🦅 Eagle's broken wing

Molting Feathers, TX Finale, and Cher

March 24, 2022

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. Your place for disc golf news and takes; just the meat, no bun. Email Read Time: 4 Minutes & 21 Seconds

If you missed the Belton recap, then I got you covered: The Bogey at Belton

Let’s get into it.

Preening His Wings

Eagle McMahon shared an update to his shoulder injury in his latest vlog. He believes he has a torn labrum.

If true, this isn’t an ideal diagnosis. Torn labrums are feared among baseball pitchers, and typical treatment is surgery followed with lots of rehab. Some pitchers who go through it don’t get back to their previous form.

McMahon said he’s been doing research and is considering stem cell therapy. He hopes this could be a low risk, high upside way for him to get back on tour sooner than later.

With the similarities of pitching and FHs, this injury has popped up in our sport. Gavin Rathbun cut his 2021 season short to have surgery on his torn labrum. He appeared on the Understable Minds podcast to give recovery updates.

Just 4 months after his surgery, he’s back to throwing 80% power BHs over 450ft. He’s still hesitant with FHs and limiting them to 30% power.

Before last month, he still had one major question running through his head… “Can I still play disc golf?” It’s likely McMahon has the same question plaguing him.

Texas States

PREVIEW (3/25-27)

The Texas State Championship is 3 days at Lindsay Park’s The Thorn. This new course was designed by Rose City DG Club with help from Gregg Barsby. It mixes holes from each of the park’s 3 existing courses while throwing in new ones.

With the changed layout, last year’s wooded lines will be slightly diluted with long, open holes. And yep, you guess it… The wind is more of a factor now.

The TX swing is almost over. Ricky Wysocki and Paul McBeth look a few missteps away from prime season form. And the FPO leaderboard has more drama on the final day than the Bachelor’s season finale. Get ready for a weekend of great golf.

LAST YEAR RECAP

MPO/ The “difficult Dogwood course” didn’t play that way for one. Ricky Wysocki tied the course record (-11) on the final day to seal the deal.

Beating McBeth the week before in Belton, he came in being the favorite to win. And he embraced that all the way to a 4 stroke victory (averaged 1064) over Matty O.

FPO/ Hailey King kept her lines tight leading to minimal disaster holes. While at the same time, she capitalized on getable holes to hold off Holly Finley by 3 strokes.

PLAYER TO WATCH

Hailey King is coming off a short break after getting her wisdom teeth out. She was flying high right after and hopped on Instagram Live. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to make it down to TX safely with tornado warnings along the drive.

Kristin Tattar is the player to watch. With a podium finish at every 2022 event, she hasn’t bagged a DGPT win this season. TX States might be the one.

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

Stat That

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

In the spirit of friendly competition, the brilliant guys at StatMando dug this stat up:

In Belton’s 1st round, Nick Carl shot one stroke better than his good friend, Paul McBeth. This was the 1st time he had ever bested his bestie in his career.

Before it ended, McBeth held a 65-round unbeaten streak vs. Carl. And he led in total throws by 624… now 638.

Through 68 event rounds played together, McBeth leads by an average of 9.38 strokes behind per round.

Random Dubs

1️⃣ Disc golf memorabilia could be a big deal. Other major sports are known to sell personalized bricks or other stadium equipment.

The #1 course in the world, Maple Hill, recently replaced all their baskets (~40). And they’ll soon be auctioning the old ones for proceeds towards the course and DG foundations.

Being such a historic course, these baskets are valuable memorabilia. It’s home to Kevin Jones’s insane slip-ace on OTB skins (Hole 16). And it’s even where Hannah met Paul McBeth for the 1st time.

No one knows how high each auction will go... $500, $1k, maybe even $10k? We’ll soon find out how valuable a piece of DG history will be.

2️⃣ Cher is into frisbee golf. Do you believe in life after disc golf?

Meme of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and beat your friends this weekend!

- Charlie

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