Hey everybody, welcome to this episode of the Disc golf fans.
Man. I am Bobby Cool daddy, Slick
breeze and I have with me. Well, you know what I have with
me. I I want to say A-Team player,
but I want to but I really just want to say an old friend.
Really, I have an old friend on here that we want to talk to,
Mr. Chris Clemons at. The exciting news is that he is
back with Dynamic Discs starting in 2026.
I'm sure if you guys follow us, you've seen the announcement we
made. Super excited about that.
But yeah, I reached out to him. I said, Chris, we got to get on.
We got to get get you on the show, learn a little bit more
about what's been going on with you, and then of course, learn
about what you got going on in 2026.
So first, Chris, how are you doing today?
Man, I'm doing. I'm doing good today.
Me and Hannah are here in Indiana.
We've been car shopping a little, a little bit the last
like week or so. But I have, I have discs.
I have discs that I just got and there's so much snow on the
ground. So I'm like, God.
But tonight we have like a putting league and it's a nice
big indoor area where I can throw.
And I did that two weeks ago. And so I'm excited for that.
I'm itching to throw some plastic but I'm doing good.
Awesome, awesome. Well, just for some of the new,
new people out there, new listeners to us, let's let's
kind of go back to when you first started in your disc golf
career. And when I look up PDGA, the
first thing I see is 2011 where you played an event, but then
you didn't accept cash until 2014.
So tell us a little bit about 2011 and what was going on with
Chris Clemens during that time. And 2011, that's, that's so long
ago. It used to be not that long ago,
but now it's really getting up there.
So 2011 for me, I graduated high school in 2006.
I went off to College in Arkansas and I played baseball
there. And so after that, like in 2010,
I moved back to Joplin, MO, and I was kind of looking for
something I could do for fun. I had played disc golf before
with my buddies. And so I just started going out
to the disc golf course by myself and playing a lot.
And then my people got me involved in league.
They're like every Tuesday night is league.
And so I started playing and started playing more and more.
I'm doing like little fun stuff. And then like by 2011, I felt
like my game had gotten good enough to where I could like
start playing in tournaments and stuff like that.
So my, my friends were super involved in the league.
They ran the league. So they were like, they had the
hook up on tournaments. They were like, you can come
with us, you can stay in the hotel with us.
So it all worked out nice. And yeah.
And I just fell in love with disc golf.
I loved going. Like at the time I think I was
working doing debris cleanup for the city of Joplin after the
tornado there in 2011. And so I would work, you know,
early in the morning until like 4:00 PM and then I would go to
the disc golf course and be super tired by the end of the
day. But every weekend if I wasn't
playing an event, I was wanting to like just go to Oklahoma, go
to Kansas, go to Arkansas, anywhere in like a 3 or 4 hour
radius and just played like 3 different disc golf courses in a
day. And so like that was awesome.
And so like being able to and now it's kind of kind of like
that, but a little different. Nice.
So what was you looking back at early Chris Clemens?
What would, when you think back to that version of Chris, what
would he be most surprised about in your career today?
You know, I think that just the level like, you know, for me
personally, of course, like, you know, getting better and being
able to perform at big events and being on TV and stuff like
that is always cool. But just seeing how far like
disc golf has come, I think back in 2011, it was a much, it was a
different time and it was a different sport.
Like I remember when I would get into it, I would, I would go on
Facebook and I would find like Paul Macbeth and Nicola Castro,
all the big people in pro disc golf at that time.
And I'd add him as a friend and they would add me and I'm like,
oh, that's super cool, you know. And so like disc golf then was
like a lot smaller, a lot more niche.
Like everybody knew everybody like personally.
And I think now it's a little more, it's not as personal.
So you will see that like on social media, you'll see
comments about people and stuff. And they don't really know that
person and they might not ever meet that person.
But at that time, you actually did know everybody.
And so I think just how big the sport has gotten and it's been
on ESPN and, you know, on CBS with the Pro Tour Finals and
stuff like that, it's just crazy to like, back then I would have
never, never thought that. Yeah, it's pretty cool.
It has come a long way for sure. So you've started playing full
seasons around 2018, playing like 2025, thirty events, and in
the year, probably more than that as I skim through your PGA
page. So as far as like touring full
time, what is touring taught you about yourself that casual
players probably never see? I think like back when I before
I toured, but I was playing at a high level.
So I did a little bit in Joplin. And then when I moved to Kansas
City in 2015 for the that like couple years, it was a lot of
practicing just going out to different courses and just
throwing, throwing in the field, putting.
And then when it came time, you know, a week before the event,
every day I would go out and like practice that course
getting ready at Bad Rock Creek or Rosedale or whatever.
And but you know, life on the road and touring, you're kind of
like playing an event. And then Monday you're driving
all day. And then you got like 2, maybe
three practice rounds. And so it's like a lot more
quick turn around. And so when, when your swing is
feeling kind of weird or when you're like in a slump,
sometimes it can be tough to get out of it.
You know, if you're one of those like local pros who have your
job and stuff, like you have other things that kind of take
up your time. And so, you know, it's
definitely a balance of like knowing yourself and kind of
knowing like how to how you best react.
Some people just want to play, play, play.
And I'm kind of like that too. I feel like the more tournaments
I play, the more like Rust I get off, the more kinks I get out,
the more I like learn and get where I want to be.
And I think that's why historically I've played better,
like at the end of the season, the last couple months, because
there's just so many events back-to-back to back.
And so I just love that like repetition.
And so you can get your practice in and just that repetition.
