New Tournament Concept

[Horsman]

I have had an idea in my head for a few years about a different tournament style. Ive called it the Disc Golf Games in my head.

So I'm a big fan of Crossfit and have done it for maybe the past 6 years or so. Its what I use to stay in shape and train for disc golf, its the reason why I can still compete at a high level while only playing maybe once every two weeks or so and never in the off season.

In Crossfit there is something called the Crossfit Games, which is basically the Super Bowl of Crossfit. Its an event with the top athletes in the sport where they take the better part of the week to determine who the fittest person is. They are asked to do a bunch of different workouts where they test everything from running, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, athleticism etc. How many and what the events are, are unknown to the participants so it can truly be a fair test of fitness. I would like to come up with something similar for disc golf.

My thoughts would be to have an event where we test disc golf skills alongside tournament rounds and have it all scored thru points and not strokes. Take the worlds field events plus a few rounds of disc golf and boom, thats it. This is not meant to be gimmicky but is meant to challenge players to do somethings that are out of their comfort zones.

I would like to see a putting contest, distance contest, accuracy contest, etc., all of which can be made unique by maybe only allowing one class of disc. A distance contest with only midranges or a forehand only accuracy contest for examples. The exact events will only be made public to the players in the moment or shortly beforehand. I dont want the players to be able to practice ahead of time, rather I would just want them to be able to rely on the skills that they already have and show us who can execute the best.

For the tournament rounds I would love to see at least 1 standard disc golf round, where the players are allowed to know the exact layout of the course and be able to practice it ahead of time. I would also want there to be at least 1 unknown disc golf round. By that I mean that the players will not be allowed to practice the course ahead of time, I want everybody to be playing blind. For the blind rounds I have thought of a few things that could be done to keep it fair. Somehow find a way to keep players off of a secret course that has never been played, which probably wont work but would be cool. What I had more in mind was we have the players play a course but before they head out we change up all the locations. Every hole would be a temp basket and we would create new placements for the pins that have never been used so that no one player should have an advantage. Or maybe we send them out on a course with smaller baskets (yes I know, I hate the idea as well). Something that tries to make the course as blind as possible for everyone.

For a way to determine the winner I was thinking of a points system that gives more points to the top few places and then scales down after that. 1st gets 100, 2nd 90, third 83, forth, 77 and so on, making it so that there is more of an advantage to come out on top.

This has all just been a thought in my head and would love to hear what everyone else thinks.

 

[Cgkdisc]

The Overalls which includes 7 disc sports and EDGE Skillshot already exist along those lines. Nothing stopping anyone from running those events or your proposed format. Local players likely to come no matter what. If big money is involved, the bigger dogs will come.

 

[ballgolfconvert]

I have had an idea in my head for a few years about a different tournament style. Ive called it the Disc Golf Games in my head.

So I'm a big fan of Crossfit and have done it for maybe the past 6 years or so. Its what I use to stay in shape and train for disc golf, its the reason why I can still compete at a high level while only playing maybe once every two weeks or so and never in the off season.

In Crossfit there is something called the Crossfit Games, which is basically the Super Bowl of Crossfit. Its an event with the top athletes in the sport where they take the better part of the week to determine who the fittest person is. They are asked to do a bunch of different workouts where they test everything from running, swimming, weightlifting, gymnastics, athleticism etc. How many and what the events are, are unknown to the participants so it can truly be a fair test of fitness. I would like to come up with something similar for disc golf.

My thoughts would be to have an event where we test disc golf skills alongside tournament rounds and have it all scored thru points and not strokes. Take the worlds field events plus a few rounds of disc golf and boom, thats it. This is not meant to be gimmicky but is meant to challenge players to do somethings that are out of their comfort zones.

I would like to see a putting contest, distance contest, accuracy contest, etc., all of which can be made unique by maybe only allowing one class of disc. A distance contest with only midranges or a forehand only accuracy contest for examples. The exact events will only be made public to the players in the moment or shortly beforehand. I dont want the players to be able to practice ahead of time, rather I would just want them to be able to rely on the skills that they already have and show us who can execute the best.

For the tournament rounds I would love to see at least 1 standard disc golf round, where the players are allowed to know the exact layout of the course and be able to practice it ahead of time. I would also want there to be at least 1 unknown disc golf round. By that I mean that the players will not be allowed to practice the course ahead of time, I want everybody to be playing blind. For the blind rounds I have thought of a few things that could be done to keep it fair. Somehow find a way to keep players off of a secret course that has never been played, which probably wont work but would be cool. What I had more in mind was we have the players play a course but before they head out we change up all the locations. Every hole would be a temp basket and we would create new placements for the pins that have never been used so that no one player should have an advantage. Or maybe we send them out on a course with smaller baskets (yes I know, I hate the idea as well). Something that tries to make the course as blind as possible for everyone.

