Has Paige Pierce peaked?

[SD86]

It was much colder than anyone probably expected and they were playing in snow. As someone who lives in a cold environment and has played in snow, I will say it can be tough to get a decent rhythm going when you're cold. You don't even really feel like you're gripping the disc properly. Bad drives are very easy to come by in those conditions. Everything feels like it wants to stall and hyzer out prematurely.

Hardly a problem. Paige was easily outdriving the other women. She'll be fine. Playing in austere conditions can affect anyone. I agree she had a bad start.

Paige P is known for slow starts, and yes she will be fine. As to conditions, I'm not going to allow that excuse: Paige B and Catrina were playing in the same conditions and played well, especially Cat's Rd. 2 back nine.

And I agree with whoever said above that the FPO field is getting deeper and more competitive. I'm really looking forward to watching the ladies play DG this season. :thmbup:

 

[Twmccoy]

Paige P is known for slow starts, and yes she will be fine. As to conditions, I'm not going to allow that excuse: Paige B and Catrina were playing in the same conditions and played well, especially Cat's Rd. 2 back nine.

And I agree with whoever said above that the FPO field is getting deeper and more competitive. I'm really looking forward to watching the ladies play DG this season. :thmbup:

I can't really disagree there. All the women were playing in the same conditions. Paige P did have a noticeably sluggish start and it looked like the cold was affecting her. I guess a big part of DG is dealing with sometimes inopportune weather conditions and still finding ways to succeed.

 

[Hyzflip10]

... Paige Pierce can no longer bring her B game for most of the tournament and have one or two good rounds and expect to win FPO. At least one other player is going to put together a good tournament with the increasing depth in FPO. This is the most parody FPO has had in a long time, maybe ever.

Is someone doing a satire of disc golf that I didn't know about?

I agree though that there sees to be parity in both the men's and women' side of things. I think it is good to see and only helps the game. It's not just Paige Pierce winning, and it's no longer just McBeth and Wysocki. I also think it is good to see that McBeth's switch to Discraft really hasn't affected his game much. As much as the fanbois want to believe and convince us all that company X's discs will make you a better player or Team Y's players are the only cool players around, discs really are are commodity now and it doesn't matter what or whose discs you are throwing.

 

[giles]

I watch something where she said it is a little reminder to get that pop on release.

That little putter flick to the head she does seems a bit extraneous to me. Easy to criticize when she's missing a bunch, but I really can't see how that helps.

 

[SD86]

That little putter flick to the head she does seems a bit extraneous to me. Easy to criticize when she's missing a bunch, but I really can't see how that helps.

Routine, routine, routine. Extremely important for consistent putting (and consistent disc golf, and consistent golf ball golf)...

 

[Monkeypaws]

Routine, routine, routine. Extremely important for consistent putting (and consistent disc golf, and consistent golf ball golf)...

For sure: I liken it to a ball player who has a big leg kick or hitch in his swing when batting. Some are comfortable with it and make it work.

But you would never encourage someone learning the game to emulate it as a model of clean form.

Now the rest of her game....

 

[Jolt]

Sometimes it feels like Paige should have a Pro caddie that can "make her go for the safe shot" sometimes. . .she usually plays well with McCall as a caddie

 

[Jolt]

Paige P had 18 OBs. . Paige B had 5 OBs. . .PP lost by 8 throws

I really don´t get why PP can´t play it just a bit safe

Whats the point of a "big arm" if that just make you find OB the normal arms can´t reach?

 

[treekickluv]

I agree and what i feel is the best advantage of longer throwers is that they can disc down or throw more overstable discs and get better consistensy. Which i havent really seen paige do..

 

[TimSyl]

PP is sort of like the Simon of the FPO field. All the talent anyone could want, but doesn't always make the "smart" choice. Discing down and going for a par occasionally would probably work. Also, there are times she is not a very good putter. She goes on stretches where she can't make a 15 footer.

 

[DoWork]

Man, I REALLY hate these threads.

