIGHLIGHT

Unfortunately, none of the 3 aces from the weekend were captured on video. But for those who like big putts and cannot lie, here are a few jaw-droppers:

POWERED BY POWERGRIP USA
Fresh Plastic

👉 Powergrip’s Highlight: Ella Hansen’s Signature Swirly S-Line FD (7|6|0|1)
Tomorrow (5/31) at 10AM ET, Discmania is dropping Hansen’s 1st signature series disc.

While she’s known for her power, the FD is a mainstay in her bag for its all-around utility and can fill many slots in yours. For the Discmaniacs out there, this run is a must-have and is the 1st to come out of their Swedish factory.

Compared to the latest S-Line stock runs, this swirly blend is gummier and feels like the plastic from last year’s Nordic Phenom PD or Cloud Breaker. These FDs are grippy, smooth feeling, and flatter than C-Line runs.

To handle Hansen’s big arm, these have a touch more stability but maintain all the glide in the world. Just 3 weeks ago, she went out to the desert and put her arm to the test.

She threw an unofficial 593ft with a 175g DD3 on flat ground. If this was official, then it would have become the new women’s distance world record.

For 7 years, Jen Allen has held the distance record at 569ft. Hansen plans to officially break that number this fall.

FLIGHT NUMBERS & PRACTICE TIPS
Random Dubs

1️⃣ Here’s your weekly “The More You Know” moment… Flight numbers are more like ‘guidelines’ rather than actual rules, AND the last 3 numbers can’t be used to compare discs that don’t have the same speed rating.

Coming from Dave Dunipace (creator of this system & Innova CEO), glide and stability are only relative within speed classes. A Destroyer (12|5|-1|3) with a 5-glide does not stay in the air the same way a Mako3 (5|5|0|0) does.

But you can compare a Roc3 (5|4|0|3) that’s within the same 5-speed class. With its glide of 4, it’ll get to the ground slightly quicker than a Mako3.

At the end of the day, take flight numbers with a grain of salt. They’re just your starting point to slowly amassing a collection in the hundreds.

2️⃣ The Cascade Challenge demonstrated the age-old adage “You’ll never play a hole the same way twice.” Gavin Rathbun subscribes to this and believes you should skip your 1000th round at your local wooded track in favor of fieldwork.

On the Fish Golf Brah-dcast, he explained that he rarely does more than 1 practice round each week. He prefers to spend his time in the field where he can practice any shot shape to its max efficiency.

So be like Milhouse and get more out of your practice… Or do whatever you want and have fun on the course 🤷.

Tweet of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and be a hero this week!

- Charlie