2022 DGPT Championship Oct 12-16

[The Shide]

Can I say it? I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Maybe some of you were thinking it too. Maybe not.
Okay. Here goes.

Hey Ricky! Act like you've been there before.

There. I said what I felt needed saying. I'm just sayin'.

 

[aren]

I think growth in FPO will take a couple of years, but showing that Kristin effectively matched the top MPO player will make some waves.

And it's only been a couple of years where there has been noticeable growth on the pro tour, especially for your average pro. In 2018, the 15th-highest FPO player made $5k. Emily Beach, who's 15th on the money list this year, is sitting at nearly $19k. Now you're going to have young pros that have more means to actually tour year after year, develop a fan base, and continue playing. Then that helps develop the local level.

I just think these things take time, but these last two seasons will start to move the needle.

 

[biscoe]

As long as there is growth in women casual play, there is still opportunity to see growth in competitive play IMO.

General question—does anyone run any type of "f" only event(s) at the local level?

There are a number of them in Virginia from very local weekly stuff in several places up through a statewide series of PDGA events. I can't really speak to the activity on the local levels but the PDGA series gained a ton of momentum during Covid and has now begun to decline.

 

[biscoe]

I think growth in FPO will take a couple of years, but showing that Kristin effectively matched the top MPO player will make some waves.

And it's only been a couple of years where there has been noticeable growth on the pro tour, especially for your average pro. In 2018, the 15th-highest FPO player made $5k. Emily Beach, who's 15th on the money list this year, is sitting at nearly $19k. Now you're going to have young pros that have more means to actually tour year after year, develop a fan base, and continue playing. Then that helps develop the local level.

I just think these things take time, but these last two seasons will start to move the needle.

I am not sure that growth of pro purses has any impact at all on getting women to begin playing disc golf. Pyramids get built from the ground up not the top down. DGPT obviously believes otherwise.

 

[BogeyNoMore]

I am not sure that growth of pro purses has any impact at all on getting women to begin playing disc golf. Pyramids get built from the ground up not the top down. DGPT obviously believes otherwise.

While I don't disagree with this, at the very least, FPO players earning a comfortable living certainly won't hurt the growth of female involvement in the sport at the grass roots level.

 

[BillFleming]

As long as there is growth in women casual play, there is still opportunity to see growth in competitive play IMO.

General question—does anyone run any type of "f" only event(s) at the local level?

There are some here in Arizona. Not many, but a few. Also, there's a group that has been putting on Junior only tournaments....again, not many...but it is happening.

 

[Future_Primitive]

We tried a "f"-only league last year; the high water mark for attendance was four. It died a natural death after six weeks (only the woman who was organizing it showed up after six weeks) and it resisted a couple of attempts to revive it this summer.

The handful of women who showed up talked about how nice it was to have a space for themselves, but it must not have been enough.

Just held our annual Halloween event and was pleasantly surprised to see over 25% of the field was female. 15 out of 58 showed up for one day and one glow round event. Tons of credit to our female club members for the weekly league they run as over half of them were from leagues. Dont recall the turnout ever being over 10% before so hopefully things are improving. :clap:

 

[chevis]

General question—does anyone run any type of "f" only event(s) at the local level?

la niña open happens in yakima every year

 

[ru4por]

Just held our annual Halloween event and was pleasantly surprised to see over 25% of the field was female. 15 out of 58 showed up for one day and one glow round event. Tons of credit to our female club members for the weekly league they run as over half of them were from leagues. Dont recall the turnout ever being over 10% before so hopefully things are improving. :clap:

Great job to WC GLOW!! Scott has been a long time advocate of female disc golf and I think it shows.

 

[EarthRocker]

There's definitely a Charlotte Women's League that does pretty good numbers...I'm not close enough to it to know too many details, but I do know one lady who's pretty heavily involved in the recruiting. She LOVES to talk, first of all. In fact, I don't think she knows what pure silence is. And while that trait can be annoying at times, I give her a ton of credit - if she sees a female player, anywhere on the course, she drops everything to walk over and invite said female to the League. I grind my teeth the whole time - it happens a lot - but I understand what drives it.