But I mean, you do have to have time for chilling out and
getting your mind right. That is super important,
especially as you get older. You know, when you're 20 years
old, you can just throw all day every day and just party with
your friends and do whatever you want.
And the next day you're like refresh and good to go.
But as you get older, there's more responsibilities and more
like things you have to like prepare your body and prepare
mentally to do things. So but I, I've loved it and I
love interacting with the fans. That's the best part of it for
me. So it's that you spent it about
mentioned about practice and sometimes it's kind of can be
hard while you're on the road. What?
How do you get practice in while you're out traveling?
You know, I think when I first started touring those like first
two years, 2018 and 2019, I had my like religious things like I
wanted to practice, you know, on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, then
I wanted to play the course and then I was ready because I knew
like when you're doing field work, you can get so much more
done preparing for a tournament in my opinion, then like playing
on the actual course, But that, that's if you kind of already
know the course. And like if you're a local pro,
you've probably played the course that you're going to play
in the tournament quite a few times.
And so like doing that field work and getting that putt
right, You know, going into that day, Saturday morning when
you're you're playing your CT or BT and you got 2 rounds, like
you know that you're going to be ready and you feel good.
You know, on the pro tour, it can be a little, a little
different. You can like prepare as much as
you can, but some days you're just like, I don't know, quite
know how this is going to go. So we're just going to roll with
it. And so, yeah, like I remember
when I would those first two years touring with Jordan
Castro, there would be times where I'm like, I don't want to
go to the course, let's go somewhere else.
And I just want to like just practice and do field work and
stuff like that. Very cool.
All right, so I'm going to switch gears a little bit
because I kind of want to talk about how this hall this year
happened. I was helping out with the team
manage being well, we don't have a team manager for dynamic disk,
So I thought I'd step in and help out.
Seth had been doing some of the team manager type roles or
duties and I thought, you know what, let me help.
So I'd been involved in a lot of the negotiation.
What's going on? And all of a sudden out of the
blue, literally, Chris, I did not even I wasn't even sure what
was going on with anybody out there.
And out of the blue, you send me a text and said subject to the
fact of if Dee Dee is looking for someone new, you want to
come back to the discs you trust.
And you don't even know how excited I was when I saw that,
when I saw that text. So tell me a little bit about
like what was going at what had changed for you mentally or
competitively that made you send that text?
I think, you know, when I left DD two years ago, it was, it was
kind of by surprise to me. There was a lot of like change
going on there. And and then, like over the last
two years, you know, I felt with like this craft, it was like a
cool opportunity, but it like I never quite jived with the
discs. And for me, there were many
times in the course where I'm like, man, I wish I had my
defender. I wish I had like different
discs, my judge And I kept like feeling that way.
And those are things like touring with Hannah, like I'm
going to, you know, be talking to her about that all the time.
And she was just like you, you belong at DD and like, and I
always felt, felt that way. So it was always like, you know,
whenever you have your first love and then like you can't
ever get away from you always think about them and stuff like
that. It was just like that.
And so I had to like sit down and think about like what was
best for me. And I was just like, I want to
throw this. And I know and that I trust and
that I love and it gets me excited to throw them everyday.
Like I grabbed my bag and I'm like, I can't wait to throw my
harp. I can't wait to throw my fuse
and like see how they fly. And I felt like I kind of lost
that a little bit over the last two years.
Like I wasn't super excited to throw the discs I was throwing.
And so I was just like, I want to throw trilogy and that's the
way that I want to tour. Like I feel like that's how I
can perform the best. Like that's the the ultimate
reason I play is because I want to perform and like challenge
myself to like see how well I can do against other people.
And so, you know, I know this whole changed over the years and
there's a lot of like social media involved in like marketing
and stuff like that. But the end at the end of the
day, like for me, the reason for playing is to see how good I can
do like personally and to like challenge myself and then, you
know, try to beat the course. And if I happen to beat other
people, great. And so that's like the ultimate
reason. So I sat down and I was like,
I'm going to message Bobby because I know he's back at DD.
And I was like, I'm going to see what he, see, what he has to say
and just see what happens. Nice.
Well, I'm glad it turned out the way it did.
It reminds me of when I came out to I think we're, we're living
in Kansas at the time when we did that little mini
documentary, The art, the art of getting better.
Yeah, yeah, that that was super fun.
It was cold outside. I do remember that.
Yeah, it was cold. But yeah, I mean, even to this
now, like you're saying you could competing with yourself,
you want to get better. It's still kind of follows that
same whole thing. And I remember we were like
trying to figure out what the topic and the tone of the video
would be and you would said something about getting better
or the art of getting better. And I was like, man, that's what
we need to talk about. So it's always been your thing
is getting better. Is it something that you that is
a motivating or do you kind of wrestle with it?
Do you get like, how frustrated do you get when you're not
quote, UN quote, feel like you're getting better?
I think like everybody's different and like for me
growing up predominantly playing baseball, like baseball coaches,
especially like in the Midwestern, are historically
like pretty tough on you. And I game from a pretty good
baseball program and Joplin, like we'd won multiple state
championships. And so like being in that
environment and seeing like all the hard work that you do during
the week and during practice to like perform.
Like I learned that it's all about like the stuff that people
don't see and like the prep preparation, You know, there's a
very few players who are just like naturally gifted enough,
like a Gannon Burr or whatever, but he still works super hard
that you can just go out and perform.
And so for me, I with disc golf, I could kind of do my own thing.
There's not a lot of like training regimen and like
everybody's different in disc golf.
You know, if you go search for golf, you can find multiple
people to give you lessons and things like that.
But in disc golf, it's more of like how you want to do it.
And so like I fell in love with just practicing.