For a way to determine the winner I was thinking of a points system that gives more points to the top few places and then scales down after that. 1st gets 100, 2nd 90, third 83, forth, 77 and so on, making it so that there is more of an advantage to come out on top.

This has all just been a thought in my head and would love to hear what everyone else thinks.

Maybe play the course backwards which would only necessitate setting up the tee positions.

 

[Horsman]

The Overalls which includes 7 disc sports and EDGE Skillshot already exist along those lines. Nothing stopping anyone from running those events or your proposed format. Local players likely to come no matter what. If big money is involved, the bigger dogs will come.

Yea, I was trying to make it more individual and disc golf related. But theres no reason why any of those events couldnt be used. I want people to be ready for whatever and not a certain set of events that are known.

 

[Horsman]

Maybe play the course backwards which would only necessitate setting up the tee positions.

Theres a ball golf course somewhere where it was designed to be played forwards and backwards and it changes based on the day.

Idea is solid though

 

[glassila]

It wouldn't really have to be a secret unplayed course. You could change tee areas, use portable baskets and have some safari holes, especially if you have a 27 hole course to turn it into a 18 hole course.

 

[DavidSauls]

One drawback of the mystery competitions (blind course, unannounced field events) would be players willing to sign up, not knowing if the TD's choices would be good ones. Throw in enough money, of course, and players will show up. Otherwise, they'd need a lot of faith that the blind and untested course is well-designed, and the field events sensible.

A blind course could probably be better done on a temp course setup on non-disc-golf property (preferably, not a golf course, as that's been done before).

 

[BillFleming]

For the tournament rounds I would love to see at least 1 standard disc golf round, where the players are allowed to know the exact layout of the course and be able to practice it ahead of time. I would also want there to be at least 1 unknown disc golf round. By that I mean that the players will not be allowed to practice the course ahead of time, I want everybody to be playing blind. For the blind rounds I have thought of a few things that could be done to keep it fair. Somehow find a way to keep players off of a secret course that has never been played, which probably wont work but would be cool. What I had more in mind was we have the players play a course but before they head out we change up all the locations. Every hole would be a temp basket and we would create new placements for the pins that have never been used so that no one player should have an advantage. Or maybe we send them out on a course with smaller baskets (yes I know, I hate the idea as well). Something that tries to make the course as blind as possible for everyone.

Would the two rounds be on the same day or different days? If it's same day, you may not get players to take part.

Secret course? How many disc golf course locations have multiple courses close by? If the players have to travel to another location they may not take part.

Reset the course between rounds? Who is going to do that? It takes a lot of work and "person" power. Will players wait that long?

What will you charge for this? What will the payout be?

Regardless of the above thoughts, I like the idea. But you should try it out at a local course. If you are part of a league, why not try it with a league outing and see how it goes? You wouldn't even have to reset the course...at first you are just trying to see if it might be feasible. So play the same course, but using the rules you set up. If it works, next step is to see how long it would take to 'reset' the course so it is a 'blind' setup. If that works, then move onto finding (or hosting) a tournament where you do this. Small steps.

 

[Horsman]

One drawback of the mystery competitions (blind course, unannounced field events) would be players willing to sign up, not knowing if the TD's choices would be good ones. Throw in enough money, of course, and players will show up. Otherwise, they'd need a lot of faith that the blind and untested course is well-designed, and the field events sensible.

A blind course could probably be better done on a temp course setup on non-disc-golf property (preferably, not a golf course, as that's been done before).

So this would hopefully be a non issue if this idea ever comes to reality. I dont have plans to do this myslef, I just like the idea and wanted to see what other thought of it. In the crossfit world there is a director of the crossfit games and that person is tasked with coming up with the test for the athletes. The director has a few high level athletes at his disposal to test out workouts and to make sure they are doable, safe an fun. These athletes dont get to take part in the games. The athletes that do compete have faith and trust the director and know that everything is going to be as safe and as fair as possible. This might be really hard to do in disc golf but I could see it being done.

 

[Horsman]

Would the two rounds be on the same day or different days? If it's same day, you may not get players to take part.

Secret course? How many disc golf course locations have multiple courses close by? If the players have to travel to another location they may not take part.

Reset the course between rounds? Who is going to do that? It takes a lot of work and "person" power. Will players wait that long?

What will you charge for this? What will the payout be?