 

[Therealgoat]

Paige P had 18 OBs. . Paige B had 5 OBs. . .PP lost by 8 throws

I really don´t get why PP can´t play it just a bit safe

Whats the point of a "big arm" if that just make you find OB the normal arms can´t reach?

Can't remember who posted it to Instagram, but PB did a mini interview talking about the next course they'd be playing and she said it was all basically outside of her range, so there WAS no point in getting aggressive, because she couldn't get over the OB greens on her drives to even have a shot at birdie.

PP can. So yes, if you just look at the OB rate, PP lost strokes that way...but how many did she gain throughout the tournament snagging birdies that only she even has a shot at?

Edit: JC posted in the tourney thread a great point:

"She found too much OB (27th out of 31 women in OB rate) and isn't putting well enough to justify the over-aggressive runs."

^^ She would seem unstoppable if she was converting on most of those birdies, or if they hadn't all gone OB. Greater risk, greater reward, just didn't work out this time.

 

[_MTL_]

I've said this before - maybe even on this thread.

She's the most frustrating player I've ever seen to watch. She is so much better than everyone but she goes for EVERYTHING and it kills her. She has one of the worst game plans of anyone on tour.

Imagine a 550 foot hole with OB from 300 - 375 feet. Most if not all the FPO women would lay up in front of the OB and then have a 250 - 300 foot upshot. Some 3s, lots of 4s and then some random 5s and 6s.

She would 100% try to bomb it over the OB when she gains absolutely nothing and risks going OB or power yanking it.

Most FPO women would throw distance drivers on these two shots and she could throw an OS spike twice. She is a power player that doesn't know how to take advantage of her power.

 

[JC17393]

PP posted some interesting self-reflective videos on her Instagram story last night saying that she erred in not playing any "warm up" tournaments before this weekend and that as a result, she took a couple rounds to get back into a tournament rhythm. Basically, she was rusty. She felt she was driving well but not finishing, and that showed in her putting for sure (54% C1x on Friday on the Innova course vs 90% C1x on Sunday). All the practice in the world doesn't mean anything if you're not mentally locked in and focused from the first tee. She averaged 916 in the first two rounds, 985 the last two...four rounds like the last two and she wins almost any FPO tournament going away.

I fully expect she'll be right back on the lead card this week at the Memorial.

 

[Jolt]

Can't remember who posted it to Instagram, but PB did a mini interview talking about the next course they'd be playing and she said it was all basically outside of her range, so there WAS no point in getting aggressive, because she couldn't get over the OB greens on her drives to even have a shot at birdie.

PP can. So yes, if you just look at the OB rate, PP lost strokes that way...but how many did she gain throughout the tournament snagging birdies that only she even has a shot at?

Edit: JC posted in the tourney thread a great point:

"She found too much OB (27th out of 31 women in OB rate) and isn't putting well enough to justify the over-aggressive runs."

^^ She would seem unstoppable if she was converting on most of those birdies, or if they hadn't all gone OB. Greater risk, greater reward, just didn't work out this time.

I may be wrong, but i think PP hade one Eagle that no one else got, and two birdies that she was the only one to get. . . so sure, she gets some holes that no one else does. . . but with 18 OBs that doesnt really matter

But R3 B9 and R4 she played really good. . so slow start but she found her play in the end

 

[Twmccoy]

I've said this before - maybe even on this thread.

She's the most frustrating player I've ever seen to watch. She is so much better than everyone but she goes for EVERYTHING and it kills her. She has one of the worst game plans of anyone on tour.

Imagine a 550 foot hole with OB from 300 - 375 feet. Most if not all the FPO women would lay up in front of the OB and then have a 250 - 300 foot upshot. Some 3s, lots of 4s and then some random 5s and 6s.

She would 100% try to bomb it over the OB when she gains absolutely nothing and risks going OB or power yanking it.

