My question is, when does the rightful thing happen?
We permanently reunite the trio of the disc golf ants, man.
Here's here's your sound bite for the day.
Yeah, I might come back. Hello, everybody.
Welcome to this episode of the Disc Golf Fans.
Man. I am Bobby, Cool Daddy, Slick
breeze, and I have with me Eric chasing the chains, McCabe.
And then guess what? That's right.
Robert McCall is in the. House.
Hey everybody. A lot of you have said when I
when they made the announcement of me coming back, you're like,
when's McCall coming back? And so I heard he was coming
into town and I thought, why not get him on the show?
Figure it out. How are you?
Doing Mr. McCall. I'm doing well.
Yeah, we are we're in town. We last year we came to Emporia
for like 4 or five weeks and just like did a little
staycation. We worked while we were here and
stuff but that was just a little too long for the whole family to
be here. So now we're here for we'll be
here this weekend and we'll leave early next week.
So just a quick trip and we're going to play a pickleball
tournament while. We're here.
Nice. I didn't tell you but when I
came back one week, so the place I'm staying at is a place that
gets Airbnb D or used to get Airbnb D and so the person Seth
had Airbnb D it for the unbound. Oh yeah, gravel.
Yeah, so I got an Airbnb while I was in here working for a week
and I looked through the guest book and guess what?
I saw an entry from the McCall. Oh, that's probably where we
stayed last year. Yes, we can discuss the ups and
downs of that place at some point.
Maybe offline so we don't get the person that does not 100.
Percent, 100%. But yeah, I thought it was
pretty interesting. Cool.
Well, yeah. So we have them on the show to
get to, to just a little bit of nostalgia, have a little bit of
fun. We have some questions we posted
on our disc golf answer me on Facebook.
And of course we have our regular questions.
So we're just gonna what? Just kinda we'll jump into it
with some questions and then we'll ask you some specific
questions on what's going on in your life.
So but to the Facebook group questions, Let's see, Adam asked
My question is when does the rightful thing happen?
We permanently reunite the trio of the disc golf answer Man,
can't wait for that banter. Can't wait to listen.
So gosh, we just jumped right into.
It right now, we're right into it.
I know. Here's here's your sound bite
for the day. Yeah, I might come back.
Ohh, I'm just kidding. We're.
Gonna. We're gonna.
And there is the band. We're gonna live.
We're gonna, we're gonna live. So just as background, if you
haven't listened in in quite a while, when we lived up in
Kansas, truly we speak about our time in Emporia with like, we
were so happy to live here. And if Emporia was in Texas and
where our families could visit and we could visit them a little
bit easier. We say this all the time.
We would just live in Emporia for yeah, it was such a fun
place to be, but we got two kids, an almost 5 year old and a
19 month old. And so being close to family is
pretty important at this point. So we'll we'll still come back
regularly. We still have great friends up
here and and love to come and visit.
But long term, probably going to be in Texas for a bit.
Speaking so, how is fatherhood? Fatherhood's pretty cool, man.
Yeah, but let's see, we had Owen while we lived in Kansas.
That was one of the driving factors for us to move back is
it was just like Shay's parents are in their 70s, mine are in
their late 60s. It's just hard to get them or to
ask them to drive. I don't know, 11 hours ish if
you don't stop. So that's what got us back to
Texas. Since then, we've had Jocelyn,
our our daughter and they're, I mean, they're, they're awesome.
They're super fun, You know, I mean, some days they're like
throw fits and they're annoying, but they're kids and they're,
they're, they're a blast. So being a father is really
cool. I really do enjoy.
It sounds like they take after their dad quite a bit, so next
question comes from. Throw fits often maybe more so
than they do. Right, Yeah, you're, you're
probably like, hey, you want to see a fit?
Watch this. Yeah.
You see what they see?
That's right. Make a.
Competition out of it for sure. Oh, you, you can do that.
Yeah, watch this. I have seen parents do that
though, like if their kid is kicking and screaming, they will
also kick and scream louder just to just to assert dominance.
And I haven't employed that yet, but I'm thinking about.
I have. There was I saw something on
Facebook or somewhere where the parent, the suggestion was if
your kid baby is crying, they were trying to teach them to
stay in bed. Yeah.
And not want to be in bed with mom and dad.
Yeah, they said to just cry. Cry also.
And the person that was posting the comments said that they, the
baby, would literally just kind of look at them and like what is
going on? Yeah, what is this?
So it confuses them to stay interesting.
I need you to my games with kids are always the best way to go.
So it was a great way to raise them.
Yes. Smart.
It'll never come back in the future and punch you in the
butt. Totally fine.
I do need you to film it though. If you try it, so I will.
I got you. Kenny wants to know.
Robert, what was your favorite disc golf adventure you got to
do while in disc golf? I'll be honest, this is an easy
one for me. When we took a trip to Finland
and Sweden, yes, unbelievable trip.
Still, still talk about it very fondly.
Beautiful place to go, fun people that we were there with.
Yeah, it was just an awesome trip.
Didn't. Didn't we leave him at the
hamburger joint? Yes, well, I did get left and I.
Had to find that. Client, I do appreciate you
bringing it up because I had forgotten about it, OK.
Does that change your? Answer.
I look on it less fondly. No, that was an awesome trip.
It was so much. Fun.
By far my favorite. No, no.
Speaking of trauma, yes. Yeah, Let's see.
Let's see. OK, OK.
Tom wants to know. And I I knew this was going to
come out. No, no, actually, I'm passed it
up. Where is it?
No. Ryan asks.
Has the hair care routine changed now?
Let people know. Well, you got sure we just got.
Well, we'll zoom in real quick. I'm the editor, so I will zoom
in. As you can see, the man has
majestic hair. Thank you.
It's always been his thing, his signature.
When he walks into a room, he puts his head tilted a little
bit forward to make sure that we notice.
Yeah, the hair is good side, yeah.
Here's the thing. So.
But tell us, has your hair routine changed at all?
Yeah, out of necessity, yes, Is it?
Falling out yet? It's not it's this is wild.