You know, I could be on that by myself and put my air pods in,
listen to music and work on different things that I that I
felt like I need to work on. And so there are times
especially like cutting, because I would, I always do something
like when I practice, I got to make like so many putts in a row
before I leave. And if I get like super close
and then I fail, I'll get like mad at myself.
And I've been there for, you know, an extra 45 minutes and
I'm just like pissed at myself. But I, I feel like it drives me
to like, work harder and do more, you know?
And so I feel like in tournaments, you shouldn't get
very mad at yourself. You should be pretty easy.
You know, you want to be cool, calm and collected.
But yeah, when I'm practicing, I'll get a little a little more
upset if I'm not performing that the way I want to because it
helps motivate me. And that's why I like it.
Like I don't really struggle with practicing and stuff like
that because I found like, what works for me and everybody's
different. And so like that's kind of why
we made that video is because like I felt like it could help
some people because everybody's practice is different, but it
ultimately like if you're having fun doing it and you are seeing
results, you know, in your weekly leagues or whatever, then
I think that that's beneficial. Nice.
So often remember to put a link to that video in the description
of this episode so people can check that out because it, I
still think it's very highly relevant to what you have going
on. And you said something about,
you know, you, you're hoping that the video would help
people. And that's always something that
I admired about you because you're very helpful.
You've always been willing to help people when we were do
clinics back in the day, willing to teach people.
And I think that's awesome. And then it's funny.
Can you say you get upset and you get mad and pissed?
And I'm thinking I, I don't know that I've ever seen you mad.
So you seem like a pretty chill, you know, even tempered kind of
guy, But I, I'm sure inside there, you know, you're battling
with yourself whenever you're not happy with what's going on.
But so when it comes to the practicing and, and, and what do
you think is something that the, I don't know if you want to, I
want to say the casual player or maybe the, the player that's
aspiring to be turn become a pro tour, a pro touring player.
What is something you think that holds them back?
What have you seen or what have you experienced that's holding
people back from maybe going to that next level?
Yeah, I think, you know, maybe some people could get
discouraged, you know, if they're putting all this time
into practice and they're only, you know, throwing so far, where
they put all this time into putting and then they miss a
couple putts in their tournament.
And so they might get a little discouraged.
And, you know, they're like, all right, I'm not going to play
tournaments for a couple months, you know, and then they kind of
like, get out of it. And so I think for me
personally, one of the biggest things that was helpful is that
like I surrounded myself with people who have the same like
motivation that I did. Kyle Webster, a lot of you old
school people might know him. He like toured with Will
Shoestrick back in the day with Prodigy.
Then he was on West side. He he was like the other guy who
we were, you know, neck and neck.
We're always like at the time, probably both 990 rated and just
like pushing each other, but we were best friends too, but we
both wanted to beat each other And so like, and all of our
friends were the same. And so like surrounding yourself
with people who aren't going to distract you away from like what
you're trying to do, which at the time was getting as good as
you can at disc golf and winning, you know, every
tournament around. I think it's super important
because like I think back to that time and I was also loving
like table tennis, like I would play it, play a lot of table
tennis and I was like looking for local leagues and stuff like
that. Like I never like not like super
serious, but you know, disc golf the way a lot of people start as
they go out with their friends and just have fun.
And then you kind of like get into it more and more and more.
And that happens with a lot of different things, you know,
whether it's if you play cards like Magic the Gathering, you
can go and play in tournaments and just little things.
And so like, but for me with disc golf, like all my friends
were disc golfers and that's why I hung out with all the time.
So I was like being pushed continuously to get better and
to like achieve my dreams of like one day touring.
Nice. All right, let's jump back into
you coming back to Dynamic Discs.
So when the decision was made and we were like, OK, you're
back, you're back at Dynamic Discs.
Did you have a stash of Trilogy Trilogy discs sitting at the
house ready to go? You know, I feel like there are
a lot of pros who like keep a lot of discs.
I'm I know them. Andrew Presnell, he's got
hundreds and hundreds of discs. But for me and Hannah, like we,
we'll like in the offseason, we'll stay at Hannah's dad's
here in Indiana. And so like, we don't have like
if I, we had a house, you know, wherever I probably would like
keep stashes of discs. But when I left DD two years
ago, we had a garage sale and a lot of the locals in Indiana
came and like take through my stuff.
And so I didn't keep very much stuff, but a lot of those locals
when I announced that I was coming back.
A couple weeks ago they were like, hey, man, I still got some
of your stuff. Do you do you want to you want
to look at it? And I'm like, yes, I do, yes, I
do. And I'm not like, because I know
like even Emac talking to him like and looking at your wall,
like you have a lot of this, you know, just hanging out there.
And some are probably 10 years old, 20 years old.
And there are people who like to collect a lot of that old stuff.
And I've never really been that way to collect a lot of this.
So I think this are meant to fly.
And so yeah, I didn't, I'm kind of starting fresh.
Like I got some stacks here of like just stuff that I ordered
and some cool looking stuff that feels really good.
But I do have hookups on some good.
Stuff good. Well name, name a few moles that
were like you were just excited to.
You're like, OK, I can't wait to get those back in my hands and
get them, get out and throw them.
I mean #1 is this guy right here the judge?
Especially the moonshine ones, Even even after I left, DDI
would have a lot of people come up to me and I'd be hanging out
or, you know, signing or whatever.
And they're like, man, I love this just so much.
And I signed a lot of my old verdicts and stuff like that.
I even this, the first time I went to Europe, I signed quite a
few and like my old defenders that came out in 2018 or 2019.
Wow. And yeah.
