Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Disc Golf Answer
Man. I'm Bobby Cool daddy, Slick
Breeze and I have a special team episode where I got a group of
guys together so we can talk about kind of a 2025 year wrap
up to see how how they're feeling about disc golf, about
their disc golf game and just kind of get to know them kind of
like a round table we got going on.
So I got Ryan, Brent and Marshall.
And first of all, we'll start off.
We'll start off with Ryan. Tell us a little bit about
yourself, Ryan. Yeah, so my name is Ryan.
I have been playing for about 7 years.
I live in the northwest corner of Indiana.
For those of you who may know, I'm about 10 minutes from Lemon
Lake, which hosted 2010 and 2013 Worlds I believe.
So I do a bunch of stuff there, play a bunch of tournaments
there, and then I'm about an hour away from the canyons at
Dellwood, so that's another one of my places I love to be and
love to play. Nice.
Well, thanks for coming on. What about you, Brent?
Tell us a little about yourself. Brent Ruder been playing for
just about 8 years now. O run Co own Rock River Disc
Golf with my wife Nora Ruder who is on team West side just
building courses constantly trying to grow the sport in
Mississippi Park. 1982 built by the great Terry Batten.
That's kind of our home course, but to other than that EMAC came
out in 2018, actually designed a course for us, Lowell Park.
So we have a nine hole designed EMAC course here in our local
town. So that's kind of what really
introduced me to disc golf, introduced me to dynamic disc
and has kept me there since. So just happy to be here.
Very cool. Thanks for joining us.
And that beautiful beard from Marshall.
Tell us about that beard and what what you got going on.
All right. Thanks, Bobby, for having me.
Yeah, this Marshall, I'm from Tallahassee, FL.
Not much going on here lately, but I am part of the Southeast
disc golf events in Tallahassee, FL.
We run all the tournaments in the Northwest, North Florida,
South Georgia area that we can. So Tom Brown, everybody kind of
knows Tom Brown Disc Golf Course.
We have held a disc Golf Pro Tour event here in the last year
and course team member Dave Mateen was the course designer.
Very cool. Again, thank you guys for being
on the show. Real quick, I thought about
this. I know this isn't one on the
agenda that I sent you guys, but I know Brent, you were telling
telling us about your little disc golf man cave you got going
on there. Tell us what's going on because
you definitely got a little man cave going on.
Yeah, I mean, so my brother a few years ago he he essentially
started vending tournaments while we were building courses
and doing all the things. So he moved away about a year
and a half two years ago, left me with about 1000 discs.
So I've I've got a lot behind me.
But then also, you know, the brick and mortar that recently
opened. But you know, something that I
really like. Let me just show you this here
because this is something I won these at a raffle points
champion, some of these bobble heads.
So this is Ricky. These are just, you know, but
yeah, just essentially got to like I was saying earlier, I got
a got a chance to kind of bust out some memorabilia and some
other cool stuff that I kind of forgot I had.
So just happy to get it all kind of put out and and, and you
know, just to get to go through it again was really cool so.
Very cool. I'm not going to lie, at first I
thought it was Mark Zuckerberg. I was like, why would you get
Mark Zuckerberg? It looks nothing like Ricky and
Paul. There's the Paul.
Hold on. Let me show you Paul's.
Just let me show you Paul's. Paul's is great.
Paul Macbeth 2016 Tour champion. I mean, let's see if I can get a
good like. Just.
There we go, hair. OK, maybe that air looks like
them. Yeah, for sure.
Yeah, like, but they're just, they're great.
They really are so. That's awesome.
Now I knew.
I know. Ryan, I can see you have a
little bit of a man cave going on there too.
Do you have any rare discs or any special finds?
I mean I got like a lot of Rudus if I just turn my camera here I
got 8 racks. Oh my.
We saw the half of the one. Yeah, and then I got more.
I got more. Down to my left you can see
another rack. Can you see it a little bit?
Yeah. I got some.
I got some sweet fines, actually.
I'll show you my coolest one. Real.
Quick Yeah, yeah, yeah. What you got?
Actually, I'll show you my. We all know exactly where it is.
So first one this was this is the first time I ever met Ricky.
I got a nice slammer signed by him.
This is at Ledgestone. Yeah, Yep.
So that was kind of cool. I waited in line for two hours
for that, actually. Well, I waited in line for like
30 minutes. My mom waited in line for two
hours so. That's a good mom.
That's a good mom, right? There and then I got another
one. They sent us these proto
distance drivers. I got that one signed too.
So that's not sick. Those kind of just stay on my
wall as like, just things to remember.
You know, absolutely. Hi.
Sorry, Marshall, I don't. I don't know that you have
anything from your kitchen you want to show I.
Have the kitchen if somebody would like to see something I
got in the refrigerator. I mean, that's about it, yeah.
That's OK. No worries.
Maybe we'll have you bring on some of some of your collection
from I mean. There is a beetle right there
over my right shoulder. I mean, sitting on the counter.
We can't go wrong with a beetle. That's hilarious.
So all right, well, I had talked to the guys before we went on
the show and told because I wanted to do this kind of a, you
know, winding down the year, winding down 2025.
And I wanted to see, you know what, what, what are some stuff
that has changed for you as far as disc golf in 2025?
Did you play last? Did you play more?
