This Could DRASTICALLY Change the Disc Golf Pro Tour (For Better or Worse) 

You're hitting on some excellent points. Disc Golf, at least on the pro level, needs to be more challenging. The easiest thing on the pro tour can do is to make it more difficult; echoing your points is to make the baskets smaller or, at the very least, play in more wooded courses. That being said, don't change it on the regular public courses; keep those the same. The fundamental factor that led me to the same conclusion is the scores. If we compare it to regular ball golf, at least until recently, you had top finishers in a tournament scoring in the double digits. Now, for Disc Golf, until recently at OTB, winners have been finishing in the --20s, and that's not solely on the leader; the 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th look very similar. It looks cool, but is it better? It starts shouting that "it's getting too easy" since many top players have been playing since they were kids instead of picking it up as young adults. Putting needs to be more demanding, and I want more pressure when they come to putt, especially if they need to risk it. The only exhilarating times are seeing the race or tied top placings, but now it feels like most pros have it dialed in, especially when there's no wind. Honestly, that feels like why most players miss their putts. Also, I really want big legacy tournaments to be on the same course. Maple Hill has it, which is excellent since there's a backstory on holes, but Worlds appears to migrate yearly. I just picked up disc golf last year, and I was surprised that Worlds wasn't back at the original course where I watched The Holy Shot.

I think Paul McBeth said it best on the Flight Diaries podcast with Brian Earhart a few years back when it comes to baskets. We haven't had a disc golf basket yet. The original baskets were made for catching frisbees. Paul did a video like 3 years ago with discs from the 80s and the Mach 3s he was playing on caught them great. The original basket was ,ade to be 2 frisbees wide, similar to a basketball hoop being two basketballs wide, or a golf hole being 2 golf balls wide. The best thing the pro tour can do to make putting challenging and make a universal basket for their events is keep it with a 2 ring, 2 row of chain mechanism like the Veterans have, but make it narrower to the size of two discs wide.

I agree that they should have more wooded courses that more accurately reflected what most disc golf courses look like. I understand your point about the pros needing more speed control over their putts. I’m not certain how I feel about making the baskets more difficult but they definitely need to standardize the baskets

I like your thoughts. I would rather keep the baskets the same but change the pars so that everything under 1000 feet is a par three. The way it is now, non disc golfers claim it's too easy. Something needs to change for sure but I'd rather see the pars change than see disc fall out of the target.

Definitely agree on the courses,, less but not zero 500+ ft bombs, much more shot shaping. I remember Paul talking about smaller baskets, ones sized for current discs and not lids, and I think that’s a great idea for the pros at least. As far as chains, I just wish they would standardize them to be the same including how they’re hung.

Baskets are already somewhat standardized. The basket & rim diameter are standard, the space between basket & rim are standard. Chain size & chain lengths are standard. So is 6 inner & 12 outer chains are standard. How standard do they want them? That's like saying all the tires on the road should be standard. Spit outs happen! Especially to those who putt too hard, hit the pole or putt too high.

I definitely support smaller baskets for the pros. I know it might mess up historical statistics, but I think the sport is still small enough to recover from that. I think a smaller target would make those edge of circle putts much more fun to watch

Making putting harder would ruin disc golf. scores are already tight enough. If putting is hard it lets people who throw worse shots off the tee back into the mix. If you have a 450 foot par 3 and player 1 puts it to 40 feet and player 2 puts it to 100 feet they will likely get the same score. With any wind these days putting becomes so hard and extremely luck based. We don’t want to add any more luck to our game then there already is haha

Nicky dub back in the kitchen with another hotpot! Dude this was great. Very thought provoking. I agree with you on both fronts, but especially about getting back into the woods. Lacing a shot through the trees IS the essence of Disc Golf! I'd really like to see Iron Hill come back onto the tour schedule. God created that place to be Disc Golf heallven.

I agree, give us the woods golf. Also anyone has a legit shot at taking the win.

