🧹 Is Lone Star Disc cleaning house?

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. The only newsletter where Ratings Update Day is like Christmas morning… You either get coal or a points bump.

Let’s get into it.

Email Read Time: 5 Minutes & 22 Seconds

NEWS
Contracts Watch: TX Edition

After an unremarkable season, the hottest manufacturer that shares its state’s namesake is cleaning house. From the outside, Lone Star Disc seems like they’re trying something new or their players are jumping ship.

Let’s do a quick wellness check on LSD’s team:

DROPPED OR LEFT

• Chandler “The FH Specialist” Kramer - One of their OG signings made his departure known late last week. The breakup announcement seemed mutual, but he ended it with “Who do you think should pick me up?”

• Josh Hofstra - Being LSD’s Marketing Manager since nearly their inception, Hofstra was the face of the company. On the same day as Kramer, he announced his departure. Now, he’s already back on his feet and is in talks with 3 different companies

NEW SIGNINGS

• Jake Hebenheimer? - On Saturday, this underrated distance thrower parted ways with Latitude64. The next day he was seen throwing Lone Star on Luke Humphries’ Instagram

• Earlier pickups: Connor O’Reilly, Carter Ahrens, AJ & Deann Carey (re-signed)

AWAITING ANNOUNCEMENT

• Emerson Keith, Lisa Fajkus, Robert Burridge (Kramer’s BFF/touring partner)

• Nikko Locastro (signed through 2025) - He pulled the ole bait-and-switch. After posting a cryptic pic of himself signing documents, Locastro just announced he closed on 130 acres for a Championship level course in Houston, TX

nikkolocastro

View more on Instagram

So what’s next for LSD? Some of these names only have rumors circulating, but with how things are trending we’ll know soon enough.

And who knows, maybe Otto the dog will get the axe too? On the Hanging Loose podcast, his owner - Adam Wakefield - said he made a few enemies and was accosted with hundreds of spam emails.

The takeaway: Everything’s bigger in Texas including a rebuild season.

TOUR COVERAGE
DGPT Offseason Moves

Fun fact: The shortest day of the year, in terms of daylight, is Dec 21st. But most of the US has already experienced the earliest sunset back on Dec 8th.

Now with that amazing news in mind, it’s time for a little preseason hype. Recently, the DGPT made 2 highly anticipated announcements.

2023 Season Awards

With every season, the DGPT presents several awards to its touring pros. All are determined by varying combinations of player, media, and fan votes.

ROOKIES

Silva Saarinen (Finished 2nd in C1X and C2 putting behind Scoggins) & Luke Taylor (Graduating high school in 2024)

MOST IMPROVED

Ali Smith & Cole Redalen (Easily led media & fan votes)

COMEBACK

Valerie Mandujano (Ankle sprain → Idlewild champ) & James “The Proctologist” Proctor

PLAYERS

Kristin Tattar - No surprise here, except she only received 87.5% of the FPO Tour Card Holders’ vote meaning 5 of her peers didn’t choose her

Calvin Heimburg - The results could have gone either way, but this award isn’t called “Which season was better?” On top of his insane average finish (3.8), Vinny was the “final boss” to beat every week

DGN 2.0

Switching gears to something that impacts your wallet. Here’s what you should know about DGN’s platform upgrade:

• New look and feel but the same content

• Pause and rewind during live broadcasts is back on the menu

• No more waiting hours after live ends to rewatch

• Picture quality should improve

Whether or not these features convinced you to re-up your account, the platform was due for an upgrade. And if you watch hours upon hours of DGN (like me), then your life just got better.

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Fresh Plastic

👉 Powergrip’s Highlight: Kastaplast K1 Glow Stock
Just in time for peak season, Kasta’s latest stock drops today at 11 AM ET.

These Swedish delicacies are the Goldilocks of glow: Not bright enough to blind you but strong and long-lasting. Here’s the lineup:

• K1 Glow Guld (13|5|-0.5|3)

• K1 Glow Krut (12|4|0|4)

• K1 Glow Vass (12|5|-1.5|2)

• K1 Glow Stig (6|5|-2|1)

These runs feel just like classic K1 Glow of years past. Shop Powergrip USA to light up your bag!

QUICK HITS
Random Triples

1️⃣ How much does a full-time caddie make? There’s not much of a sample size to pull from yet, but Paul Ulibarri shared his numbers on the latest Tour Life podcast.

Uli’s caddie is 5x Masters World Champ Brad Hammock. While he’s more recently known for cameos on Jomez practice rounds or Brad vs The Bruiser, Hammock is a legend to OG frisbee heads.

After time away from the sport, he’s back on Tour as Uli’s partner in crime. Every week, his living expenses are covered, and he gets paid between $500-1k plus 10% of the Discraft Team Captain’s payout.

While Uli is unique and has his hands in everything, he’s pushing the envelope for the next step in pro play. Hopefully, this is a sign of things to come.

2️⃣ People always say to avoid negative thoughts while on the course. Personally, that feels impossible at times.

The Basket Case podcast and Pete Ulibarri (Paul’s older bro) want me and you to change that. Pete recommends reverting to instincts and thinking like a caveman.

When putting, he has one singular thought that he repeats: “Target.” This mantra helps him cut through self-talk and focus on the only thing that matters… Getting the disc in the basket.

Try it for yourself or find a different mantra. For more mental game stories/tips, listen to one of my favorite off-season podcasts: Disc Golf Basket Case.

3️⃣ The only A-Tier of last weekend happened in - yep, you guessed it - the Sunshine State. And this wasn’t just any A-Tier, it was the 11th Annual South Florida Open.

Like any off-season event, only a few big names were snowbirding and scoring extra cash. But the big surprises of the weekend happened to 2 Masters-aged players.

Almost 2 years after his near-fatal heart attack, 51-year-old JohnE McCray beat Nathan Queen, Micah Groth, & Double G. Averaging 1047, he won by 3 strokes.

In FPO, it wasn’t as favorable for the defending SFO champ Sarah Hokom. Losing by 6, she came in 3rd behind Morgan Lynds and winner Jessica Weese.

Hokom’s loss here marks her 1st season of taking down ZERO FPO A-Tiers or better since 2009. It’s not time to sunset the 2012 World Champ, but instead, it’s time to celebrate her awesome streak.

Meme of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and throw putters this week!

- Charlie