Let's start with you, Brent. What what what was going on for
you in 2025 with in disc golf? Honestly, the biggest change for
me in disc golf for my game this year was easily my son Huey last
golf more diapers. Just you know, taking care of
him. He's, he's going to be 10 months
old on Christmas, so got him his PDJ number first day he was born
though, so he's ready to go. And but yeah, that's really what
my 2025. I unfortunately didn't get to
play as much golf as I wanted, but but looking forward to
continuing to, like I said, grow the sport and, and as we get
into the conversation more, I've got some more stuff, you know,
that we got planned for 20/26 and, and continuing into 2020
sevens. Very cool.
Now, Marshall, as far as like, because I, I came back to
dynamic disc about six months ago, so I had to kind of relearn
what was going on in the disc golf scene.
So I was still kind of from the outside watching things
happening as far as like recovering from the pandemic and
people are like courses are slowing down.
What did it? What was it like in 2025 in your
area as far as courses and events?
For Tallahassee, I mean, we we have had less people playing for
the most part. If we if we do a tournament, we
don't have the numbers, but we're still running a lot of
tournaments between Tallahassee. Our local clubs in Panama City,
Marianna almost Feel, Valdosta, Tifton, Gainesville.
Of course you have Chris Clark over there.
I mean, we're still running a lot of tournaments.
I mean, I think this year we ran 17 tournaments in the
Tallahassee area, just us and you, you combine Mariana runs 9
or 10 a year, Panama City runs 3 or 4.
So I mean, there's a lot of tournaments that go on in this
area. And we usually, I mean, we're
anywhere from, you know, on AC tier, we'll get 70 to 80 a tier.
We get 100 to 115 somewhere in there.
So I mean, it's been pretty good.
I mean, we've had still have a lot of people playing.
I mean, it's nowhere near the the COVID numbers where, you
know, a tournament filled up right away.
I mean, we're still struggling at the end to get people to play
in it. But other than that, it's been
pretty good. Do you find that the the average
player that signs up now are still from like 5-6 seven years
ago or are you getting people that are like been in disc golf
for three years still getting the new people?
It's probably it's, I still say we have a good mix of the old, I
say the old guard that used to play all the time.
But we do have a lot, a lot of new people that show up that it
may be their first tournament, maybe their fifth tournament,
but they so it's been a pretty decent mix.
Nice. Now, Ryan, let's talk a little
bit more about your experience in what's going on in 2025.
Anything as far as like your play, like things you worked on
that you were able to, you know, accomplish in 2025?
Yeah. So a big thing that I worked on
just based on like my game was like distance in my forehand.
At least I'd say for the last like 3 years I've been stuck at
like 320. And while that's like
manageable, it can get like a little annoying at sometimes
having to feel like back hands when you can still a forehand.
But yeah, I, I mean, I could put about 380 now on forehand.
So that's getting much better. And going off of what you're
talking about with Marshall, especially around my area, like
there's been an insane like growth of like amount of people
that are playing. I feel like the general like
consensus around the sport right now is that it's kind of like
trickling off. But I honestly don't think, I
don't think that's true because like around my area, there used
to be like not many people. I'd go to the course and I'd see
no one sometimes. And now sometimes I go to the
course and it takes 4 hours to play the short keys because
there's so many people. And so I don't know if that that
might just be like an area thing, but I've seen like a
crazy growth, especially at like local places.
Yeah, I think it's that's an interesting point because it
feels like we keep talking about and I even I don't know, when I
say we, I mean, I I hear it in other podcasts where, you know,
have we hit the bottom? Have we finally, you know,
brushed off COVID or whatever, you know, you want to say in it.
And it is when I talk locally, it does seem like people are
like, well, you know, we have we still have a nice size group of
people show up to play disc golf.
A lot of people discovering it. We still see a rise in certain
areas. So yeah, I think it could maybe
it could be something locally. What about you, Brent?
What are you kind of feeling as far as when you go to A?
No, I'm glad we're talking about this because actually for us it,
it's affected our area substantially because so we have
a page park as an 18 hole kind of a shorter course in the
middle of Dixon here in town. We had to pull all 18 baskets
out July of this past year of 2025 because we have a $12
million walking bridge and multi purpose path getting built like
literally in the middle of the course.
So it was very unsafe for the, you know, I mean, to the point
where one basket was like 4 feet away from like a 20 foot drop
off that they, you know, cut a path through the through the
kind of landscape there. So we essentially pulled all 18
baskets and we're kind of waiting until we can kind of get
let back in there. Now that course was right next
to our high school, the heart of our town.
It averaged almost 250 rounds of disc golf every single month.
And that's just you dis right. So when I'm showing those
numbers to the park district into the community, you know, I
like to say those are maybe half of what's truly representative
of the people that are playing there.
So that's kind of affected, I guess the growth of the sport
specifically in our area because that course is is no longer
there. So in our area, it's kind of
died out where during COVID and kind of up until this past year,
we've really grown it done a substantial job.
Stanford well job of of just growing other little nine holes
in the area to introduce new disc golfers.
And then providing, you know, some of those kind of tournament
in a box scenarios so that they can come out and feel
comfortable playing their first event, getting their PDJ, you
know, maybe paying the extra 15 to get there, you know, pay
that, that flex tier CT or what not.
But yeah, the, the I, I'm very much looking forward to 2026.
The idea is to kind of ribbon cut, you know, a potentially new
course and it kind of reopen it. So yeah, I mean, it's it, it
really has affected our area just by simply pulling out the
baskets just because of a of a project.
But in due time, the projects going to be worth it.
It's going to be beautiful for our city, for our community and
then again runs the the course will essentially intersect
directly with the path. So just looking.
