Register

  • Discover new ways to elevate your game with the updated DGCourseReview app!
    It's entirely free and enhanced with features shaped by user feedback to ensure your best experience on the course. (App Store or Google Play)

How far do the top pros throw?

T

txmxer

* Ace Member *
Joined
Aug 15, 2020
Messages
3,954
Location
Texas
I'm looking at golf distance and what you might anticipate a player to be able to do on a regular basis. I pulled the top 50 rated MPO players from the PDGA website and I've assigned them to categories based on 50' increments. This is a rough approximation--I could certainly be off on a few of these.

600+

Garrett Gurthie
Simon Lizotte
Drew Gibson
Anthony Barela
Calvin Heimburg
Eagle Wynne McMahon

550+

Corey Ellis
Ezra Aderhold
Kevin Jones
Chris Dickerson
Richard Wysocki
Paul McBeth

500+

Emerson Keith
Andrew Marwede
Mason Ford
Nikko Locastro
Joel Freeman
Adam Hammes
Gannon Buhr
James Conrad
Kyle Klein
Andrew Simmons

450+

Alden Harris
Jeremy Koling
Gavin Rathbun
David Feldberg
Cole Redalen
Gregg Barsby
Chris Clemons
Andrew Presnell
Bradley Williams
Thomas Gilbert
Nathan Sexton
Cale Leiviska
Eric McCabe
Matthew Orum

Any ideas for these players?

Austin Hoop
Cameron Colglazier
John Bean III
Aaron Gossage
Lauri Lehtinen
Niklas Anttila
Scott Withers
Dallin Blanchard
Darrell Nodland
Joe Akhavan
James Proctor
Manabu Kajiyama
Isaac Robinson
Marvin Tetzel
 
Not intentionally drifting from the thread topic. I watch mostly FPO, and Paige Pierce says she throws consistently 460ish.
 
Isaac Robinson is 450+
So is Cam Colglazier

Manabu is maybe 400 but I love his game. So smooth.
 
Haven't heard of a lot of the people in that list which makes me want to watch more DG coverage but the fact there's pros who can only throw 450 feet gives me hope lol.
 
Probably closer to this:
txmxer said:
I'm looking at golf distance and what you might anticipate a player to be able to do on a regular basis. I pulled the top 50 rated MPO players from the PDGA website and I've assigned them to categories based on 50' increments. This is a rough approximation--I could certainly be off on a few of these.

600+

Garrett Gurthie
Simon Lizotte
Drew Gibson
Anthony Barela
Eagle Wynne McMahon
Kristian Kuoska
Ezra Aderhold


550+

Calvin Heimburg
Corey Ellis
Kevin Jones
Chris Dickerson
Richard Wysocki
Paul McBeth
Cole Redalen
Thomas Gilbert
Aaron Gossage
Kyle Klein
Gannon Buhr
Gavin Rathbun
Lauri Lehtinen


500+

Emerson Keith
Mason Ford
Nikko Locastro
Joel Freeman
Adam Hammes
James Conrad
Andrew Simmons
Matthew Orum
Jeremy Koling
Isaac Robinson
Dallin Blanchard
James Proctor
Cameron Colglazier
Niklas Anttila
Scott Withers


450+

Manabu Kajiyama
Alden Harris
David Feldberg
Gregg Barsby
Chris Clemons
Andrew Presnell
Bradley Williams
Nathan Sexton
Cale Leiviska
Eric McCabe
Andrew Marwede
Austin Hoop
Marvin Tetzel

Any ideas for these players?

John Bean III
Darrell Nodland
Joe Akhavan
Click to expand...
 
sidewinder22 said:
Probably closer to this:

Click to expand...

thanks--you moved a few around that I was on the fence about. Calvin being one. It was the opening round when they did the skills stuff and he won the distance competition throwing low and straight.

Dude flat out rips on golf lines. But, I'm okay with him being in the 550 club.

Wasn't sure about Ezra in the big bomber club. I know he can rip, but I am looking at golf distance and I'm not sure he throws as far on the course as some of the others.

I dropped Kohling to the 450+ club because he hardly ever throws backhands these days. I think it was something he talked about on one of the Jomez practice rounds this year that made me think he's not going to be getting the 500' rips going forward.

Kind of the same for Matty O. His golf distance is fantastic out to whatever his range is. I've heard him talk about not being a big distance guy and certainly the announcer have said similar, but in watching him, my impression was his golf distance was better than people were saying...still, I went with the "common knowledge".

Thanks for pitching in.
 
So Barsby won Worlds in 2018, and Sexton was on lead card final round last year.

So maybe elite distance/power isn't all it's cracked up to be?
 
nothinbuttree said:
So Barsby won Worlds in 2018, and Sexton was on lead card final round last year.

So maybe elite distance/power isn't all it's cracked up to be?
Click to expand...

Hmmmm

What I see is distance is absolutely a plus, but it's not the end all. In fact it's necessary. You don't see the 500' or less throwers challenging the upper levels.

BUT, that's a superficial conclusion. In order to really evaluate the issue we need to control the variables.

While we have wooded courses, we don't really have the precision 300-400' hole length with really tight gaps throughout course that would truly be apples to apples comparison.
 
Big Jerm also said in the BSF skins match that he throws "a lot more" backhands now and that his forehand is now, compared to where it was and, I think, elite forehand players, "trash".

But Jerm also does a lot of negative self talk, so I'm not sure how truly accurate that is. Nonetheless, the man can bomb, at least until his body falls victim to Father Time.
 
The thing I'm wondering about is what "golf line distance" means in terms of disc golf. Since we have, as far as I know, no standard for how distance is actually measured on a DG hole, it's not exactly clear to me what this really means.

Take hole 1 at Beaver State Fling. It was listed as 360 feet. It was wasn't actually impossible, but it was difficult in the extreme for the pros to get to the pin. I assume 360 was straight line distance from tee pad to the pin, but the precise flight line required made the amount of power required more than was really allowed by that same line.

Compare that to, IDK, Emporia, which is mostly flat and where the big issue with "golf line distance" is dealing with the wind and where the FPO elites can touch 550 off the tee. So IDK what golf line distance really means.
 
txmxer said:
Help me out here Hamp--all the pros were dropping 350' on the circle?

Thus, they stretched the holes and distance became qing?
Click to expand...

I followed the DGLO final 9's around at Hudson Mills with my VHS camera in both 1998 and 1999. (You can see this on my YT channel "1989DiscGolfer"). Climo made a living doing this. Remote control-like command of his drives, exceptional putting. Distance wasn't bad, but certainly not the very best. Add in his tenacity and killer instinct (I've heard he was even competitive when it came time to help break down tables and chairs after events, had to be the first one done!), and you see the reason why he won so many freaking events and titles.

Stokely outdrove him on the regular and sometimes took crazier lines, kind of the Simon Lizotte of his day. His shot on Hudson Mills original #18 is an example, a big sky anny over the woods that nobody else on Earth was doing from that tee. He turned around and said with a smile, "Fooled you!" He was a joy to watch. And Climo won all the titles with his little bit less distance.
 
...I should add, when I say "Climo made a living," that's figuratively speaking. Nobody was making an actual living. Crashing on couches and holding down day jobs. That's what you get when you're a pioneer in a burgeoning young sport.
 
I captured golf throwing distances (lasered) on a flat, open (no trees) bomber hole longer than anyone could reach at Am and Pro Worlds in 2002 for all divisions. Of the top 36 in MPO, the 22 air drives ranged from 324' to 459', the 14 roller drives ranged from 300' to 477'. All 36 were righthanders throwing backhand and the field average distance was 378'.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Top