So that's right. I was going to say I'm I'm going
to age myself. I turn I turned 40 in September.
I have been concerned about losing my hair for quite some
time, but it has it stuck around and for what reason I don't
know, but I I'm grateful for it. I, I had gotten tired of just
doing like the, the fade, like the really tight fade because I
had to get it cut so often. And so I told Shay, I just want
to grow it out and let it ride for a little bit and see how
that looks. And so I did that for quite some
time. Interestingly, you still have to
like do stuffs to do stuffs. I didn't mean to say that like
that, but here we are to your hair when it's long for it to
still look reasonable. And I'm on video calls all day
every day. So you can't look like a slob.
And so my hair care routine has changed.
It's it's not as involved as it was before, but it's pretty
close. But this is you can't really
see. I just got a haircut a couple
weeks ago, but it was like pretty long before.
Yeah, I imagine you're going to wake up one day and all of a
sudden you're going to notice the receding hair like it's
coming. Well, who is it?
How does it? Does your dad have a lot of
hair? But I think.
That dad is bald. This can be.
Right, it's your grand. Yes, on the mom's.
Dad's dad, Mom's dad, when he died was full head of hair.
Oh, good for you. Oh nice.
Yeah, So I hope, I hope it sticks around.
We'll see. I have some Grays coming in
there. They're off to the side a little
bit, but they're coming. Well, you said something about
being on video all day. Do you mind telling us kind of
what you do? Yeah.
Yeah, the reason I'm on video all day every day is I work in
sales from home. I I work at a company that helps
businesses hire employees internationally.
So let's use this as an example. So, Eric, you make videos, Cool.
You want someone to edit those videos, You find the perfect
person, but they live in the UK. Oh, man.
OK, So you don't want to set up a business entity in the UK
that's very expensive, takes a lot of time.
You also don't want to pay for them to get a visa to come to
the US. So what we do is we have
international entities all over the place.
We hire employees on behalf of other companies so that they can
be hired compliantly in their country and then be connected to
any job in the world. So I'm in sales for that
company. I'm a.
Sales in an office space. Yes, we just.
I'm a people. Person.
That's right. That's right.
That's exactly right. So I am my title is Sales
Manager Americas and Yep, you. Also do cruises as well.
Sounds. Like a sales manager.
Americas. No, no, the Americas.
The Americas are the. Americas So I I sell it to
people directly and then have a team that I manage as well.
Very cool. All right.
This is a fun job, I work from home and that's the best setup
for me right now all. Right, all right, Tom wants to
know. Ask him what is his main.
OK, I know what he's talking. About is he?
We're back on the hair. No, we're talking about we're
talking about pickleball. OK, cuz his next question is
what is his duper? Yeah, so let's, well, but just
in case, I mean, I'm sure people know, but like, so pickleball
became a big thing with you in Emporia while we were here.
Yeah, while we're Emporia, we had a group of pickleball
people. I joined the group as well.
Great pickleball group. Of course, as athletic as Robert
is, he became very, very good at pickleball.
Swift of foot, Swift of foot. That's me.
So, yeah, so now that's kind of your thing.
You're actually here for a pickleball tournament.
So. So to his question, what is your
main? Yeah, So that's what that's the
terminology when they say like what paddle do you play with
most of the time is what what someone means.
They say what is your main? So mine is a the the company is
called carbon and the paddle is called true foam.
And it's the two shape. So it's kind of like a square
shape as opposed to an elongated one more hitting space.
I must hit the ball a ton for somebody who is playing at the
level that I am. I shouldn't miss hit it as much,
but I do. So I play with that shape and
I'm like the lowest level of sponsored player for Carbon,
like the lowest ambassador that there is.
But that means I get some stuff for cheap.
Yeah, like that, a 10% discount. No OK 20% I I rarely I rarely
shop it. I don't remember but I'll get
like half off 2 paddles a year which is plenty for me.
Nice. And then my duper.
So duper is pickleball's rating system.
It goes from 2O up to the very, very top.
Pros are like 7 O plus. Previously if you were over A5
O, you were considered a pro, but now that's changed over the
last few years. I got my duper up over 5 O and
won a couple of five O tournaments which was really
cool, but then switched battles and went on a bit of a losing
streak so I'm at 4 it's like. Switching manufacturers.
It is. It is.
Everybody takes a dip and then they figure it out.
Well, sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.
Wow. I have.
I've won a tournament since, but it didn't move me back up as
much. So I'm at a 474 duper right now.
So it's embarrassing. Does it's fine.
Does the duper rating do the the people that are in pickleball,
do they argue about duper rating as much as disc golfers argue
about PDJ? Rating it is.
It's flawed. Equally.
Well, it definitely is. Yeah, it definitely is.
But equally, if not more really. OK, yeah, there's there's some
other factors in deeper like one of them is reliability scale.
So like how many matches have you played?
So your your rating moves more or less depending on how much
you've played and how much the people who you've played against
have played. It's just a very interesting
algorithm. So anyway, you know how.
Many times I've played pickleball.
How many? Never.
Dude, you should. You know why though?
Why? Why?
It's just it's when I go into things, I go into things.
I'm see I'm on board. And like, I don't, I don't need
another hobby where I'm going to be dropping all this money on.
And like if like I'm just going out on the boat, I hey, you know
what I mean? Like I've got enough money
invested in fishing at this point that like, that's where
I'm staying. Yes, yeah.
And I have immense respect. I know I would love pickleball.
If I actually. Played it probably.
I'm telling you, dude. That's why I've never done it.
But I will, I'll say I'm, I'm on that boat as well.
Like I really, I do one thing and I do that and and that's it.
So like, so I haven't played a lot of disc golf.
I haven't played golf since the last time I was in Emporia.
So yeah, it's, it's my one thing.
I this is my hobby. I do that.
I what's the plan is just kind of keep.
Yeah, I just play for fun going on tour, not I'm so not even
close to being good enough. Like a buddy at church asked me
about that because, you know, he's not very good and so to him
I am very good. But there's level.
He's my best friend, right? He's he's my buddy.