Forward to that it does seem like and I know it seems like a
simple or like a duh moment or a duh statement, but like the
infrastructure really helps as far as the growth in your area.
So if you got some, you know, if your courses are affected like
yours were, it's getting, you know, changed because of, you
know, the better good for the for the town or whatever is
going on there. But it's really important to get
courses. And so that's my way of plugging
our guy Eric McCabe and McCabe champion courses.
So if you're if your town or in fact here in Broken Arrow, my
wife showed me some survey they had sent out to the town and I
think it was around 60. Some percent said either disc
golf is very important, important or somewhat important
to bring into our area. And I told Eric so he could
reach out. So like if you're in an area and
you've heard something about maybe a disc golf course going
in your area, that's what's going to help grow the sport is
having more disc golf courses in your area for sure.
So to that extent, as far as now that we're talking about kind of
the growth, another topic that popped in my head is they just
recently released the Disc Golf Pro Tour as far as like the the
cost to actually go watch an event.
So I want you guys to think about, I'm going to start with
you, Marshall. What, how important do you think
do you feel in the in your local area, in your dealings, the
people that you talk to, the events that you go to?
How important is the Disc Golf Pro Tour when it comes to
helping grow the sport? That's a good one.
I think it's it's kind of mixed. I mean, here in this area, I
mean you have a lot of people that are watching it, but I
don't know if we have a lot of people that are actually getting
on the road and traveling for say, you know, for us that mean
the closest one would be Brooksville and, and you're at a
little over 4 hours to get there.
And I know probably two or three people that will actually go and
drive down there to watch the event.
I think we have more locally that are watching whether it's,
you know, the tape delay or live.
I know myself that's I'm watching live every weekend, but
you know, I don't know. I mean, I think that's a that's
a good, good question to to ponder on, to figure out.
I mean it it what it is or if it's, you know, however honest.
I know it's and it's hard to measure that.
I mean, it's, it's obvious, it's important.
It's important for people to be able to watch the great guys of
our they're great guys that the the guys that excel at our
sports important to to be able to watch that and to get people
hyped up and excited. So I think it's important.
So I'm not trying to throw any shade on them or or say that
they're not important. I think it is.
But Ryan, how do you watch? Do you watch a lot of events?
Do you watch a lot of the coverage?
Yeah, so I pretty much try to watch every event because one, I
can learn things from that and I just get to see like really good
players and a really good courses In terms of like I think
the disc golf pro Tour honestly might be one of the most
important things in like the way to grow the sport because media
is like huge in terms of growing the sport because that's how you
reach the most people. And also going back to the
ticket sales part of thing, I know that some people have
complained in the past about like the price of tickets to go
watch. And I think I almost had this
like slight idea if you lower, like if you're paying like let's
just say you're paying like $10 a person to get into a pro to
event as opposed to like 25 or 30, which I think it was last
year. I'm not 100% sure.
But if you're paying like $10 to get in someone who maybe doesn't
know the sport or hasn't played before, they might be like, oh,
$10, OK, cool. Like let's go watch that.
Like that might be really awesome.
And the other thing is like if you if your ticket.
Price is low. Your budget of spending for like
the vendors inside might go up, whereas if you pay like a high
ticket price, you might just be like, oh, I don't want to buy
this because I already paid so much to get in.
So I think that adjusting ticket price could grow like different
parts. And I think there's an equal
balance that they should definitely try to figure out.
Yeah, I'm sure, I'm sure there's a lot trying to they go into as
far as figuring out the balance between making it affordable and
then obviously helping them bring the the event to that
actual city and stuff like that. All right, let's let's kind of
switch gears. I had this question.
I want to see if you guys, what you guys come up with.
Brent, we'll start with you. What's the biggest lie you told
about yourself, about your game in 2025?
That I'd finally practiced pudding spoiler.
I didn't. We posted like I like to joke
and when I tell people I'm like, I own too many baskets to be
this bad at putty. And it's just, it's just funny
because I just, you know, and I don't have the time.
I'm, I'm very busy doing other things and, and I'm now to the
point where I'm like, that's OK. You know, I'm when I'm, when I'm
ready, I'll get there. But yeah, that's probably it.
I I really that was on my To Do List and it just didn't happen
so. I'm assuming that probably
showed up in your scores. Yeah, a little bit.
Like I said though, I didn't have a whole lot of time to play
a lot of competitive. I did have time to put on some
events, but that was kind of a whole different mindset there
too because having a son and then, you know, he attended
pretty much every event with us. So it was kind of, you know, not
only planning the event, but planning what I needed for him
for the day and things that. And so again, I didn't get to
compete as much as I wanted, but you know.
It's all right. What about you, Ryan?
What's the biggest lie you told yourself in 2025?
I always tell myself that I can play well in the cold and I
always prove myself wrong. For those of you who haven't
played in 30° before, 1, it's awful.
And two, I come in always thinking like, all right, it's
fine, I can shoot well, and then I'm like 10 holes in and I'm
like, why am I out here? So yeah, playing in the cold is
not fun. And I always fool myself every
time all. Right, Marshall, what'd you come
up with? Well, it's kind of like Brent I
did was going to do a lot of putting and that kind of took
the the back burner. But I really told myself that I
was going to play in more events.
I mean, as of last year, I was like, man, I'm, you know, I'm
going to play in 12 or 15 events.
I'm going to hit a couple of a tears next year.