Find the over-caffeinated, this-knob-goes-to-eleven lady golfer in your area, and let her loose!

 

[ChrisWoj]

Can I say it? I'm just going to go ahead and say it. Maybe some of you were thinking it too. Maybe not.
Okay. Here goes.

Hey Ricky! Act like you've been there before.

There. I said what I felt needed saying. I'm just sayin'.

Two things...

A. Never in his career has Ricky picked up a win worth $35,000 in prize.

B. When Ricky is on fire and showing that emotion he is the most fun competitor to watch in the sport for my money.

 

[aren]

I am not sure that growth of pro purses has any impact at all on getting women to begin playing disc golf. Pyramids get built from the ground up not the top down. DGPT obviously believes otherwise.

I don't disagree that growth at the grassroots level is where the bulk of the work is. But the more publicity of the basically equal payouts that the DGPT have should be marketed and capture people's attention. It's a unique thing for sports. More money means more players interested, more content for folks to stumble on and get deeper into the sport.

The grassroots level shouldn't be the DGPT's concern or focus anyway. To me, that falls on the PDGA to market the women's game. And the DGPT is making it much easier by giving them a large group of women that travel on the same tour to learn from and root for.

 

[R-Ogre]

I don't think it's either woke or misogynist to point out that until women as an aggregate feel totally comfortable going out into the woods alone without packing a handgun, bear spray, and/or a large dog you're going to have trouble building the kind of participation that you get from the dudes. I mean sure leagues and tournaments are fine but I don't think doing just the group stuff is enough to build a player base. Players have to go out and do a solo or duo round on the spur of them moment to keep their interest up imho.

There's also the Mom factor-in our society it's super accepted for dad to get home from work and say "honey I'm gonna go smash some beers and some birdies!" And the expectation is just that she has dinner and kids bedtime taken care of. Even as much as we've had women working outside the home for decades and a lot of us are moving past that 50s housewife paradigm there's definitely still some residual weirdness there and it's like "oooh, dads cooking? Hope you like Dominoes!" Or "dad's putting the kids to bed? Good luck!".

JMHO

 

[nothinbuttree]

I think there is something deeper than what has been discussed already. Is it possible that women, IN GENERAL, just don't enjoy playing disc golf for whatever reason?

I have 4 boys and 1 girl. My 4 boys, to varying degrees are hooked, and want to play often. I first took my girl out at age 9, and 20-25 times over the next few years. She loves the outdoors, hiking, camping, biking, and swimming. She is not some indoor wall flower. She simply does not like the sport. I bought her a bag, discs in her favorite colors, yadda yadda. I took her courses well suited to her skill level, etc. No dice. Basically found out she knew after once or twice she did not like it, but didn't want to hurt my feelings.

When I ask why she doesn't much like it, she really doesn't have an answer. She was pretty good too, with a frame well suited to playing. She actually doesn't mind walking along with me, and will caddy for me, just doesn't want to throw.

I have even pointed out the distances and putting percentages she would need to obtain to be competitive at the very top of the FPO field--the whole "you could really make a living doing this"---to no avail. She even likes to travel as well, and I think would enjoy going to different venues each week for several months.

So yeah, just one data point and all, but I honestly feel there is something to my story. I wish I could put my finger on what, but I am at a loss too. I mean, this is a great sport--what is wrong with her!!!

I wonder if participation is any more balanced in Europe--anyone on the forum who might speak to that? Maybe somehow its just an American thing??

 

[Nick Pacific]

Just held our annual Halloween event and was pleasantly surprised to see over 25% of the field was female. 15 out of 58 showed up for one day and one glow round event. Tons of credit to our female club members for the weekly league they run as over half of them were from leagues. Dont recall the turnout ever being over 10% before so hopefully things are improving. :clap:

Those ladies did a sweet job of decorating hole 4 too! Lit pumpkins down the fairway and ghosts and skeletons around the green. I think even the teepad was lit up too.