He's who I. Play with all the time.
Yeah, he's the reason you're duper so.
That's right, that's right. I know we have to put the score
in. We have to.
No, like I I played a team that went to like a challenger level
event, which is one step below the pro levels, and that
challenger team beat us pretty handily.
Then they go to the challenger event and they get beat pretty
handily. Then the teams that go to that
event go to like pro qualifiers for the top event and they get
beat pretty handily. So like there's real levels here
and I'm nowhere close to that. So I just I like to have fun.
Nice. Very cool.
Yeah. All right.
Next one comes from Justin. I still have an owl stamped
judge that Mister McCall signed for me that I use on my practice
basket in the backyard. My kids asked who signed it.
Only someone with more hair, a better beard, and probably a
super sweet choker necklace. My, my fashion preferences have
changed. I don't know.
I don't wear it at all. I have it at home.
Yeah. OK, yeah.
So he he asks what is one thing you are super proud of from the
last three years? It could be anything, something
that made you feel good, big or small.
Cool. Appreciate that.
That's a really good question. Last three years, I mean the
easy 1 is that we had our daughter that that's that's the
easy one. Personally like work has gone
well. I've gotten a couple promotions
at work. That's cool.
And then in pickleball, I've won a couple of sorry, this is a
drooping again, my apologies. Won a couple of five O
tournaments. So yeah, I'd say that well, it's
been a good three years. Like we're we're enjoying
ourselves. Cool.
Yeah. And Mr. Miles Seaborn himself.
Miles, This seems like a loaded question, but he asks he's ever
been to the Chek. Stop chek.
Stop.
Yes. Yeah, it's multiple times.
Yeah, but used to. I didn't know about it like a
long, long time ago. And I would pass by it going to
tournaments in Dallas. You don't miss.
I. Was just like a Texas thing like
you live in if. You go up 35.
Yes, yeah, they're clashes is. What they are so.
Good. They're so good.
If you go up 35, you stop at the check stop.
So I have sense. And Mika wants to know Doctor
Pepper still the best. Miko, great question.
I have ceased Doctor Pepper consumption.
No wonder the stock has gone down.
I know, I know personally have driven the to the demise of
Doctor Pepper. No.
So I turned 39 in October. In September I told my wife like
I'm not in very good shape, it's time to get in shape.
So I really measured what I ate and was thoughtful about it and
worked out a ton and lost over the next four months.
Like probably 15 lbs or so. Nice And part of that was
drinking pretty much 0 soda. So now I'll have a like a 0
sugar soda every once in a while.
I, I, it makes me mad to even say that, but I just don't like
I'm like you. I'm all in If I have a doctor
Pepper, I will have 20 doctor Peppers over the next week.
So trying to be like relapse. Yeah, relapse.
Yeah, yeah. So anyway, I'm trying to be
disciplined so Doctor Pepper is still wonderful and I would love
it if I could drink it. It's just not in the cards for
me anymore. Good on you.
Yeah, soda's not exactly the best thing for you, so no good.
Good on you. Well, we didn't bring any
product, but like, let's see. I'm not even sure to be honest
with you. We're recording this on a
Friday, June 13th. I'll probably work on it a
little bit and I'll probably go out mid week, next week or
Wednesday the 18th. Great.
What's something that they can look forward to that's coming
out just so they are aware? Something that you may not even
know about. OK.
We got some I don't even know if I want to talk about.
Him Why is it way out in the future?
Though no it's not. It's like, it's like Mr. Breeze
is all I'm going. To say, OK, I know you know
about. Him.
Have you seen the stamp? It's good.
It's Mr. Breeze. I'm just.
Saying buy like 50 of them. We're bringing back some scented
things. And we'll just, yeah.
Mr. Breeze And that's where I'm leaving it.
OK? That's where I'm leaving it for
now so you can look. For Oh, I see.
When did when did that come out? The the stamp has been ordered.
They are being stamped early next week, so probably within
the next week. OK, probably within a few days
of this episode. OK, cool.
That'll be awesome. But we do have something coming
out that Thursday, right? Yeah, the right now I know we
have the orbit putters that are out, Warden, Emac, Judge and
Judge. Those look super sweet.
So if you haven't picked those up, try try some of those or go
pick those up. Of course we have the heist
first run that's out on the I think we still have some of
those left and some of the stores have some of those left.
I actually took Eli my grandson out and he threw it a few times
that he bombed that disc. I posted that on the DD
Instagram. Of course he was a super
excited. So shout out to you Eli if
you're watching. So keep killing it.
I watched the video. He did.
He did mash. Yeah, he he did really well with
it. So all right, let's jump back
into questions while Eric's looking that up.
This one's from Paul Z OK, let's.
Do it. How do you feel about the push
to have one standardized basket for all Disc Golf Pro Tour
events? Wouldn't that put an additional
financial burden on courses that want to host such events?
I think yes, I think here's OK, so here's my thing and I've
thought about this different things as far as baskets and
different topics that people bring up is that a lot of these
things, though they me, they may seem to be a, a solution and
they may fix a problem. That's not, oh, it doesn't, it's
not as easy as you think to fix a standard, right?
This is one of those things. And this is yes, it would be a
financial program. What what if they did come out
and say, all right, only this one basket can be it.
Well, then you're going to you're going to make all these
other manufacturers mad. OK, cool.
What if PDJ says we're making the basket?
This is the basket you all have to use.
Imagine all those courses. DGPT would have to be the ones
to do it, come out with their basket and then travel with how
many Because there's FPO pens, There's FPO pens.
You got to have like 2 sets because there's two trailers,
poor trailers that travel all that.
So look, we throw things at things and nothing's ever going
to catch everything, you know what I mean?
It's yeah. Yeah, in some ways it's kind of
like like different golf courses or like the different tennis
majors, right? They play on grass, they play on
clay, they play on hard court. Like playing on a different
basket requires a different type of putt.
So yeah, I mean, I yes, it would be awesome in an ideal world if
they were standardized, but we're so far down the line now
it's yeah, logistically it would be a nightmare.