And our schedule got put together for what we were going
to run this year. And I think I ended up running
20 events this year and then of course, traveling to Emporia to
do junior worlds. And it was then deciding that I
was going to retire and move, downsize my house.
A lot of things took the back burner that just didn't get to
do want to do. So I mean, really it was just I
was going to play more, but that didn't happen.
Yeah, I would say that's probably my biggest thing is
that I tell myself I want to play more and then something
always comes up, some family, something work.
Even though I work in disc golf, which is funny, but I don't get,
I don't necessarily get paid to play disc golf like top players
do, but I get played to have fun on video and play some disc
golf, but not not not every day all the time.
So I definitely want to try to place them more in 2026 because
I did not do that in in 2025. S 1 of you had mentioned
something about casual versus tournament.
So I wanted to, that's something that I recently did a video
where I talked about it's important to play a tournament,
but that most people that I have spoken to like they, in fact,
some of the comments on the post I made on the page said they
don't play tournaments. So I know you guys are more, you
know, probably more on the competitive side, but like how
important is tournament play versus casual?
What do you, what do you think, Brent?
Yeah. So we do a weekly league on
Mondays, we Co hosted on Wednesdays and then we do a Co
host on Friday sometimes as well, just helping out AT and
one's in our town, one's in Sterling and 1 is in Walnut.
So we have a ton of people that come out to weekly play that
I've never see play a single tournament.
And that's what they enjoy doing.
They come out they they love throwing the disc around and
they love the random draw, double S the the low cost and
all involved with that. But, but then just recently to
another individual in our area hosted just an amateur only
tournament and a lot of people signed up for it for it because
it was just MA three MA 4. And, and, and, and you had a lot
of people that didn't have their PDJ number that just wanted to
play a tournament because it was at a small local 9 hole that
they felt comfortable at. So that that was their first
tournament, you know, kind of thing.
So I think they're both equally as important, but I think you
just have to kind of hopefully in everybody's area, try to
offer both. You know, I think, you know,
kind of tournament in a box kind of what DD offers or what kind
of, you know, your veterans or vets or your back in the day
when they used to do what was like the the amateur double S,
you know, or the match play tournament championships and
stuff like that. I just love those things because
they're so easy for people to kind of come out and that be
their first kind of introduction to tournament play, and then
they get them, you know, the bug from there.
Yeah. Now, Ryan, last year you played,
it looks like you played about 23 tournaments, quite a few A A
tiers, B tiers and and Disco Pro Tour Elite series.
So your mindset's a bit different I would assume as far
as when you get out and play or, or do you, maybe you do you get
out and just say I'm just going to play casually or most times
you get out. Is it you practicing for a big
tournament? Yeah.
So the way I normally play is like practice rounds are like
complete casual. Like there's nothing, there's
nothing really I do in casual rounds to like besides like
practice the course to like prepare for like a tournament
setting. I think that just getting as
much practice in as possible is what's going to help you do well
at tournaments. And yeah, I mean, everything I
do outside of tournaments is pretty much just casual, which I
think is really fun. And another thing I love about
disc golf is that, like, you don't have to be at any certain
skill level to be able to play a tournament.
I feel like a lot of other sports, like you have to be
like, good enough to like, play. But disc golf really offers
like, anything for anyone. And if you just want to play
casually like, that's fine too. What's kind of your mindset
going into or how would you explain to somebody the I guess
what, what goes on in your mind when you're playing a tournament
versus casual? I mean, I know every shot counts
obviously, because in casual you can throw again if you messed
up, but you know, in tournament you can't.
So how do you kind of work yourself through that mindset
when it you know it's time to turn it on for tournament?
Yeah, so one of the biggest things I do is just try to make
the tournament feel like a practice round.
Whenever I'm playing with like people I really know, I tend to
play with much better because I can like, talk to them.
I can like, interact outside of like the actual game, which I
find fun. To me, it helps me play better.
But in terms of like focusing on every shot, most of my practice
rounds, even though they're casual rounds, like I will only
throw one shot per hole, like I'll keep my like actual score
pretty much every round. So I think that helps a lot.
And then in the end, it's just practice.
I mean, the more you play, the more you'll get used to like
every shot counting. I normally play worse at the
beginning of the year just because I haven't done it in a
while. And then eventually you just get
used to it, which is nice. Yeah, Let's move on to the next
question I had for you guys, so we can kind of get a different
discussion. The question was what course or
hole taught you the most this year?
You got a story for us, Marshall.
Well, by not getting to play a lot, I didn't didn't really have
a hole that kind of, you know, our course that taught me.
I did. I did learn a lot when I was out
in Emporia getting to play Jones E.
That was kind of fun getting to play a course where the wind
blows and it was 100 and something degrees when we were
out there. But you had to learn to, you
know, just to to fight through it when it was hot and just, you
know, learning to play, you know, different shots that we
don't have in North Florida that y'all have out there.
What about you, Brent? Kind of back to, well, first
I'll say, I mean, I live an hour and a half just north of
Northwood Black. So, you know, I go down there
and get to play that every once in a while, try to go down and
play a couple rounds and beat myself up or, you know, humble
myself. I guess I was like, I had like a
45 footer on hole 12 for a birdie.
And I felt real good about that. That was like, you know, but it
just taught me to be patient, taught me to, you know, really
disc down, you know, and, and throw fairways, throw it
straight, hit your gaps, hit your lines.
