I don't think it's a bad idea honestly. Yeah they probably aren't going to get thousands of buyers, but even if 200 people in the whole world pay $5 to view it right away, that's a win.
I think the goal of tournament coverage at this point is more so for promotional purposes, but the creators probably wouldn't mind being reimbursed some of their expenses. As long as the content is eventually uploaded for free, then all the benefits of exposure are still there. Someone not involved with disc golf who stumbles across a youtube video doesn't care if they're watching a tournament from last week or one from a year ago. The hardcore players who want to see it but not pay will still watch it eventually
I participate in another niche sport that has gone the same route in the last few years. Video coverage was free for as long as youtube has been around but in the last 2-3 years, premium content has gone to the PPV system and has been a great success despite the initial complaints of many who aren't willing to pay. They actually wait about a year before finally uploading the content to youtube (which would be too long in our case) and other than the initial outcry, people have learned to live with it. It's a sport with significantly less money in it than disc golf does (which says a lot).
Until the PPV system came out, the top professionals made roughly $0. Currently the money from each PPV sale is split evenly between the athlete and the videographer, they aren't making much but now at least the athletes are making something and the content creators who were also just donating their time, film equipment, etc are at least able to cover some expenses. Sure, there will always be that guy who buys it and passes it around to his friends, but you'd be surprised at the number of people who are happy to toss the cost of a beer towards a sport they enjoy. Even if 100 people buy it and pass it on to another 100 people, that's still 100 more paying than if the content had just been uploaded to youtube straight away.
I really don't see a downside to this model unless you're someone who doesn't want to or is unable to pay for content (which I can respect), but creating a system where more people are being compensated for their contribution to disc golf only allows them to donate more time to their efforts which would create more and better content. Surely there will be a massive outcry at first but after a while people will adjust and I believe the sport will be better off as a whole after a while