And so like, I'm like, man. And then every time you sign 1,
you like think about it and you're like, man, those are
pretty cool. So I think the judge, the judge
was probably top of the list. And then I think the bio
defender was a big weapon of mine, throwing BIG4 hands than a
felon, A felon. You know, there there's kind of
a couple disks that fill that slot.
You know, you have like your your firebird, you know, and
there's people who love those and they love Sexton firebirds
and whatever. And so like with a felon, it's
the same like people love the lucid ex felon or they love the
old runs or the Ricky runs. And so like I I just love the
felon. It was a big weapon of mine.
That's something I felt like I was lacking a little bit over
the last couple years. Not throwing trilogy was my
consistency on my forehands. I'm like really trusting the
disc and how is going to come out of my hand and now I was
going to fly. So it was specifically forehand
disc for me. So felon, bio defender and then
the Potter, of course, because you put on every on every single
hole. What are some of the new ones?
What is the, I don't know. I've seen the last two years,
I'm sure we've obviously we've come out with a handful or any
of the ones that you're ready to test new ones.
Yeah, I know Emac, he's sending me some stuff.
I know there's like this Strive because when I left DDI had like
enforcers which I use mainly for like my over stable backhands.
Then I had the fenders for over stable forehands or Max distance
and then I had war horses as well.
And so I was, I'm looking for something that I can throw super
far backhand. And I have, I've been testing
out some Raiders and I know there's a lot of runs of Raiders
over the years, but I was like, also there's like Strive I've
heard of. And then like there's also, I
love the Explorer, but I, I know they've come out with the glory
and the honor and I see a lot of people on latitude throwing
those. And so those are definitely
intriguing to me. Nice.
You actually I had, I know I'm coming to jumping around, but
when you say things that makes me think of questions.
So you said stuff about like, you know, coming back to discs
that you were familiar with and you're excited about that.
Do you, when you talk to other players and as they're deciding
about making their move to different manufacturers, does
that play a big role in their choices as far as, like, you
know, I'm going to leave the discs that I really have grown
to trust. You know, I mean, I probably,
you know, somebody like Andrew Presnell who's been with Disc
Craft for a long, long time. You know, I think, I think he
could adapt, specially because he mainly throws back end.
You know, I think my throwing style is quite unique.
And so my needs for like discs and how they fly and what they
do and how they feel, I think is maybe a little different than
some other people, you know, but there are dislike, I know MVP
like they are historically kind of known for their dis being
like super flat and I like Dome on my discs.
And so I'm like, I don't it would probably be pretty hard to
find like stuff from them that I could throw.
And I, you know, I never really thought about that before I left
DD and then after I did and being with another company for a
couple of years, it it kind of opens your eyes, you know, to
the stuff that you have thrown what you like and dislike and,
you know, and you have that history of knowing what good
runs are. And so, you know, players kind
of change every offseason it seems like, especially over the
last like five years. And so Silas Schultz, he was on
MV or on Dis mania and now he's going to MVP And so like, but
he's kind of a predominantly backhand guy.
So usually there is a learning curve and being on the pro tour,
you really have to trust your disc and there's so much OB
everywhere. There's so much wind and
elements that you play in. And so like really knowing your
disc and you don't really like learn a disc until you like
throw that like super risky shot multiple times and it turns out
good. You know, like if you try to
throw that risky shot and then one out of three times, like it
turns out terrible and it flips on you or Heiser's too much or
whatever, then you kind of like start second guessing that disc,
at least in my experience. Yeah, I mean, it's not that
they're the the discs are bad quality.
It's just that, you know, you're you're familiar with a a certain
mold and, and you and like you said, and there was tricky
situations and you know, you don't always get to practice the
same courses all over. You know, when you go to a
tournament, it's like you got to play the tournament, then you
move on to the next tournament. So yeah, I was just curious if
that how big of a part that played in people's decisions
when they decide to to move to different places.
OK, good. So back to the mold.
What are some what are some other some of your drivers and
and stuff that you're excited about?
I mean, when I went, I went two weeks ago and I threw indoors
because we got 14 inches of snow here.
So I'm like, I don't want to lose anything.
But just the couple throws that I've had with like the bio
defender specifically, I'm like, Oh my God, like it just comes
out so fast, so hard. And so like clean and easy.
And then throwing the Explorer, it's just like easy distance.
It just feels super good in the hand.
And then I have an old Justice that I team stamps.
When I came to Emporia years and years ago, it was like a Fusion
1. And there's like very few of
those. And like throwing that thing for
Anna back. And I'm like, oh, that's really,
really nice. And then like getting a harp in
my hands, like just the depth of it, I feel like it's a lot
easier for me to control. Somebody just messaged me today
on Instagram and asked me like, why would I throw a harp and a
culprit. He was like, once I got the
culprit, it kicked the harp out of the bag.
And for me, I like backhanding the harp a lot because I feel
like it's a little slower. It's a little easier to control.
I'm like super touchy shots and the culprits more like it's
almost more of a mid and better for four hands and stuff like
that. And so there's little like
interest intricacies, but honestly, like I'm so excited to
just throw everything I have like and and that's the fun part
of it for me. And that like motivates me to
get out there and practice and get better.
It's just like, oh, I want to try this, I want to try this.
Let's talk, let's talk more about your touring and stuff
like that. So over the years, how much have
you seen? I mean, obviously before we
didn't have the Disc Golf Pro Tour.
Now I have the Disc Golf Pro Tour.
What What are some other big changes that you've noticed over
the years as far as being a touring pro?