But but then back to Page Park too, and, and having to pull the
baskets and, you know, seeing the impact that that had in our
community as far as, you know, the foot traffic and disc golf
and the rounds played and kind of just taught me resilience,
patience, you know, how to adapt to change, just, you know, how
to look forward to the future too.
And like you said, too, with the infrastructure and everything
that's getting built, it's just going to add that much more, you
know, added features to it that are just going to make it, you
know, really set it apart from from other local courses in our
area. So I'm looking forward to.
That gotcha Ryan, do you have a blow up hole or anything like
that? Taught you a big lesson.
Oh, I've had plenty. My, my answer was literally
exactly the same as Brent. Northwood Black is about 2 1/2
hours from my house. I probably play at least 20 to
25 rounds there a year. And it basically just, it
teaches me every time. You don't, you don't have to go
for the aggressive shot. There's no reason.
Just keep it in the middle and you'll be all right.
Yeah. 20/20/2024 Ledgestone I played Northwood Black pouring
rain five hours. It was awful and I took a 10 on
hole 14. First ever time I've taken
double digits and that was an interesting experience for me.
What Did it teach you a lesson or did it just make you mad?
It taught me a lesson in that Northwood Black in the pouring
rain does not go well. I bet not.
Yeah, very cool. All right, So what do you guys
want to see change in disc golf for 2026?
Is it, is it something with the gear?
Is it the course design shift, maybe a tournament rule change?
What do you think, Brent? I I really like the way
everything's kind of heading and continuing to head, but I think
continuing with more bigger sponsors in 2026, but but more
or less sponsors that respect the grassroots side of it too,
or have, you know, similar values or similar missions.
I thought LL Bean was a great kind of sponsor create kind of
thing to see. And I know it's, you know, me
the only being kind of around in the sport eight years or so.
It's, it's sometimes weird just like look back further than that
and see, you know, some of those bigger name sponsors, Adidas and
just, you know, and, and things like that that existed, but that
meant more or less you don't see so much anymore.
But I think just kind of some of that.
But again, like I said, remaining that with that
grassroots kind of, you know, just feeling to it, because I
think that's really what what matters at at the end of the day
is just trying to, you know, community and and involving
everyone and, you know, doing our best to support every walk
of life. What are you Marshall?
Something you want to see change?
I would like to see a lot of the pros that maybe decide to not
you know, play as many of the big event or I'm not saying big
of it, to start playing more local A tier events to get out
of. I understand that there's more
money in the actual pro tour events, but I would love to see
them get out, especially some of the larger names like they used
to do prior to I'd say probably 20/22/21.
They used to play a lot more of your local A tiers and I'd like
to see I'd really like to see that.
I mean, I think that's really big for the areas.
I mean it take for us, I'm not just Tooting our horn, but you
know, in Tallahassee, I mean, I would you know it, we used to
have some of the larger names that came through here.
I mean, even we were AB tier and then now you're you know, we
still have some some of the bigger guys and girls that come
here, but we just don't have the larger names.
I think that's really needed for disc golf is, you know, even if
the Tour had a couple of less stops and let the Tour players
go and focus on playing some of the local 8 years.
Yeah, I bet. Yeah, I do remember that that
that was a thing back in the day was more the top names as they
were traveling through towns to the next big, what we call them
NTS. Back then, the national tour,
the NTS, they would stop and play some local events.
What about you, Rhyme? What do you want to see change?
One of the things I'd like to see change eventually.
I don't know if it's going to happen this year, but I think
there's some flaws in the rating system.
I know it's a big topic of discussion right now, but I'm
not saying it's bad. I think it's a great way to like
put people into different skill levels and make sure they're
playing the right decision. But I think when it comes to
like pro tour stuff, I think it can just be a little flawed.
You've heard of like boosted ratings, like some ratings being
terrible. And I just think, to my
knowledge, I think the rating system's been pretty similar for
a long time. And I'm not sure what that
change could be. But I think there could
definitely be a change in that. One other thing I'm excited for
is just the way that discs are evolving.
I mean, there's so many. I think before like 2020, like
the Halo orbit plastic didn't even like it was just stock
plastic. Like every disc was just one
color. Like that's just how it was.
And now I mean there's so many types of plastics.
And I know that disc craft recently just released that like
was ring stuff on the new discs. And I'm interested to see if any
other companies like not only change the plastic type, but
also like the way a disk is made, and I think that could be
something cool. Yeah, I'm sure.
I'm sure there's stuff that I don't even know about that I'm
sure that Latitude's working on for us.
But and then of course, I'm sure the other manufacturers have
things going on in their research development.
So it would be, it's, it'll be interesting to see if someone
comes out with something new in 2026.
Of course, Disk Media has that premiere they're they're making.
It's supposed to be really good. I actually got to throw a couple
of disks and they do fly really nice.
So it'll be interesting how that when they actually get them out
there, how they perform in the wild for sure.
What about you, Brent and Marshall?
Do you have any thoughts on the rating system?
Do you have a a way to solve it? No, I mean, I, I see it.
I mean, kind of like Ryan said, I mean, it's, I think the pro
Tour needs their own rating system period.
I mean, it really truly, I think they just needed to cut ties
with the PDGA rating system and have their own specific ratings.
I mean, and, and go with that. And I mean local players, it's
tough. I mean, I was just having a
conversation with Alexis Carmen because we're doing the college
disc golf regional and trying to figure out layouts to help.
You don't want to hurt, you know, especially certain people
that are lower rated, they're going to play.