They've been talking about and there's been testing and all
that, but like, I don't know. I don't know where they're at
with it and I don't know. I mean, it's a fairpoint, yes.
I mean, I I I'm not saying don't push to make things better.
I'm not saying just live with what we have like always
challenge and make things better, but just you just yeah,
sometimes I don't think when people say when people say let's
just have standardized basket. Well, it's really it's really
not that easy and I sure. So this is my, again, I'm not a
pro, never played a pro tournament, never will be a pro
it. But sometimes I often think that
these pros, not all of them, but sometimes they get upset when a
certain basket didn't catch their disc.
But the pros know that, like you, you kind of alluded to,
they know a certain basket you got to kind of hit to the right.
They know if it's elevated, they got to hit it a certain way.
Read in a different green. Right.
It's like, you know what basket you're on, You practice,
practice on it. How many times know how to putt
on that basket? I mean, there's some that catch
better than others. There's no doubt.
Yeah, absolutely. That's obvious.
And every basket has fluky spits and stuff so.
Yeah, yeah. We throw things at things.
Yep. Sometimes it's not always a disc
or basket. Sometimes it's.
Sometimes we don't even matter. We.
Just throw our pens in our sport.
Like. To me that's that's the easy
one. It's a standardized T pads.
Yeah. All concrete, all turf,
whatever. Yeah, I got you.
All right, let's see. I think that one let's.
Yeah, We didn't ask this one. This is from Everett.
I just bought a Fusion Vandal, took it to the soccer field and
compared it to my Valkyrie. The Valkyrie is more stable and
handled a breeze better. Patent pending.
No. Pending.
I'm going to. It's a verbal copyright.
Copyright that. Timestamp it.
But I think that's what I am going that might be a signature
on videos that I do that that might be just a breeze better
the vandal flies straighter is go still.
Time to edit that out, but still time.
Future Bobby. You wait.
I'm going to. You're.
Welcome. You're welcome.
Flies straighter and goes about the same distance with a
tailwind a little further farther.
Yes, it keeps. It's a keeper.
So what is the difference between a vandal and a thief?
Whoa, how did we jump to that? OK, dimensionally they look
almost the same. So Vandal and the thief.
I would I would probably say that the vandal to the thief is
no different than the vandal to your Valkyrie just the opposite
way, meaning the thief's going to be quite a bit more under
stable than the vandal, right? OK, there you go.
I haven't thrown a thief in forever.
Thief thief. I do love my vandals though.
Mike wants to know I'm throwing fairway drivers with good
flight. It Lim it limited power and
distance and usually I only get 10 to 20 feet extra feet with
gosh this with distance drivers and more erratic flights.
I should stick with fairways until my form and power
improves, right? I, I think that's a really good
recommendation. Let me let me get this back up
here. So yeah, I think you're right.
More than likely it's a combination.
It's it's either one of two things or a combination of both
is that you're probably throwing the disk a bit nose up.
And when the disk is nose up and makes everything act more
stable. And so if you don't get the nose
down or at least neutral on a distance driver and makes it act
more stable because the speed acts like stability.
So there's one thing if, if it's two nose up, then that's going
to happen. But 2 is that you might not have
quite the arm speed for that. And so if that's the case, the
speed does act like stability. And so even if you do throw it
nose down, if you're not throwing it hard, it's just
going to dump off to the left. So yeah, one thing to focus on,
I would say stick with your fairway driver, but two, work on
getting that nose down so that you get kind of a more level
flight and you'll see more of a true flight of the disk for your
arm speeded with with that type of flight.
Totally, and get out to the field when you do.
That big time? Big time, Yeah.
Good stuff. All right, quick, quick.
This really isn't a question. This is more of your quest.
So we've got the product guy right over here.
Perfect. So Ryan wants to, he says I need
some moonshine air stilettos. Oh, there you go.
I will contact the product guy for Latitude 60.
Four. There you go.
Good stuff all. Right.
I wouldn't be surprised if that 1 doesn't get requested a lot,
interestingly, you know, Really. Yeah.
No, no, Absolutely. Yeah.
It. Says yeah, no.
Absolutely not. You can take the Flack for that
when I leave, but yeah, we'll take.
There's not really much of A need for that type of Frisbee,
so. Justin has a great question that
I'm sure a lot of people that watch the Disc Golf Pro Tour are
wondering and just in case you don't, if you're kind of new to
us, the disc golf fans man, or new to watching Disc Golf Pro
Tour, Robert has a lengthy career of doing commentary.
Lengthy. It's an interesting choice, I
That's fine, but he. Talks in the disco.
Yeah, he. Talks very few events, but lots
of tours per event. So would you consider doing
commentary for the disc golf Pro Tour again for let's before you
answer that question, sure. Which was your which event was
your first one you did commentary on?
Do you remember? Oh yes?
Well. Most.
That was the first you traveled
to. That was the first one that I
traveled to. I remember that.
We did GBO. Yep, I remember that too, where
I was in studio and Dixon was on the course.
Yes, when we were doing it on our own first year, that was my
first time ever doing commentary.
And yeah, I mean, it was like, it was a blast, but it was also
a challenge. I mean, it was our first time.
We were figuring out everything. The one after that I came to
Worlds in Emporia. I think it was the next year I
was, I had just come back from injury and was playing
absolutely terribly, which is kind of a theme for me.
Not the injury part, but just the playing terribly part as
you. Guys say I don't know how that's
a marker for you since it happens all the time later
that's. OK hey maybe this will help
though. OK, OK.
So anyway. OK, real quick, these these cues
he's talking about where it's falling down, he's speaking it
up. Sorry, audio, it's yeah, it's.
The microphone. The microphone, it's a makeshift
microphone stand. Sorry audio listeners, that you
don't get to experience me fidgeting with the microphone
so. I'm sorry.
OK, so so I came back and played worlds that year.
I played terribly and Dixon was doing commentary with Terry
Miller at the time. He was playing well enough that
he was playing in the afternoon. He had afternoon tea times in
the open division. If you play poorly, then you
have early morning tea times. And that was me.