Most FPO women would throw distance drivers on these two shots and she could throw an OS spike twice. She is a power player that doesn't know how to take advantage of her power.

That's why they design tourny DG courses the way they do. Someone puts a lot of thought into that stuff, where to put OBs and where to put the pins. DG is as mentally challenging as it is physically. I agree there's a time and a place to go for it and a time and a place to lay up.

Some tournies simply don't work out. Yes, she went for it too often and ended up OB quite a bit. Give someone like PP a big, open course and she's going to rip it. Who knows, maybe she's better on the short, technical tree lined courses.

I will fully agree that PP could have won the Vegas event with better course management. For what its worth it seemed like her putting was pretty rough too. Early in the tourny her drives were also very erratic.

 

[XC_Eddy]

I've said this before - maybe even on this thread.

She's the most frustrating player I've ever seen to watch. She is so much better than everyone but she goes for EVERYTHING and it kills her. She has one of the worst game plans of anyone on tour.

Imagine a 550 foot hole with OB from 300 - 375 feet. Most if not all the FPO women would lay up in front of the OB and then have a 250 - 300 foot upshot. Some 3s, lots of 4s and then some random 5s and 6s.

She would 100% try to bomb it over the OB when she gains absolutely nothing and risks going OB or power yanking it.

Most FPO women would throw distance drivers on these two shots and she could throw an OS spike twice. She is a power player that doesn't know how to take advantage of her power.

She won't change her game plan until she starts getting beat consistently and is forced to change it up. She wins enough while playing aggressively right now.

Look at the difference between Eagle and Simon in 2018. Eagle made a conscious choice to play more conservatively and pick his shots. Simon kept his go for everything approach. Guess which one had the better season...

Pierce currently plays with a style that occasionally reaches her ceiling when everything comes together, but she'd score better overall if she pulled back the aggressiveness and picked her shots. It feels like she doesn't analyze risk reward hardly at all.

 

[Twmccoy]

I also think its pretty unfair for people like us to watch footage online and make snide remarks about what PP did (or didn't) do in Vegas. I'm no tourny DG'er. She's a better player than I'll ever be. When she's on she seems to drive about 50' further than any other woman consistently.

Not gonna lie though, watching that first round in the snow was pretty rough. PP looked out of sorts.

I've never played a DG course like the ones in those vids. The course I routinely play has no holes over par 3 and doesn't really have much OB to contend with. That ball course setup looks fun. A combination of open bombing and accuracy. Having greens, cart paths, and sand traps OB definitely makes you think harder on shot selection.

 

[TimSyl]

I also think its pretty unfair for people like us to watch footage online and make snide remarks about what PP did (or didn't) do in Vegas. I'm no tourny DG'er. She's a better player than I'll ever be. When she's on she seems to drive about 50' further than any other woman consistently.

Not gonna lie though, watching that first round in the snow was pretty rough. PP looked out of sorts.

I've never played a DG course like the ones in those vids. The course I routinely play has no holes over par 3 and doesn't really have much OB to contend with. That ball course setup looks fun. A combination of open bombing and accuracy. Having greens, cart paths, and sand traps OB definitely makes you think harder on shot selection.

Unfair to discuss a pro disc golfer on a disc golf website???????????

 

[SD86]

For sure: I liken it to a ball player who has a big leg kick or hitch in his swing when batting. Some are comfortable with it and make it work.

But you would never encourage someone learning the game to emulate it as a model of clean form.

Now the rest of her game....

Well, again: putting is the most unique and individual thing about disc golf. While most pros (and smart amateurs) throw drivers with the same basic form, you (plural) will see everyone from the most elite to the most casual putt in many different ways. From (World Champion) Sarah Hokum to (World Champion) Ricky Wysocki to (World Champion) Paul McBeth to (World Champion?) Eric McCabe... four elite players with four different putting styles... to people in my casual group on weekends, the putting is as unique as the people throwing the discs.

So I won't tell anyone what to emulate or not emulate when it comes to putting. Do what works.