How are pro disc golfers making money?

[DJBackhand]

I've been thinking lately about pro disc golfers, and I've been wondering how they make money. I know there are payouts if you place well in tournaments, and there are always sponsorships, but I imagine most players are breaking even or close to it financially. Any thoughts about this?

 

[sidewinder22]

There's really only a handful of full time touring pros, most also sell discs and merchandise and do clinics and lessons which helps. Most of the top pros that stay more regional have real day jobs.

 

[Halcón]

Signature discs can make a pro a boatload of money, depending on their cut, and popularity of the mold. Think McBeth and Destroyers.

 

[mullethead326]

Some are engineers.

 

[biscoe]

Some are engineers.

Traveling by train from event to event must be sweet...

 

[lines]

Events like the mcbeast challenge bring in a decent amount of scratch (I don't remember getting a receipt from the last 2).

 

[DavidSauls]

I've been thinking lately about pro disc golfers, and I've been wondering how they make money. I know there are payouts if you place well in tournaments, and there are always sponsorships, but I imagine most players are breaking even or close to it financially. Any thoughts about this?

Which pros are you talking about? It's a different answer for the top handful, the top dozen or two, and those further down the ladder. By the time you get to the PDGA classification of "pro", most aren't making money.

 

[scarpfish]

The great majority of pro disc golfers make money by being pro at something else.

 

[BuiltTooLong]

You gotta have a side hustle or maybe just rich parents? I'm not really sure how players like AJ Risley are able to tour every year. In 2016, AJ didn't cash in nearly half of his events (12 of 25) and most were $300 or less.

Eric Oakley and Tina also come to mind as they aren't exactly racking up wins on the tour, yet seem to always be at every event. I would assume they need to spend quite a bit of time doing clinics and flipping discs and whale sacs to get by.

 

[Halcón]

Eric Oakley and Tina also come to mind as they aren't exactly racking up wins on the tour, yet seem to always be at every event. I would assume they need to spend quite a bit of time doing clinics and flipping discs and whale sacs to get by.

If you watch their vlogs, you see they live pretty modestly. But, that's the trade off for freedom.

 

[BuiltTooLong]

If you watch their vlogs, you see they live pretty modestly. But, that's the trade off for freedom.

Yep and for them their permanent home is their RV, so they don't have to worry about monthly mortgage or rent.

I believe Tina previously had a pretty good job as a paralegal as well, so maybe she is doing some of that during the offseason. Either way, I would imagine she is the "bread winner" even though she cashed in only 4 of 22 events this year.

 

[GoobyPls]

Yep and for them their permanent home is their RV, so they don't have to worry about monthly mortgage or rent.

I believe Tina previously had a pretty good job as a paralegal as well, so maybe she is doing some of that during the offseason. Either way, I would imagine she is the "bread winner" even though she cashed in only 4 of 22 events this year.

Booom Clothing sponsors her too. She sells some of their hats & stuff at events, some with Whale Sacs logos on them. I bought one from her this summer.

 

[elmexdela]

If you watch their vlogs, you see they live pretty modestly. But, that's the trade off for freedom.

Is it really freedom though? The living modestly comes from financial restrictions.

 

[kenjiac]

Is it really freedom though? The living modestly comes from financial restrictions.

No rent or mortgage,..... no daily grind job to have to go to,..... sounds like freedom to me! Modest living is cool, to each their own.

 

[elmexdela]

No rent or mortgage,..... no daily grind job to have to go to,..... sounds like freedom to me! Modest living is cool, to each their own.

In one area you are gaining freedom but youre compromising another area of freedom.

To each their own is correct.

 

[Nick Pacific]

Yep and for them their permanent home is their RV, so they don't have to worry about monthly mortgage or rent.

I believe Tina previously had a pretty good job as a paralegal as well, so maybe she is doing some of that during the offseason. Either way, I would imagine she is the "bread winner" even though she cashed in only 4 of 22 events this year.

If you're handy w/ a computer and various applications, which I'm sure a lot of the younger discgolf crowd is, there is a lot of money to be made working remote online.

Companies are falling over themselves looking to hire contractors who will do short term projects online with whom they don't have to hire full time and pay benefits/health care to.

And if you're really computer savvy, and can do any type of programming/coding and write scripts and do back end website work, and you're good, you can easily make a good living (50k, 60k, even 100k or more) working completely remote.

I've worked with various SAP/Microsoft/Peoplesoft engineers who were completely remote and got paid ridiculous cash, despite the fact that for many of them, English is a second language.

If you can do engineering work and are fluent English speaking/writing and communicate well, you can pretty much write your own ticket and work wherever you want. You could theoretically travel the US and play open and never cash, and not even have to worry about it.

 

[Dire Wolfy]

I've been thinking lately about pro disc golfers, and I've been wondering how they make money.

Paychecks probably.

 

[lyleoross]

In one area you are gaining freedom but youre compromising another area of freedom.

To each their own is correct.

It turns out there are some great studies on this. Let's first acknowledge the "to each their own" thing.

Money doesn't make you happy. Period. Now, one can come back to the, "if you're broke how can you be happy, argument, and researchers have looked at that. Folks who live in very poor circumstances, say the Caribbean, or Central and South America, are significantly happier than the average citizen of the United States. They take more leisure time and spend less time obsessing about work in general. Work is a means to an end, not the end.

I'm willing to bet that the average poor disc golfer is reasonably unhappy. Their work is the end, it's what matters to them. Instead of doing something fun, you've turned into something where you have to make money. Sounds tough enough to me.

 

[rj29274]

Trust funds

 

[Airfishey]

Signature discs can make a pro a boatload of money, depending on their cut, and popularity of the mold. Think McBeth and Destroyers.

"can" is the keyword here. McBeth is certainly not the norm, even compared to some of the other touring pros. I would doubt a majority of the touring pros make enough money off of signature discs alone to be considered a "livable" wage. Obviously, I'm speculating here, so I definitely could be wrong