Very early morning tea times. So I was done and Dixon was
going to be on the course. And so I told Dixon and and
Terry. I'd never met Terry at that
point, but I just said, hey, look, if you need someone to
just walk around and like back you up, say a few words and set
you up for whatever you need to, I'm happy to do it.
And so I met Terry that day. We we went out on the course
together. It went well.
Did it. The next day.
I played terribly of course, again because why wouldn't I,
but then did it again the next day and then finished out that
Worlds and really enjoyed working with Terry and Johnny V
and their whole crew. And later that year, that was
when they disc golf pro tour like the first championship was,
and that's the one that they flew me out for.
That's right. It was it.
It was a smoke, Yeah. That's exactly right, I.
Do remember that. It was awesome.
Like that's that kind of kick started the whole thing and then
I did plenty of other events for them and did got to do Jomez at
the same time. Yeah, it was, it was a blast.
So that's that's the background. Would I ever do it again?
Sure. If if the pro tour called me
and, and schedules worked out, absolutely I would do it.
I am not as knowledgeable now as I was then about all of the
discs and all of the players, though.
We still watch a lot and we keep up with, with our friends on the
tour. But yeah, new releases wise and,
and all of that. I'm I'm a little bit out of the
loop. So if you just need somebody to
talk and fill space, well, I can do that.
Yeah, I'm your guy. That's the dude.
All right, Steven.
Steven has a lengthy question. He says.
Hey, Bobby and Eric. Hey.
I recently played pickleball for the first time and had an
absolute blast. Naturally, just like I did when
I got into disc golf, I started diving into podcast and YouTube
content. I already knew.
Yeah, see people get, Oh yeah, what's your age up with it.
I already knew. It seems to have experienced a
similar COVID era boom like disc golf did.
But unlike disc golf, pickleball's momentum has
slowed. It's actually accelerated or
hasn't slowed. It's actually accelerating the
prize purses sponsorship. So here's my question for you
both. What does disc golf need to do
to reignite its growth and attract the kind of major
sponsorships and mainstream attention that pickleball is
enjoying right now? From your perspective, what are
the next big steps for disc golf, whether it's improved
media coverage, more accessible courses, or better player
promotion to take things to the next level?
Would love to hear your thoughts.
Thanks for all you do for the disc golf community.
It'll be interesting since he brought up pickleball, since
you're like heavily into pickleball and you're in the
know and your best friend has been Johns, I'm sure so.
Yeah. I'm sure you do.
I'm sure you have it. We don't speed dial, we don't.
So what are your thoughts, Eric? What do you think?
A global. Pandemic, I mean, that's what
really got us there. Another no, we don't want that
we don't want that, you know, logistics really it think about
a pickleball event, how easy, how much easier it is to film.
I mean you need what, 3 cameras Max, Max.
I mean, with disc golf, you need to do it right like golf does.
I mean, golf has hundreds of cameras on on property.
I mean they have booms. They have it's it's insane.
The whole production is just insane.
And not to say that the DGPTS production or disc golf
network's production isn't impressive, but it is nothing
like what a what a true Professional Golf event is and,
and all of those things. So for me, it's, I don't know
what the answer is for, for bringing in corporate, corporate
sponsorship and all that. We've had some of that, you
know, with what Johnsonville did, some sponsoring of the the
Nationals or the finale, whatever it was called.
There's been a handful, but I think it's, you see them come in
and then kind of go away. How do you get them to stay?
That's the the key, maybe finding the the perfect outdoor
a company that wants to help disc golfers that disc golfers
can relate to also, right? I mean it's.
It's not an easy answer, right? I mean, we're so much bigger now
than we were 10 years ago when I when I was touring, like it's
come night and day, like the, the events are crazy.
So we have grown. Pickleball has taken off quite,
you know, more excessively than we have for sure.
Yeah, there's there's several things working in pickleball's
favor that aren't working in disc golf's favor.
One of those is they had an established demographic of
people who are willing. Sorry, but the microphone.
You said you had mic, dude. I do.
But it's in a weird place. OK, I'm just going to hold it.
OK, OK. They have an established
demographic of people who already like to spend money.
So the people who were playing pickleball before are, you know,
in their 50s, sixties, 70s, a lot of them are retirees.
And so they're more prone to spend money with a sponsor than
a lot of the typical disc golf demographic who just go out to
the park, you know, once a week. So I think that's one big thing
too. You're exactly right.
If you want to film a pickleball event, you can do so with three
cameras and, and wire them in because it's close to like,
yeah, you're close to electricity and and and
Internet. So it's easy to do that.
Whereas on the disc golf pro tour, we're talking all cards
and, and taking what, four or five cameras, but walking them
over this in a massive area. So it's it's isolated that makes
it easier because pickleball is a team sport.
You have more people playing, like you have four people
playing at once together always. And a lot of celebrities have
really started to like that and people with money.
And so they sponsor big teams. And when those people with those
names get involved and you get bigger sponsors.
And so, yeah, there's just like some advantages to what
pickleball has by default that is difficult for disc golf to
create. How many tournaments have you
played at pickleball tournaments have you played?
20. 20 in of thirty of those 20 pickleball tournaments, did any
of them have player packs? Oh yeah, good question.
A bunch of them, dude. What?
What level? Like how?
What was the most expensive item you got as a?
Oh yeah, it's not, it's, it's never good stuff.
Right. It's just like, it's like I was
gonna say more. Importantly, how much are your
entry fees? Yeah, yeah, super good question.
So for for like a local pickleball tournament, you'll
pay anywhere from like 40 to $50 maybe, maybe a little bit more.
If it's like a fundraiser, you might pay more.
If it's one of the professional ones, then it's more in like the
150 range for for one event, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. How much would you say like your
player? The player pack is nowhere close
to that. Like maybe you get a shirt,
maybe you get a 11 pickleball or like a coupon to something, but
it's not. Yeah. 1.
Pickleball in pickleball. So what I'm getting at is the
reason I'm asking is and I'm going to keep it real and maybe
it's been a while, I know. It's been a long time since
Bobby's. Kept it real?