Yeah, I think seeing a lot of nude faces for me like first
touring in 2018 and then, you know, the COVID years, let's say
like 20, 2020-2021, that's kind of like in the middle of my
touring career. And so like seeing so many new
players that have came in from COVID, You know, we go to our
putting leagues every every week here and I'll probably 90% of
people are over the last three or four years since COVID.
So that's like a big a big thing, you know, because when I
first started playing a lot of tournaments, especially a lot of
the touring pros, you know, in 2820, nineteen, I've been
playing for 10 years or so, you know, there was a very few maybe
like an Eagle McMahon or something.
You kind of just like burst onto the scene out of nowhere.
And so it now it seems like every year there's these young
kids, 1819 years old who have just those 600 feet and who've
been playing since they were five.
But this is the first time you're ever hearing about them.
And they come out and they do really, really well.
And back, you know, in 2018, there wasn't as much money in
the sport. And so I think you kind of had
to, to make it on the tour, you kind of had to like earn, earn
your stripes, like coming up the ranks, you know, and now I think
there's a lot more players who have started who, you know, some
players like even Ezra Aderholt, like he's, you know, one of the
best players in the world and he has like 5 career wins or
something like that. And back on the tour for one of
the best players are back in 2018 and one of the best players
in the world only having five wins.
You're like, what the heck, What's going on there?
And so like, it's, it's just a different thing.
But it means disc golf is growing.
It means that a lot more young kids are seeing that they can,
you know, make a living on the tour.
And I think a lot more parents are willing to like, yeah, you
can skip college for now and go see how you do on the tour.
And back in the day, it wasn't quite like that as much, I don't
think. Yeah.
What? What do you think is the hardest
part of touring that never shows up on coverage on social media?
Oh man, I think just like the the inconsistency of how your
week could go, you know, you can have a month where you play 3
events and they all go pretty smooth.
You're staying with the same host you've stayed or at the
same places you've stayed in years past.
And then you know, sometimes there could be weather delays
are in the vents or you're staying somewhere new or just
you know, your car breaks down. Just there's inconsistencies
there. Me and Hannah were actually
talking like the other day and she was telling me how she got
her first car and it was like a Honda Civic.
And she's like, yeah, she's like, yeah, I remember I just
paid like 7000 cash for it. Straight up.
It's like you had $7000 saved up.
She's like, yeah, she was a manager at Wendy's.
And she was like, it was easy to save because like you just, you
go to work every day and you know what, you're going to get
paid in two weeks. And so like on the tour, it's,
there's, it's riskier. There's a lot more like chance
taking. So you know, one month you could
make 5000 bucks and another month you could make 500 bucks.
And so it's, it's a little, it's, it's definitely risky and
it can be frustrating at times, but it's ultimately it's fun and
it's awesome. And the people on the tour more
than willing to help. I've had, we've had issues on
the road, you know, everybody does and everybody's willing to
help you and give you rides and stuff like that.
That's good. So how do you personally handle
weeks that the results are not quite where you, cuz you and
Hannah are doing this together, so maybe there's a week where
things didn't turn out the way you thought it would.
How do you guys handle that? How do you keep the grind going?
I think over over the years, it was kind of like for, for me,
like touring, you know, I've had like ups and downs and I've been
doing it long enough that like some years are better than
others and things like that. But for Hannah, she's like
started out kind of from the very bottom out of nowhere.
And she's like progressively gotten better and better and
better. But like over those years it
all, it was always funny because like, if I played well in a
tournament, Hannah would usually not play very well.
And then like vice versa. Like she played well.
And so it, it was like frustrating a little bit for one
of us, but we're also like, well, at least like one of us is
doing good. So like, that's a good thing
because we always want each other to do well.
But like there are weeks, especially for me over the last
couple of years where it is like super frustrating and you and
you question things you're like, why isn't the things that have
been working, you know, over the last 10 years or whatever.
Why is it not working now? Am I, am I not good enough
anymore? Am I not working hard enough?
Are people just better now? You know?
And so those are like things that cross your mind and you and
you struggle with and you think about and ultimately hard work
beats talented players and just like keeping at that grind.
And so like, that's what I've always tried to do is just like,
put your head down and like, keep, keep going, going at it.
Like you're going to have a good week.
But I, I know for me personally over the last two years, like
there's many times me and Anna are sitting in the van and I
didn't perform well in this cash by like 1 or something.
And you know, that's something that never really happened.
I think I had like one of the longest cash streaks from like
2019 all the way to 2022 or something like that.
And so that was like a new thing that like, it was very
frustrating, but you just have to like keep going.
But I would just sit there and kind of be like man, and just be
super, super frustrated. And so then I think having those
thoughts over the last year and knowing like how that felt and
knowing that to me, I ultimately had to be like, I still have it
as a player. I'm still competitive, but I
just didn't jive with the equipment I was using.
I was just like, I think that like pushed me more and more to
be like, I think that I want change.
And that's kind of where I came to you in the offseason.
Like I had to sit down for like 2 months and like really, really
think about it. And I was like, that's what I
want because ultimately I want to be able to perform.
And I don't want that excuse of, you know, not quite trusting
myself because that's the worst feeling ever as you're standing
on a tee and you don't quite trust what's in your hand.
You're like, I don't know how this is going to come out of my
hand. I don't, I hope this is good.
You're just hoping. And at the end of the day, you
want to be 100% confident that if you throw it the way you
intend to, it's going to be good.
And I think that's that's what drives me and that's why I love
practicing so much. Do you feel like, so if you
think back to your early career and you mentioned like, you
know, these young kids coming in all this new talent, do you feel
pressure differently now than you did earlier in your career?
No, I don't. I don't think so.