 

[DanJon]

I think there is something deeper than what has been discussed already. Is it possible that women, IN GENERAL, just don't enjoy playing disc golf for whatever reason?

I have 4 boys and 1 girl. My 4 boys, to varying degrees are hooked, and want to play often. I first took my girl out at age 9, and 20-25 times over the next few years. She loves the outdoors, hiking, camping, biking, and swimming. She is not some indoor wall flower. She simply does not like the sport. I bought her a bag, discs in her favorite colors, yadda yadda. I took her courses well suited to her skill level, etc. No dice. Basically found out she knew after once or twice she did not like it, but didn't want to hurt my feelings.

When I ask why she doesn't much like it, she really doesn't have an answer. She was pretty good too, with a frame well suited to playing. She actually doesn't mind walking along with me, and will caddy for me, just doesn't want to throw.

I have even pointed out the distances and putting percentages she would need to obtain to be competitive at the very top of the FPO field--the whole "you could really make a living doing this"---to no avail. She even likes to travel as well, and I think would enjoy going to different venues each week for several months.

So yeah, just one data point and all, but I honestly feel there is something to my story. I wish I could put my finger on what, but I am at a loss too. I mean, this is a great sport--what is wrong with her!!!

I wonder if participation is any more balanced in Europe--anyone on the forum who might speak to that? Maybe somehow its just an American thing??

I think certain regions in Europe have treated Women's Sports in a more positive manner for far longer than the US (Nordic countries for instance).

While the US does have great participation and support for Women's Sports in the high school and collegiate level, that enthusiasm seems to drop off in the pro level.

Certain European countries seem to be more supportive of a lifelong approach.

It also helps that they don't have the same obsession with our traditional sports over there, leaving room for interest and participation in non-traditional sports amongst women.

 

[The Shide]

Two things...

A. Never in his career has Ricky picked up a win worth $35,000 in prize.

B. When Ricky is on fire and showing that emotion he is the most fun competitor to watch in the sport for my money.

Disagree

 

[Central Scrutinizer]

As long as there is growth in women casual play, there is still opportunity to see growth in competitive play IMO.

General question—does anyone run any type of "f" only event(s) at the local level?

Here in Kalamazoo there is a ladies' league at venerable Cold Brook Park on Sundays during the good weather months of the year. There's also the Kalamazoo Ladies Classic in July. I recall Blue Gill (a stellar private course about 30 minutes north of us) also having a ladies tournament for each of the last couple of years or so.

Here are the results of this year's KLC, won by the 2015 Masters world champion Sarah Demar and an attendance of 38 if I counted correctly: https://www.discgolfscene.com/tournaments/Kalamazoo_Ladies_Classic_Presented_by_Doja_2022

And here is Crew 42 footage of the 2020 version, in which I helped film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfyNe42A1Gk&t

 

[txmxer]

Here in Kalamazoo there is a ladies' league at venerable Cold Brook Park on Sundays during the good weather months of the year. There's also the Kalamazoo Ladies Classic in July. I recall Blue Gill (a stellar private course about 30 minutes north of us) also having a ladies tournament for each of the last couple of years or so.

Here are the results of this year's KLC, won by the 2015 Masters world champion Sarah Demar and an attendance of 38 if I counted correctly: https://www.discgolfscene.com/tournaments/Kalamazoo_Ladies_Classic_Presented_by_Doja_2022

And here is Crew 42 footage of the 2020 version, in which I helped film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfyNe42A1Gk&t

Looks like you have developed a solid group of female golfers. Any insights as to how that has been accomplished?

 

[ChrisWoj]

Disagree

When I think about our top players - I want to see them excited by what they're doing. I'd rather see childlike joy and explosions of positive emotion than some staid robot lifting a hand in the air looking bored about everything going according to plan.

"Just hand the football to the ref." - thanks, no.