I've heard that you've kept it fake for so long.
Now that I'm back. It's all keeping it real now.
The last four years has been a complete hoax, so.
You've kept it. Sorry she asked for you.
So. So to both of you, what are your
opinions this hot take? Did we spoil disc golfers
because of our player packs? Did we set a tournament
directors? And I'm not blaming anyone in
particular at all because they've all done it right.
But have we to because we tried to incentivize people to sign
up? Did we spoil spoil them?
Did we set a unhealthy, unsustainable precedent when it
comes to player pack? Good chance of that.
I mean it it, it also depends. Are you playing for money when
you play pickleball or are you playing for?
Sometimes, but most of the time it's just for a medal or
whatever. Sure, it's just to compete so.
That's that's the difference, right?
Most amateur events nowadays, you don't really get script for
winning right. It's mostly player pack only.
I feel like maybe I'm wrong in that, but I feel like that's
when I was an amateur playing disc golf.
We would pay and we'd probably get like AT shirt, right?
Like a 120% cotton T-shirt. The heaviest?
But we would get like AT shirt and then we would win like a
Dylan's bag or a Walmart sack full of Frisbees that we didn't
even pick out. Right?
Right. That was like how it was back
then. Then it's kind of somewhere over
time has changed into you pay a higher entry fee, you get twice
your money in a player pack and then that's kind of it, yeah.
Yeah, and it feels like different companies, different
stores or tournament directors were trying.
It was the the race of who can give away more, you know?
Oh my God, they gave away a small bag.
Oh, we got to give away a medium sized bag.
Oh, now we got to give away the biggest bag.
We, you know, the most expensive bag we have.
Yeah. So I, I just wonder, I'm not
saying that's to blame, but I feel like that's a, a piece of
the puzzle in my mind that has maybe not quite allowed it to
grow as far as the tournament scene, the, the, the more local
amateur, more amateur lower level tournament.
Scene No, I agree. I agree for sure.
Because yeah, when like for me, when I show up to a pickleball
tournament, all I'm there to do is just play and compete and
like try to win and have fun, right?
I'm not. If I ever get anything
worthwhile in a player pack, it's bonus.
It's not at all expected. But when I started playing
tournament disc golf tournaments, this would have
been like 2009, 2010, somewhere in there.
Yeah, you got a player's pack that was like worth as much as
your entry fee. How?
How can that be sustainable long term for tournament like event
coordinators, you know? So now we've talked about a few
things that we see that are challenges or problems or
issues, whatever you want to call it.
What do we think at this point going forward today?
Literally the state of disc golf pandemics over, you know, all
the things are happening in the disc golf industry of, you know,
companies leaning out. What do you think we can do
moving forward? I'll tell you one, and this is
just from what I've seen with pickleball, like the more people
that you get who have influence and money, who can come in and
show, hey, this is awesome. Look how difficult this is.
And and these guys are doing it at an unbelievable by the by the
way, players now are ridiculous how good they are.
Yeah, it's yeah, it's it's truly insane to watch these guys and
girls. They're they're unbelievable.
It's obnoxious. Yeah.
It's. Yeah, I just laugh a lot of
times when I see them throw cuz that's just that seems
impossible. But if you wanted to grow and
get those type of sponsorships, you have to start shaking the
right hands and making the right connections.
And it's difficult to do that number one.
And two, disc golf has always, not always, but generally had
kind of like a grassroots feel. And this is, you know, we're not
corporate, we're not this. And so like, I think those two
things are fighting against each.
Other a little bit, yeah. Yeah, I'd agree with that.
Not sure that there's a right or wrong way to do it, but if
you're trying to get that type of sponsorship, you're not going
to do it by kind of like insulating against that.
Money. Yeah, 100%.
Money, money, money. Money, money, money.
Bobby, you've got money now. I do.
I don't know. No, I don't.
All right, Franklin's got a
question for Eric. How many courses have you
designed now? Right now.
And how many states, countries have you installed courses in?
I am over 90 courses designed. I am in 29 states, so I'm over
halfway to my goal. And then one other country,
which was Canada. So I mean, it's close, yeah.
30th state was Washington, which I'm designing now.
I'm in the process of, of designing it now.
So that'll be my #30 So only 20 more to go, you know, And man, I
just, I really want to hit that goal.
Of the 30 states that you've designed courses, in, which
state would you say is the most challenging as far as the the
landscape and the, and the soil and, and everything involved?
Not an issue the bureaucracy or anything like that, but more of
the land. Yeah, well, the land, I was
going a different way until you said that because like, yeah, we
can talk about that later too. But as far as like probably
Alaska, honestly. Oh yeah.
And I think it's because, I mean, I went up there in 2018,
designed the course in like May, we started cutting woods and,
and you know, getting fairways cut out and all that.
And then they had to stop because of winter.
And then the next year it just rained and you can't get
equipment in there. So I mean, I, you only have
three months to do this course. So we've been, I think it took
us ended up like 5 or 6 years before it was like, Dang, we're
done. We're finally done.
And now we can just enjoy it, you know, so and I'm going there
in like a week for the for the tournament up there.
So that's probably one of the the harder ones.
We obviously places in Texas where it's just rock is, is
pretty challenging as well. But yeah.
What was the easiest? The easiest.
State that you're like I could. I designed this with my eyes
closed. I mean, probably, as much as I
hate to say it, Kansas really, I mean, because there's 124 trees
out there, right? You know what I mean?
Like unfortunately, and, and typically when you do have a big
grouping of trees, it's in a floodplain along a river.
So you've got to take those things into consideration as
well. So yeah, Midwest is is usually
pretty, pretty cut and dry on on how you can put a course in.
Very cool. We'll have to get more.
I I have all like, oh, OK, one more.
OK, so of the, of the 30 states you've done and you're designing
these courses, this isn't more state specific, but more of a
question just popped my head. How many times have you like
been out to the, the, the land saw had a vision for what you
wanted And then as things started happening, what
percentage maybe that's a better question.
What percentage of what you the final vision you had changes
over time? Does that make sense over time?