But you know, it's just, it's tough to try to figure out how
to create layouts that don't, you know, hurt one and don't
help the other. Or, you know, because especially
you take Ryan, if he's playing in a round with somebody like
myself, I mean, it would probably kill my rating because
he would, he would play so much better than I would.
So I mean, that's I think that's the hard thing to do is, I mean,
ratings are just tough. I mean, it's just, you know,
it's a hard thing. Yeah, I I would agree as well.
I mean, I, I actually love that idea though with the Disc Golf
Pro Tour having their own rating system, I think that would be
excellent, you know, just to keep that in its own.
But but yeah, it's tough. It's a tough problem to solve
and I think it's just going to continue.
But hopefully, you know, there, I'm sure there's somebody
qualified, much more qualified than I am out there thinking
about it and working on it too. So we can only wait and see.
Oh, Chuck Kennedy, if you're listening, I don't know if you
listen to the show, I know he's in the Facebook group, the disco
management face group group, because anytime ratings come up
in the group, he always chimes in.
So maybe he's maybe he's working on something, I don't know.
All right, well, we're going to shift gears quite a bit here.
And I told you guys about some hot takes.
I want to get your all's take on it.
And I kind of gave you a hint at what it was, but I'm going to
give you the give you the specific hot take.
And then I want your input. So I want your reaction to an
idea that challenges how many discs we think we need when
we're out playing around in a maybe in a tournament or any,
any round. So here's the actual hot hot
take. Playing with only your favorite
3 discs will actually make you a better player.
I agree. I.
Agree. What about?
What about you, Ryan? I think it might make you a
better player on certain courses, but I would have to
argue that certain courses may need more than just those 3
discs. I'm a big fan of not carrying
many discs. I don't carry that many, but I
think around your local area I would definitely agree.
But if you get to some of the bomber courses and don't pick
the right discs, I think there could be a slight issue with
that. And I think the difference in
that answer is probably because I would imagine you could
probably out well, I know you can out throw me, but I would
imagine he probably out throws all three of us, right.
Brenton Marshall, I would bet he he probably.
The punters. Yeah.
Probably the 100. So I could see where your answer
couldn't be just so. So maybe that was more of a warm
take, but yeah, I got some people.
From that, Bobby I I have found playing rounds with less discs,
my score has been better. Yeah.
I mean, one of my best rounds I ever played at Tom Brown.
I played with two discs, yeah. We Yeah.
And I don't know, maybe Ryan, maybe I'm wrong, but I'm I know
back in the day that was The thing is we would tell, you
know, we would have players show up in their bag would be just
packed full of discs. And I would always think, man,
you've got way too many discs. But I don't know.
Do you do the young people do? Do they still fill their bags
pretty full feel like. Yeah, I mean, I feel like, yeah.
And I, I hate it when people come to courses with like more
than like 20 discs. Like when you're stepping up to
a Tpad and you have like 4 discs in your hand.
Like that's just crazy. Like the good thing about having
the good thing about playing rounds with like 3 discs is that
you don't have to think anymore. Like you have one option to
throw. You have to throw that shot.
Like there's no like thought anymore, which is what I really
like. I think the less you think the
better, the better that you'll shoot.
Now who here has raise your hand or or tell me who has in their
bag They have How do I say this? They have less molds but a few
different beat in stages of those molds.
Or do you have like a lot of different molds for different
shots? Who has, who has less molds,
mold? How am I?
Do you know what I'm saying? How I said, you know what I'm
saying, Ryan, right? You have multiple multiple.
Yeah. Which one do you have the most
of them that are in multiples? Multiples right now I think I
carry 4 felons. Yeah, that's just because I have
anywhere from like insanely stable to like my one felon.
My this is my this is my money felon.
I've been throwing it for like 2 years.
I could flick it and it'll just go dead straight.
But I mean, I carry like 4 felons and then I think I throw
like 3 or 4 generals and then I think I throw two or three
rives. And I think just the familiar
feel of the disc being beat in different, different stages.
I'm not saying that more molds is like bad, but I definitely
like beating in discs. And then you have like your new
one, you have like your middle one, and then you have like your
old one. You kind of follow that same
thing, Brent or a little different?
Yeah, so my favorite disc of all time is the evidence in the mid
range from DD. And so I I carry 3I carry like a
Lucid that's kind of newer and just kind of by cycle one in and
out all the time really. And then I have, I actually have
a lava plastic evidence from many years ago that I found out
in Las Vegas a few years ago at Lucky Disc Golf.
So, you know, it's already beaten in the used bin naturally
found it was like, this is coming home with me.
So yeah. And then I have a a fusion die
Max evidence in there too. So, but they all do different
things and, and, but same with like kind of Ryan, I have, you
know, 2 felons, I have, you know, 2-3 wardens, you know,
that all kind of do different things and all that kind of
different stages of being beaten and stuff.
So yeah, I think playing with last discs is better.
That's why I love the Trilogy challenge since my, one of my
favorite events that we host every year just because it
really does force people you, hey, you get to play with those
3 discs and, and that's it. And, and and, yeah, I think it's
just a great opportunity to learn and create, be creative,
and also learn the discs and nose angles.
What about you, Marshall? What are your multiple molds so?
I'm I have very few. I carry two Saints and I carry
two of the which I call them sinus.
I cannot say sinus that does not sound correct.
I carry 2 very very old sinuses with a.
Thumb Hey, hey, hey, you seen this?
Have you seen this? Have you seen this?
Seen this. That's right.
Yeah. So I carry, that's the only two
discs that I carry multiple of and I only carry 1:00.