Holland Handley, Kevin Jones for disc golf mountain golfing/timed hiking score combined format

For sure, woods golf is way more entertaining to watch. And as Texas woodsman I like playing wooded courses. I’ll even say I really don’t like open park courses

Different take on baskets than what seems to be the much more popular opinion, "DGPT needs to standardize baskets that catch better." I like the idea, similar to McBeth's thing from a few years ago about smaller baskets. Would that force out a lot of potential events due to financial reasons, Ie needing to replace their current baskets. Team #morewoodsgolf all day. A few holes with "arbitrary" OB are fine but it's definitely overdone.

Why not bring thing out towards east southeast more i feel like theres more of a southern following of disc golf than anywhere. But im ok with wooded courses and open courses because giant crush shots are fun to watch add more ob boundaries to make shots more rewarding when hit and more punishment when missed

woods golf is where it's at with maybe 2 open par 4's mixed in.

Woods golf was great to see in person with crowds from 8+ years ago and no entry cost maybe besides parking for the event. I remember buying discs directly from pros to support them. VIP and tiered pricing gets $$ but does not get the fans. Outside of a few courses, watching woods golf televised just isn't good. Northwoods Black is not great to watch either live or edited. I do agree that the DGPT needs to change but going just to all woods courses really isn't the answer either.

The 360 degree access to a basket to score on the hole is too generous. I would like to see a much more technical shot into a smaller aperture- say 15% of the normal. The direction to the basket would be changeable too. The basket positions should be moved each day too. I don’t know why artificial Mando’s are not used around the putting areas either. I like the idea of a more difficult pro game mentioned already.

I think you're going like watching the World Championship. I've been playing New London Tech for the last few weeks, and it's awesome. The MPO tees are brutal for mortals. Phew!

I concur.

I like the idea that disc golf has a variety of types of courses. However, I do agree that the wooded courses are far better to watch, but somehow even Jonesboro is way better than the ball golf courses.

I have been preaching "thinner" baskets(by 25% or more) for more than a decade. The closest to the basket should have the easier putt. Plus, we could get rid of raised baskets and death putts. The courses could become shorter and get back to the woods primarily. We need more bogey risk in the game and not from painted lines or flags or gimmicks. Right now it's a race for birdies. These wide open courses suck so bad. Take Waco... everyone, including the pros LOVE that course. Make those baskets 30% thinner(get rid of raised baskets) and we have a epic, exciting tournament.

markman baskets would be cool

Agree on less open courses, they're boring AF. F the OTB Open course hosting Champions Cup, that course is still terrible and the only thing I remember about it is a fox pissing on Sexton's disc. Standardizing baskets is a midwit idea. Disc golf doesn't have to be like every other sport. This is like saying that the WRC needs to be more like NASCAR and race on a standardized track. Smaller baskets is also a lowkey dumb idea. "It was designed to catch frisbees" well nothing is stopping you from pulling out a Zephyr, Glitch, Spore, Rattler, etc to putt with then, is there? The baskets are fine; it's the greens that can be too easy. C2 should have a lot more uneven ground and obstacles to offset the step-putt advantage. Reward players for parking upshots instead of allowing people to get lazy and keep pace because the terrain of C2 is just as open and flat as C1.

The basket thing is a joke every player in tounrmaent is playing on same baskets. Like gannon bur at las vegas he throws is puts 100 mph at every distance and missed high i left and blamed baskets

I hate the amount of luck on Northwoods.

If you want exciting putting, watch AM tournaments. These folks are engrossed in making these putts. You sound like you want luck to play a much larger role in deciding a champion.

All for the smaller Baskets. If we use Ball Golf as the comparison imagine if the cup was 50% bigger, the make rates from 5, 10, 15 feet all increase dramatically. Diminishing the reward for a good approach.

I do like watching discs slice down a fairway lined with woods, but I don't enjoy watching anyone play whack-f@#k. I prefer watching discs glide over watching them bounce off the first available. So I guess "wooded" courses that have pretty open throwing lanes is what I would like most? But I do not and never plan to pay to watch disc golf, so I realize my opinion doesn't mean much.

Open courses are boring AF to watch AND to play, I'd rather not play

I disagreed with almost every word you said.

Champions cup was terrible. Watching bad weather disc is a detractor. OTB is great in Stockton. We need way more good weather disc on the west coast. East bias is killing viewership.