I mean, look at Emporia. How often do we change things in
Emporia? OK, wait, maybe maybe more
specifically like. You're saying before it goes?
Underground. Yeah, before opening day.
Like from. That day one to typically when
things change, it's it's woods. It's typically in the woods,
right. Because So what I'll do is I'll
go down the middle of a proposed fairway and hang ribbon.
Yeah. And a lot of times, if I'm able
to be there is like have a, my, my best experience of this was
at the hollows, the, the newer course at the Hollows, I had
ribbon, pink ribbon. And the guy had an excavator
with one of those tree eaters on the front of it.
And I would tie a ribbon and he would come and then he would
just take out everything like within like 6 inches of a tree,
you know, within 2030 feet of each side of this ribbon.
And he would just follow me through the woods.
And we did. Here's your fairway now.
Yeah, we did 16 holes in one day for that course, which is
unbelievable. But honestly, in the woods a lot
of times, like I'll have everything cut out and then I'll
come back and be like, OK, this opened up more than I was
expecting. Let's push the pin to the left a
little bit more, or deeper or shorter or whatever that is so.
That's interesting. Wooded.
Courses. It's yeah, it's a true blank
canvas. Of all the courses that I got to
play while I worked here, the Hollows was one of my favorites.
Like just so cool. Yeah, it's fun.
Maybe it's because like I grew up in Texas, there are wooded
courses there, but there's a lot of open stuff.
It's just like a different style of golf and a different design
on. Like big woods, right?
Yeah, It's like big trees, not like smaller.
It's not this little scrubby. Station.
Yeah, it was. It was a blast.
Super cool place. When was the last time, Robert,
that you played actually played around?
This afternoon, the challenge. Trilogy Challenge this
afternoon. Let's see, I don't remember the
answer to tell you that. Yeah, 19. 87.
That's right. I was, I was 2 and I think the
last time I went out was like 2 years ago.
I did have some pickleball friends show up to a, to a thing
that I was playing and they said hey, we've we've found you out.
And I was like, what I, I didn't know there was something to be
found out. And they're like, no, we, we
started playing disc golf and then so we were looking for
tutorials and stuff. And all of a sudden I'm watching
you play a play a playoff with this guy with long hair and, and
I was like, yeah, I remember that video.
They're. Like dude, why did, why did you
say? Anything.
I don't know, I just didn't think about it.
So yeah, I will probably go play with them in the coming weeks
just to like help them learn and stuff, yeah.
That's good. OK, So if you had one chance to
play 11. Opportunity.
And the spaghetti's all over you.
It's like. It's really tough because your
your sweater is stained. Yeah.
And that doesn't come out. You had you were going to play
one round of disc golf. Like someone said, let's go play
disc golf. Yeah, let's what course you want
to go to? I've got a jet.
We can go to any course. Oh, nice.
OK. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Come on, be the right. One, it would have to be one
that I haven't played. That's not the right answer.
Like I I could choose one that I've played and one that.
OK, there you go. OK, there you go.
For one that I haven't played, man, it's got to be like like
one of the famous ones in Europe like the like the beast at Nokia
or or like or or Yarva. I mean either I would probably
if I had to choose between those, I'd probably take Yarva
like just because good answer. Yeah, I mean that's a like we,
we thought about when we were in Finland, we had a not a super
long layover like a 5 or 6 hour layover and we talked seriously
about getting out to that course from where we were flying out as
it would have been probably a dumb idea, but also an awesome
1. It's a great course.
It's one of my favorites that I've played.
For sure, for sure. So that's that one to play one
that I have played. I've only gotten to play a
couple of holes with this. And so this is a little bit
cheating, but I would go to Maple Hill.
I mean, it's been I got to play like the first three holes and
then did commentary and that's the only time that I've been
there. And that's like if you have, I
used to describe it like this, it's like Mario Big world.
I mean, when you're used to seeing kind of small stuff and
now you're on this course, it's everything's huge.
So yeah, super fun place to play.
Did you have? Yes.
OK, that. And then that was a blast.
That's right. That's right for me.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That, that was super cool.
I have yet to play anywhere in the Northwest.
And so like, I would love to see Milo at some point.
Yeah. I mean, it's Whistlers, yes, all
those, all those up there. And then to get out to a couple
of California courses. Some.
Some are kind of their, yeah, some of their famous ones.
Hammond Park. Yeah.
And Hammond also, I would take, I would take the jet across
town. You would drive all the way to
the Emporia Municipal. Fly, fly into town.
Yeah, Yeah. That's a question for you,
though. If you could like, let's just
say it's one stateside, 1 international, like what?
Which ones would you choose? Right now, yeah, like today,
International, I mean, Schleftia, yeah.
And it's my favorite. It's so.
Cool. It's just so cool.
It's also. The par 6 there's like 5 courses
out there too that you can play like I did the 100 and what is
it? 108 hole challenge or something
like that. I don't remember how many holes
it was but it was insane stateside.
Oh man, gosh, you just listed so many just awesome, fantastic
courses. Gosh, I don't even know dude.
That's that's so hard. It's a tough one.
It is really tough. I mean, you can't go wrong at
Maple Hill. You can't go wrong at Milo.
Yep. Milo's probably my answer.
Yeah, it's just. Just.
Just a beautiful piece of property.
It's awesome. Yep.
All right. Last question comes from Jay
Weems. Are there any plans for any more
discs ran in fluid and lava plastic?
Also, please bring back Snow Line.
Explorers love to show. I'm glad you're back, Bobby.
Thank you so much. It's great to be back.
Yes, I've already got some fluid plastic ordered.
Oh. Hey.
So. There you go.
All right. And coming out soon is the
moonshine deputies. Remember that we talked about?
You asked. Everyone's coming out next week.
Is that what's coming out next week?
OK, so the. Moonshine and they.
Got the little astronaut the color.
Memes on that? Yep, that guy.
Nice, so want to make sure to get that.
In. I don't know why I said that
after. Can I can I ask both of y'all
what you're throwing now? Like what's?