And I think that when there's been like pressure moments, like
like the definition of pressure, you know, is, is something that
like, I think is a good thing. I know that, you know, one of
the first times I won an eighth year in Joplin, like Ron
Converse, he he beat me the year before in the eighth year.
I was leading going into the final round and I like felt that
pressure. I was just like, I don't know
how this is going to go. I hope I can beat them.
I hope I play good today. And so like the next year, I had
the mentality of like, I'm going to beat him.
I'm going to play so good that nothing he can do will let him
beat me. And so like you learn how to
perform under under those moments and not like when I'm
having that pressure, that means that I'm doing good and that's
good. And so I look at it as a
blessing. I know for like Hannah over the
years, especially this last season, like she played really,
really well and you know, it's on lead card a lot and stuff.
And so that is pressure moments and she can get like, you know,
I can tell in the morning if she's like feeling that because
she's like I can barely eat and stuff like that.
And like that happens. But like overtime, the more you
do it, the better you get. And ultimately, like that's a
good thing. I'd rather have all the pressure
in the world and everybody's staring at me and like fail.
Then like being on the 3rd to last card and you feel like
you're not going to make cash. You know?
Like it's a better feeling to have that pressure and have that
opportunity to do it because if you pull it off, it's awesome
there. You go, I love it.
How do you, how does, what's it like in the car ride home or
back to wherever you guys are staying when you both are not
doing really well? How do you guys handle the
pressure together being both competitors?
Yeah, I think when Hannah first started touring, she she came
because she didn't play a whole lot of events.
You know, she went and played in her local leagues and went and
played with friends a lot and stuff.
But she was just really good. And so she didn't come from like
a sports background necessarily. Like she didn't play anything in
high school and stuff like that. So she like, I don't think she
knew like kind of how like how to practice to like get better,
like with a vision, like I want to work on this today and have
that vision to like do it. And you have to be like
regimented. And so like teaching are the
those things over the year, like, you know, that's helped
their improvement. And so like usually, you know,
when we're driving our long drive, we're driving from Texas
to Vegas or wherever, we have tons of time to talk.
We'll talk about like the things that.
We struggled with and how we want to get better at them, you
know, and sometimes we'll we'll plan, we'll be like, all right,
we have two days to get to wherever we're going And
tomorrow we're going to stop and we're not we're not going to go
to the course. We're going to go here and we're
going to just practice. But and we like do it together
and like play games together to get better.
And so I think like always having that like that plan and
like that vision to like get better and work on things like
not giving up and just accepting, you know that you
played poorly is like that could be tough.
And if you do that, you know, you're pretty much like giving
up on yourself. And it's like if you play good,
it's just kind of random chance. And I want all the control I
have to put myself in the best position to like perform.
And so those are the things that we talked about.
It's just like practicing harder, doing more things to get
better, or maybe trying some new discs that you need and stuff
like that. So the day I posted about you
coming to Dynamic Discs, we actually, I actually teased out
a little emoji, the lemon emoji. And a lot of people understood
what was happening and they were excited.
And then when he finally posted the, you know, the, the picture
of you and said that you were back at Dynamic Discs, it was
overwhelmingly positive, which is awesome.
But tell me how that made you feel when you saw the deposit.
I think even on Reddit, it was some great comments on Reddit,
on Facebook and Instagram. How did that make you feel?
Yeah, it was, it was awesome. You know, I, I know like players
moving is always like an interesting thing and people
always have their like, thoughts on it and things like that.
And but I, I know there's like one comment that has stuck with
me and it was saying like Clemens is back with DD.
He's like disc golf is coming back, you know, like disc golf
is. It's like maybe he's been a fan
for a long time and he's been in disc golf and following the
proceed for years and years. And so like to me, disc golf has
changed a lot over the years. And you know, a lot of us pros
like we reminisce like I do with Oakley and AJ Risley and stuff
about the good old days and things like that.
And so like, I think that fan like saw that, you know, and I
know that DD was like one of the early, early companies that were
like doing the social media thing and making their players
like super personable and doing those clinics and having us
available and stuff. And they like set the tone for
that. And we have like an awesome
team. And so like I always have that
like feeling of that. And so I it was just, it was
kind of like surreal in a way. And then I think the day that we
posted it, it was on a Thursday and that's when we, I, we went
to the putting league and I just went off by myself and I threw a
bunch of diss, you know, just practicing.
And I was throwing explorers and, and bills and justice and
stuff like that. And I like, I kind of almost
teared up, you know, and I was just like, man, this feels so
good. And it just like, feels right.
It's funny because like I put on this shirt today for the first
time and I like put it on and looked at myself in the mirror
and I'm like, man, I look good. This feels right.
And I like walked out of there and I was like looking at Hannah
and I was like, I was like, what do you think about this?
You know, And she was like, that looks that looks right to me.
And I was like, Yep, it does to me too.
Awesome. Good for her.
I'm glad that she's, I mean, not that I would expect that she
wouldn't be, but I mean, it's nice that you have someone
that's in the disc golf world that's very supportive of you.
So I think that's that's awesome.
OK, So I'm sure if you don't know our listeners, I'm talking
to you. He's a lefty.
This is Chris Clemens, a left-handed.
And we have Zach Melton, who's left-handed.
We have Andrew Anselmo, who just recently highest rated lefty at
one point. I can remember what year you
were the highest rated lefty as well.
And then oh God, I'm going to get in trouble.
Who? Is it Wyatt?
Wyatt Wyatt. That's right, Wyatt.