And basically my St. I have a, a gold St. and I have
a, a, a lucid St. that that both do 2 totally different things.
Other than that, I have single disc of everything.
And my favorite disc in my bag is about a night a 20/18/2017
Emac Truth. It is my I mean, I just can't
find another one that throws like it, even his new one that
he just came out with a retool. I mean, but that's the only,
that's the only pairs that I multiples that I have.
Yeah, I don't have, I have the multiple tresp, just a couple
trespasses and now I have treasons, multiple 2 treasons
right now. And then I'm trying to see how
the lucid treasons going to work for my for me.
My problem is that because I'm at the warehouse, because we
have to talk about all the new discs that come out, I have, I
try a bunch and then I'm like, oh, this one's really good for
this. So this one, like, wait, what
about the other ones? That worked out really well for
me too. I haven't escaped.
It's a beautiful escape, but I always forget about it because I
have all these other discs to throw.
So all right, hot take #2 this one is about stability choices
that casual players make. All right, so think of casual
players. Here's my hot take, and this
might be hopefully. Well, let's see.
Let's see what happens. Overstable discs are ruining
casual players. Agree.
I would agree as well, Ryan. I would agree to a certain
extent, but. The guy they can throw.
Far I'm always the one who's I'm always the one who's like
against this. No, I think I feel like it
depends on how it like if you're like a guy that like missed your
first round and you have one disc, then yes, I would agree.
But if you have like 3 or 4, I think that having one stable one
with you is a good option because you never know when
you're going to have a bunch of wind, especially for beginners.
Like forehand is way easier with stable stuff.
So I think that stable this can ruin casual players if they use
them too much. But I think just having one for
certain shots is what actually be a good thing.
Yeah, I think it, and it could because just because my level of
play, but it feels like people are starting to appreciate more
of the stable neutral and under stable discs.
Not it used to be a while back. It'd be like people just like I
need a meat hook. I need a, you know, I need that
meat hook and I just don't understand why.
I mean, I guess I did, but I I didn't understand why casual
players wanted to meet hook so bad other than that's what they
saw the Ricky throw and the Paul Macbeth throw and all those guys
throw and so they wanted that. But I think the, the biggest
thing I always saw was that people, I would watch people
throw high speed drivers or overstable drivers and then I
would watch their form and I'd say that's the disc is working
for it's it's working for you because your form is so way off
you and you're throwing it at a weird at a crazy angle.
So yeah, I thought I'm of the opinion that I think overstable
discs can ruin a casual players game because they're not really
they're not really picking the right disk and they're they're
trying, they're trying to do a lot of the work when the disk
can really do the work for them for sure.
OK, so maybe that was kind of a warm take since everybody
agreed. Let's see what the next one is.
All right, The next one is this one has to do with the distance
and ego. And this is kind of maybe this
is, well, I guess this is more along the lines of what we just
said. But the hot take is most people
would play better rounds if they stopped throwing distance
drivers if they just stick to fairway drivers slower.
And so does people do do does the ego get in the way of people
picking the right disc for their game?
I I think kind of like what you had said too, you know, it's a
lot of the people see, you know, the, the big arms throwing now
these discs. And so they go grab these discs
and, you know, I think that they're going to hurt them more
than they help them any in any scenario.
Because, you know, unless you have throwing the, you know,
unless you're throwing the disks at the speed it needs to be
thrown at the correct way with the right nose angle and
everything necessary, it's just simply not going to fly as it
should or as it does for some of these big arms.
So I think, you know, and then they go out and and I hear it a
lot, you know, every week at league, you know, oh, you know,
I tried the the general and I wasn't a fan.
And it's like, well, yeah, because you know, you can only
throw 200 feet and, you know, the generals just going to go up
and come right down and, you know, that kind of thing.
So I think that's where you get that discouragement away from
some of some of those new players because they're like,
you know, but then you put something like like maybe a St.
like Marshall thrower, you know, or like a Maverick or an escape
or, you know, something like that in their hands.
And most recently, the treason, I think, or the motive
specifically, is another great one.
Yeah, I put some of those in in people's hands and was like,
here, just go throw this, go use it for this nine holes and bring
it back to me when you're done. And and they're like, wow, like
I threw this 8200 feet farther than my other discs.
And I'm like, I know it's crazy, right.
So I, I just think that that kind of helps is, is just, yeah,
get away from the distance drivers, learn how your nose
angles, learn how to throw and control your bag.
Don't let it control you. Real quick for you Ryan, how how
fast how long did it take for you once you started playing
disc golf to actually get into throwing more of the distance
drivers I'm. Trying to think the first disc I
ever got was a nine speed. I know that.
But I, I mean, I think I'd agree with you.
I think that anyone, anyone that can't throw over like 300 feet,
like there's just no reason because the way it's going to
work is the 12 speed is going to be no going to go no farther
than the seven speed. So at least for me, I'm trying
to think, yeah, I'd say right about that 303 fifty mark is
when I started to actually start experimenting with those
11/12/13 speeds. Even if you can't throw like
that 1213 speed arm range, which my guess is that's about 400 to
450, I think it can still be useful.
But I think if if your arm speeds definitely like much
lower, then I think stick to the fairway driver set back.
Yeah. Any input from you Marshall?