What does your bag look like? Now I'm throwing this.
Throwing bows. Throwing bows.
Let's see, I am. It's.
'Cause you've been building your back back.
So sorta, yes, kinda when I've had time.
But like right now there's a vandal, A renegade trespass, the
suspect verdict, the EMAC truth, the warrant, the the justice,
and then deputies for putters. And then there's something I
know I'm missing something else. And then because I want to get
used to them and be able to talk about them, I have the motive
prototypes and the treason prototypes in my bag.
So that's that's what I'm throwing.
I would say the treason will be the one that is in my bag
permanently. The motive, I have to kind of
see if I really need that. But the treason for sure, Yeah,
for sure. Yeah, awesome.
How about you? Same as always, Yeah.
I mean, bliss to Joel. Yeah.
I mean, got member him, got to of course.
Yeah, still there, still still huge, still absolutely huge.
Emac Truths. Emac Judges, Fusionx Vandals,
you know all the goods. Good.
Wonderful. Yeah.
Does does the Rive see much play these days?
Not in my bag, OK? Not in my.
Not when you have a. Ballista Joel.
People talk about it though. You know, it's a great disc, but
it's just that between that and the grace are the two that, like
you either have one or the other in the bag and I have neither.
OK, you got you got ballista Joel.
You're set. What do you need?
What else do you need, Joel? OK.
Do you still have a disc golf bag or did you?
Get rid of all this but a small one.
I mean like, well it's a Ranger bag, but it's like, I don't
know, let's see I I when I left here, I hadn't thrown a non DD
disc since. The 80s.
When I was 2, I since like 2012 somewhere right in there.
So I put some different stuff in there.
I have a couple of forces and a Wraith.
I was like the Wraith especially I got a little baby arm.
I can't throw far as I especially can't now.
But then like sorry, even then I couldn't throw far.
Now I definitely can't throw far.
So that's helpful for that. I I've got a rock in there.
I've got I still have an emac truths in there.
I've got Maverick is my favorite turnover my favorite dog
Fairway. Yeah, for sure.
Turnover fairway driver got T birds in there that I liked.
But my favorite is I'm still putting with first run wardens
because I just have yet to find something that I like better.
But I have an old 12 time KC Pro AVR that's so beat up that the
bead is just no longer existing. So it's like a warden?
Exactly. Yeah, it's it's what it flies
like, but like a very under stable one.
Yeah, it weighs like 168 and it's only for jump puts and it's
awesome. So yeah, the last time I played,
that's what I played. With so like old school, nothing
is like the newer. No, I don't think I don't have
time for that. None of that new new.
I don't got time for. That I got time for that new
new. All right, Robert.
Well, I don't want to take up too much of more of your time.
I appreciate you coming. I don't want to take any more
time either. Yes, So it's fine.
Give it back. I didn't want to talk to you
guys. So no, we appreciate you coming
in for a little nostalgia, a little having fun.
But to everybody's question, I know a lot of you have been
wanting to know, is McCall coming back?
Yes, for this one episode. Yeah, what's, what's the John
Wick quote? People have been asking if I'm
back. I haven't really had an answer.
So of course, when you're in town.
Come on back. Obviously, let us know have you
on the show, but it's been a lot of fun to have you on.
We appreciate it. Yeah, listeners, good to good to
see and talk to you guys again. Thank you for the questions on
Facebook. And yeah, it's good to spend
time with you two guys. And not one, Dang it, the whole
episode. What a waste of an episode.
I'll tell you what man, I go. Who had the under?
Who had the? Under.
I'll tell you what, I got kids, man, I gotta.
Yeah. I live in the PG world now.
We can't be saying these Dang, it's I I will say when I do say
Dang in front of my son, he said We don't say Dang.
You're right, son. We.
Say that's right. That's right.
We don't. Yeah, you're right.
No, that's true. We don't say that.
Have you slipped up in front of your kids?
Oh yeah, not on. I am human.
Yeah, no, it's funny, man. It is crazy.
One thing about parenthood is you can tell, like, what you've
done well and what you've done poorly immediately by watching
your children like, because they're like his.
The way that he put sentences together.
Sounds like me. And so if he says something that
I'm frustrated by, I really have to take a step back and be like,
is that what how I would have said that?
And sometimes it's yes, that that is how.
So other than that, what, what else about him that you look at
and get mad because you're like, that is me?
Yeah. To a tease.
Yeah, for sure. I will say I like, I really try
to be level headed pretty much all the time, but if I, if I get
just pushed far enough, I just have, I can have a little bit of
a short fuse and get very frustrated mostly internally.
And I see that in Owen, like he'll, he'll just, you can see
him starting to boil and I'm like, OK, I recognize this.
Please don't, please don't do that.
Like nothing bad is really going to come of it, but I'm trying to
get him to like reign those emotions in.
I I I need I always work on that.
So, so, and I know this isn't disc golf really, but I just get
after. So when you see those certain
traits that you're recognizing that they're from you, what has
that taught you about yourself? Well, yeah, I mean, you have to
it's like putting up a mirror in front of you in some ways,
right? So you've got to be just self
aware enough to say that's not good.
And and like there's, there's only a few places that you could
have learned that from school or me or mom.
So yeah, when I see him start to boil over, I'm like, OK, I got
him. I got to be a little bit more
patient. Yeah.
So anyway, yeah, it's it forces you to be self aware about stuff
that maybe you wouldn't have really wanted to uncover before.
Yeah, I've had. Kids is crazy man.
Yeah, I feel that way about Eric sometimes.
It's like putting a mirror. Up right.
Yeah, that's right. Fair.
All right, Thanks guys again for coming in, Robert, and thanks
guys for tuning in. We'll see you.
We'll see you on the next episode.
We'll see Robert tomorrow on the pickleball court.
That's right, I'll be there. Good luck to you.
I'll be there, thank you. You know, hit that kitchen or
whatever. That's what they always say in
pickleball. Hit that.
Kitchen. Hit that kitchen.
It's a T-shirt. Dude, it is that kitchen.
It really is. It really is.
All right, we'll see you.