Wyatt's another lefty. And it what was funny is that
when I was talking to Seth and we, he'd said Anthony had when
the news came out about Anthony getting highest rated, then I
told Seth I was like, Oh yeah. And then Chris Clemens on there
and he was like, yeah, we have 4, We have 4 like big names that
are lefties. And so it's like we got to do
something silly or fun or something with left-handed disc
or something like that. But to my question, though, is
do you think being left-handed has shaped how you see yourself
in disc golf since, you know you're a smallest percentage as
far as players that are out there?
Yeah, I think it's, you know, there's times on the course when
I'm playing out to where I'm like, man, it'd be nice.
And not after though this 450 foot forehand and I could throw
a backhand. It'd be a little more
consistent, a little better in the wind.
But honestly, like over the years I realized like it's a
blessing and like I'm pretty lucky to be because there's so
few of us. And so, you know, if you you
know, there's like me and Melton Nathan Queen, Austin Turner, who
have been on the tour for years. And so like I know every
tournament people will come up and be like, and they probably
do it to them too, Man, you're my favorite lefty.
And I was like, yes, I'm one out of four.
You know, I was like, that's good odds.
But I think it's a blessing because me throwing BIG4 hands,
you know, having my hair, being left-handed, like it kind of
separates me from other touring pros.
So it's probably helped me gain fans, whereas if I was
right-handed, I would be more, I'd probably, you know, be
easier to like miss at A tournament.
But you know, I know the every left-handed player probably
gravitates towards one of us left-handed players.
And if it's me, great. And so I think I think that
definitely helps, even if it's a small percentage, I think it
definitely helps being left-handed.
I think it's awesome. I've always loved it throughout
my whole life, like in sports in general, like it's pretty cool
to be left-handed. Baseball's very advantageous
even in basketball, which I used to play too.
And so I, I think it's a blessing.
What advice would you give your 2017 self right when you started
to really get out there and start touring?
Oh, oh, that's a, that's a good one.
I know at that time I, I just wanted a chance to be on the
tour because I know in 2017 I was, I was not touring.
I was living in Kansas City, working at the Dynamic District
store there at Rosedale and then also working on healthcare.
And I was just practicing and I played GBO early in the year and
ended up getting a third cuz it canceled the last round and now.
So that was pretty awesome. Thank you for the weather for
that. Cuz I was like, I think I tied
with, I think Macbeth won that and I was like 2 strokes behind
him, but I was like tied with Sexton and Ricky or like Simon
or something like that. And I was like at the time,
looking back on it, I was like, I, I may have played well in the
rain there and stuff like that, but third is probably pretty
good. And so I was like pretty happy
with that. And so like, I knew that I could
compete, you know, with the the best in the world, like if I got
the opportunity. And so like that's all I really
wanted in 2018 was like that opportunity to compete with the
best in the world. And I think I feel like I
handled it well. Like, you know, I learned things
over the years, but I don't think anything in like my
practice and you know who of course people change over time,
but like how I've approached the game, I don't think it's changed
that much. And I feel like that's why I've
been able to be, you know, pretty successful during it,
doing it all these years later. And so like maybe just and
enjoying the, the moment more like you never know, like even
2019 USD GC, the one that I almost won, like I remember
after it happened, I was, I was happy, I wasn't upset with
myself, but just because I was like, I'm going to get this
opportunity again. But all these years later, I
haven't been that close, you know, I USD GC.
And so, you know, relishing those moments when you have
them, I think would be some advice I give to myself because,
you know, as a competitor, like you're always trying to stay
super focused and stay in that moment.
And I think for me personally, after all these years, like
that's one of my main goals is to be coming down, you know, 17
or 18 at Pro Tour event, a world's USDGC.
And like, no, that you've already won or throw that like
final up shot to park it. And all you have to do is tap in
And then like all that wave of emotion can hit you and you can
like relish it while you're still like playing around.
I think that would be super awesome.
Yeah, that'd be great. So kind of a long still that
long that mindset topic. What?
What's something that you care less about now that you used to
care a lot about back in the day?
That's a good, that's a really good question.
I mean, what do I care less about?
I mean, maybe I feel like there's things that I care more
about, like as far as like, you know, diet and stuff like that,
less about maybe like getting as many practice rounds on a on a
course as I like could, since I've played them for so many
years. And I like know a lot of the
courses inside and out. You know, when I first went on
tour, like I've seen all all of them on Jomez and stuff like
that, you know, Vermont and Maple Hill and stuff like that,
but I had never played them. And so like you can watch it so
much, but you actually have to play it and see how you play the
whole. And so I think, but over the
years, like I've learned that you come back to a course that
you've been to five times and you're like, I knew exactly what
I was throwing on this whole, I was throwing this felon right
here and it was perfect. And so then you do it again.
You're like, all right, nice. Or if you don't have that disk
anymore and you're like, oh man, what am I going to do?
If the felon you have is like a little more stable, little less
stable, you start thinking like, do I have anything that I could
put in my bag specifically for this hole?
And so I think getting getting less practice rounds, like I
don't need as many on the specific course, I guess that
would be what I care less about. Nice.
All right. Now, as we head into the 2026
season, what are you trying to protect mentally?
What am I trying to protect? Honestly, like the last
specifically, the last year was one of the hardest that I ever
had on tour. Not being, not performing at the
level that I felt like I was capable of, you know, and
there's a lot of reasons for that.
But I've had I've had those times, you know, over the years,
there's been tournaments or a span of tournaments where I
didn't perform how I wanted to, but I was always able to like
come back from that mentally and always able to have a good
tournament, you know, to stop that like span.
And so then I can build on that. And there were so many times
over the last year where I was just telling Hannah I was just
like, I just want one good round.