Regardless of the above thoughts, I like the idea. But you should try it out at a local course. If you are part of a league, why not try it with a league outing and see how it goes? You wouldn't even have to reset the course...at first you are just trying to see if it might be feasible. So play the same course, but using the rules you set up. If it works, next step is to see how long it would take to 'reset' the course so it is a 'blind' setup. If that works, then move onto finding (or hosting) a tournament where you do this. Small steps.

I would lean towards only one round a day on the days that had full rounds to play but I think one part of disc golf that doesnt get tested enough is endurance so I would like to see days that have multiple field events or rounds of disc golf to take people out of their comfort zones to a certain extent. I would never ask players to play two extremely long courses in a day but if you had two pitch and putt courses in a day then I could see that, but then again who would want to watch pitch and putt golf that many times.

 

[Zanguini]

A skills challenge is something i have always wanted to see.

 

[aphilso1]

Well I guess I'll be the dissenting voice. I have no interest in a skills competition, either as a spectator or as a participant.

I love football but never watch the NFL combine.
I Love basketball but never watch 3pt shooting competitions.
I love baseball but never watch the home run derby.

Individual skills competitions defeat the whole point of the sport itself. The skills have no intrinsic value; their worth is solely tied to their application when in conjunction with all other facets of the game. On a related note, this is probably why I find track & field to be some of the hardest Olympic events to watch. While I understand the competition in those events is the test of a very specific skill, I would much rather watch that skill applied to a more nuanced game. In other words, I would rather watch the world's fastest man run a go route past a cornerback rather than watch him run 100m on a track.

 

[BillFleming]

I would lean towards only one round a day on the days that had full rounds to play but I think one part of disc golf that doesnt get tested enough is endurance so I would like to see days that have multiple field events or rounds of disc golf to take people out of their comfort zones to a certain extent. I would never ask players to play two extremely long courses in a day but if you had two pitch and putt courses in a day then I could see that, but then again who would want to watch pitch and putt golf that many times.

People do play two long rounds in a single day. I'm in a tournament in February where it will be two rounds in one day. The park has two courses, so we will be playing both with a lunch break in between. Some divisions will start on South and some will start on North, then after lunch they switch.

South course is 5887 feet
North course is 7096 feet

So, it is do-able and this tournament isn't the only one I've played in that does two rounds in one day.

 

[ejvogie]

2 rounds is definitely feasible to do in one day, but as shotgun starts and not tee times

 

[DavidSauls]

Our fall tournament(s) always feature 2 rounds on a 20-hole, 8,000-foot layout on Sunday, with lots of elevation, following a 2-rounds of about 6,700 feet the previous day. It's an endurance test for me, but not for younger players. It'd take a lot more than that to test the endurance of top pros.

 

[Horsman]

People do play two long rounds in a single day. I'm in a tournament in February where it will be two rounds in one day. The park has two courses, so we will be playing both with a lunch break in between. Some divisions will start on South and some will start on North, then after lunch they switch.

South course is 5887 feet
North course is 7096 feet

So, it is do-able and this tournament isn't the only one I've played in that does two rounds in one day.

For sure doable and probably like 95% of tournaments are this way. I was saying that for this concept where there is going to be a lot of throwing over a few days of competition an it might be smart to not push people to do something that might cause more injuries. Like there would have to be something in place so that the distance competition isn't scheduled on the same day as a bomber course. I could see people going all out in the distance comp only to have their arm be too sore to play a full round of 500+ foot holes. Then again it would make for some fun competition to watch, for example, Paul McBeth could go only like 80% in the distance comp so he could save his arm for the next round, while watching Drew Gibson going for broke knowing that he could take the top place and gather a lot of points while sacrificing his ability to score well in the next round.

To give people incentive to try and win each event I would try to have some cash prize just for an event win.

 

[Horsman]

Our fall tournament(s) always feature 2 rounds on a 20-hole, 8,000-foot layout on Sunday, with lots of elevation, following a 2-rounds of about 6,700 feet the previous day. It's an endurance test for me, but not for younger players. It'd take a lot more than that to test the endurance of top pros.

Agreed on the endurance, the thing I miss most about Worlds is that it kind of used to be a test of not only skill but endurance as well with there being 6? rounds or so. Coming up with something that tests endurance but is also safe would b difficult.

 

[jakebake91]

I love the idea of this! It'd be fun to watch. I'd never sign up for something like that though personally, not because I don't think it'd be fun, but because I know my "skills" are neither good nor well rounded haha.

 

[Jah Plastifari]

I used to really enjoy Overall competitions, but I haven't done one in 20 years.

I like this idea and I would sign up if it was available near me.

 

[autocrosscrx]

I always theoretically love the idea of skills challenges, but I never enjoy watching them. They come off as so gimmicky.

Like can you imagine James Conrad beating everyone on a killer course, then losing because there was a forehand contest?