Yeah, You know, I, you're not going to like this, neither are
the companies. But I, I fault a lot of the disc
golf companies for this problem. I mean, if you go buy a starter
set, what comes in the starter set, it's usually, I mean, in
the old school it was usually an 11 or 12 speed, a mid range and
a putter. And I, I really think that, you
know, I think most of them should just be a mid range and a
putter. I mean, my first distance driver
was a disc craft distance X and that thing, I could never throw
it and it was so frustrating. And I'm like coming from a ball
golf background, I'm like, well, why can't I throw this driver?
I didn't understand what it takes like, like Brent said, you
know, to get that and Ryan, they get that disc up to speed to
actually make it fly. And until I back down, I mean,
for the longest, my driver was a Maverick.
I threw a maverick and then I slowly went up to A to a St.
I can't throw an 11 speed there to the the rims are too wide for
me and my hand comfortably. So I don't throw them because I
I throw, I've tried to throw the grace multiple times.
I love the disc, love the way it looks.
It's it doesn't go as far as as a nine.
So I think, you know, I think that's just one of the things
that and and disc golf is, you know, you get a lot of people
that that's the first thing they do is run out and buy those high
speed drivers because they they have the ball golf mentality.
Yeah, yeah, I agree. Now I will to be fair, I did
look it up real quick and I see that our one of our starter sets
actually gives you for the driver an escape.
Yeah. So but as you get big, as you
get the bigger like a four pack 6 pack, it looks like they throw
in the trespass and then they throw in like a warrant in a in
a Maverick. So yeah, I would say a trespass
probably a little too much for a brand new beginner for sure, for
sure. All right, well, I guess all of
those were kindly kind of like lukewarm takes.
I need they can get my hot take game up and maybe get some more
controversial stuff to see if we can get some yeah debate going.
Well, guys, I appreciate you again.
Hopping on as we wrap things up. Let me know what you got going
on for 2026. We'll start with you, Marshall.
So 2026, you know, I'm hoping we have two A tier back-to-back in
Tallahassee and Bainbridge. We kick off 1st of February and
Bainbridge is the first ever A tier.
At Bainbridge we have 15 K added cash and then the following week
we have Tallahassee which is Valentine's weekend with 10K
added cash. And then give us the pros a a
week off before they go to Brooksville to take a throw down
the mountain down there to see if they can, you know, beat that
course or the course beat them. So that's about our where we're
going to be at the beginning of the year, so.
Cool and I guess they can just go to what disc golf scene or
Facebook page get more info. Disc golf scene actually the
women's right now or it's open on the Open at Tallahassee.
We have the women only open right now and then next the 15th
opens up registration for Tallahassee and Bainbridge on
the same day. Awesome.
What about you, Ryan? What you got going?
So for the first half of 2026, maybe a little more, I'm just
going to continue to play a bunch of events like local and
then some pro tours. And then what I'm really excited
about is next year is going to be my first year of college.
So I will be playing on a college team.
I haven't said where yet, but it's coming soon.
But I will be playing on a college team and I think that's
going to be a really cool experience because I think
that's part of the sport that can grow like a ton right now.
It is growing a ton right now and so I'm excited for that.
I feel like I've never, besides like double S events, I feel
like there's never been like a big team aspect in like
tournaments of disc golf. So I'm really excited for that.
Very cool. And Brent you what you got going
on 2026? Well, big stuff, but starting
the year off with our Veterans for Vets event in January, it's
our 7th year hosting it. Now this one, we're putting a
little change on things. I know a big, the big focus is
on, you know, getting people out in the cold that support the
vets. They don't get to choose when
they serve, so come out and place them, you know, in the
cold. But partnering with our local
park district, we have a facility here in town.
So we're doing an 18 hole indoor putting style event.
So for 40 bucks you can come Ryan, you're like an hour a
shower and a half probably away from us.
You can come on out and you bring your dad.
I know you guys come out and play, but just a couple
different, yeah, couple different divisions we'll have.
We're going to spread out nine holes, play it twice.
But yeah, first year doing that. So really hoping to increase the
sign up numbers just by having it indoors, simply still get 2
discs, a bunch of other goodies with the player pack, all that
fun stuff. So and then we just move right
along into our first seat here in April in Walnut, IL Then we
have a big focus for me in 2026, I really want to get a high
school team. I want to get a high school club
in our high school. Ryan, I don't know if you have
done anything with that or heard anything about that, but there's
a bunch of guys that actually play, but also art teach in kind
of Northern Illinois area that have gotten at about 5 or 6
schools clubs at each school and they all kind of compete on the
weekends and stuff like that. So just really trying to get a
team for our local school and then hopefully coach that.
But yeah, just continuing, we got a couple other events will
host couple Foxes again, redeveloping that 18 hole in the
middle of town, probably get another 9 hole built because we,
I think we've averaged at least one 9 hole a year that we've
installed and designed and and kind of put in for the last
price 7 years now. So we're, we're up to about 92,
I want to say veteran baskets we put in the ground here in
Northern Illinois. I'm so really excited to hit
that like 100 mark. And then we're just big
contributors to local organizations.
Hopefully after this next year we'll be able to say that we've
contributed over $25,000 to local organizations in our
community. Very cool.
Awesome. Well, again, thank you guys for
hopping on the show. I want to do more of these where
we have more team members come on and talk a little bit disc
off. So thank you so much and Brent,
when you after you, if you can like take pictures and do some
stuff so I can share that out on our Facebook page at the
veterans for vet. So I appreciate that.
All right, guys. Well, thanks again.
Hop on on the show. I appreciate it.
We'll talk to you another time, all.
Right. Thanks for having us.
Thank you.