Like that's all I want. Because I felt like I could do
like I'd have a good like 12 volts and then I would, you
know, mess up on like two or three holes and it just
completely tanks your round. And over the years, like I've
always been very consistent. Like I might not shoot the
hottest round, but I might not shoot that like 12 under.
But I was like consistently shooting 7 or 8 under and like
there and then I would put myself in position to have that
hot round, you know, by Sunday and put myself in contention.
And so I like struggle with that a lot.
And so I had to break it down to basics and be like, I just want
one good round, you know, not even necessarily a good
tournament. And so I, I don't, I mean,
it'll, I'm sure it'll happen, you know, at some point this
year, you know, everybody has ups and downs and you struggle a
little bit, but just staying like mentally strong and having
that, like trust in yourself that you can perform the way
that you want to, you know, if you put in the work.
And I'm very excited to do that. I, you know, that was a lot of
my reason for coming to DD was that I, I felt like I just lost
confidence over the last two years.
And I'm like a confidence player.
You know, you got to believe in yourself at the end of the day.
And it's, it's hard to perform if you don't.
And so like, I knew that I believed in myself.
Do you know earlier in my career and I was like, I wanted that
that feeling again so I could perform the way I want.
Nice. And I've never known you as
someone that really like puts a lot of pressure or stress on
yourself about when you consider what other people think about
you. I think that's great, right
about you. But here's kind of a deep
question, I guess, when, when it's all said and done, when
disc golf is done for you, right?
What do you hope people would say about you?
You know, I think when I like being a fan of sports over over
the years and you, you look at people's legacy and things like
that. You know, you take somebody like
Michael Jordan who was the ultimate winner, even at the
expense of maybe not being the nicest dude or you know,
whatever, stuff like that. Like people do respect him for
that. But for me personally, I want to
be somebody that other touring players always enjoyed playing
with, whether I played good or played bad.
Somebody fan, somebody that fans like, they can show their five
year old, 10 year old or whatever and be like, see, like
I'm a fan of him, you know, because like he always carries
himself well on the course. I've always had good
interactions with him off the course.
I think for me, that's my biggest legacy, like in disc
golf and in life in general was just like being a person that
other people can like count on and that other people, you know,
want to be around and like feel good about being around and, you
know, talking to or just, yeah, just said that feeling of that
people. It's not like like me, you know,
I'm sure there's people that don't like me for whatever
reason, you know, But does people like respect that I was,
you know, a professional on and off the course and that I, you
know, gave it my all, you know, even one of even if it's tough
and just always like fought and to, to get better and, and I, I
love something that I was super excited about also.
And I guess this kind of ties it in when I was on DD, especially
early in my touring career, like they always had Junior Worlds in
Emporium. So I loved going to Junior
worlds and connecting with all the kids and seeing them just
having fun playing disc golf. And just like that was always
super fun for me. And so like seeing Wyatt
Mahoney, Anthony and Selmo, you know, Carter Aaron's, who's on
the tour now, like seeing those kids when they were like 12
years old and having fun and seeing the growth that they've
been able to put into their game and be able to achieve what they
wanted. Like I think that that's
awesome. And so I've always been very
excited about that and like the future of disc golf, having more
of those young kids getting into it.
And so I think, yeah, like, for me, my legacy, I want to be like
helping, helping the younger people get into disc golf.
And yeah. And their parents being like,
yeah, man, he's a good role model all.
Right, I like what you said something that I saw a video
that touched me a little bit because I do tend to try to be
the nice guy and I, I, I do worried, you know, you know, of
course, someone who's on video all the time.
I'm thinking, do people like me? Right.
But the thing you said was, you know, they're going to be people
that don't like you, but hopefully they at least respect
you and what you're trying to achieve.
And that's something that I saw in the video was like, don't
worry about being like, but but just make sure you do things so
you're at least respected. So I think that's fantastic.
Let me ask you this right now. Are you having fun?
Yeah, I am having a lot of fun. We're we're preparing here in
Indiana. We're going to be leaving for
Florida and like like couple weeks now it's getting pretty
close and I'm getting super excited about it.
We're getting a new vehicle to tour in and I think we also, we
looked at a tournament that I think Tyler Searles running down
in Florida and in he's been, he's been one of the people,
he's helped me a lot over the years, you know, get little bit
getting discs and stuff like that.
And he's a super awesome dude, super awesome TD.
And so I'm getting excited to play.
I think we're going to try to play as a dent down there.
And so, yeah, I'm just having fun, you know, And like in the
time that I have where I'm like, not disc golfing and stuff like
that, like I like to game a little bit on the Xbox.
And so I've been playing like Arc Raiders with my buddies and
I'll play Magic the Gathering on my phone.
And so yeah, like in general, in general, I'm having fun for
sure. Good, good.
Well, Chris, I appreciate you being on the show.
I always love working with you and I am very happy and excited
about working with you in 2026. But I appreciate you being on
the show, sharing a little bit about what you got going on, a
little bit about your life. And of course, I wish you the
best. And I'm sure this, I mean, I
absolutely know this will not be the last time you and I talked
so, but I appreciate you, Chris, very much so.
Yeah, I appreciate you too. I appreciate your service.
You're the man. I'm glad to be back.
Glad to be back talking with you.
And it feels good. And I can't wait to see you on
the road, too. Hopefully you can make it out to
some events. Absolutely.
We should probably tell people the story about that.
Thank you for your service, Joe. Now we'll leave them guessing on
what it means. Let him guessing, okay, We'll
have to tell it on another episode or something.
So, yeah, well, I appreciate you, Chris.
Have a good one. See you.