When United States Disc Golf Championship Tournament Director, Jonathan Poole, announced the new format last year during the grand October competition, the criticisms came hard and fast.
How can you take the biggest event in disc golf and change it?
What do you mean “no payouts?”
How can we possibly understand this performance-based scoring system?
So, as with anything that disrupts the status quo, change becomes the very definition of stress and anxiety and an immediate source of criticism.
And yet, with all the consternation that has surrounded the 2011 USDGC, there are a number of positive elements to this event that may be overlooked by some disc golf fans.
a. There will be a “USDGC” this year. Like the Japan Open and European Open, both of which are considered the top events in that country and continent, the USDGC, as we have known it, has decided to go to an every-other-year format. Just having the event this year, for the over 120 disc golfers, the long-list of volunteers, the scores of school-kids who attend, the entire community of Rock Hill, and for EDGE is a positive development. Scrapping it, which was one of the other options considered, would have rippled throughout all these groups and been a major blow to the community’s expectations that have grown along with the USDGC.
The USDGC has long been about so much more than just disc golf's top pros competing for a large purse. Canceling the event for even a year, would have a negative rippling affect throughout the Rock Hill community.
b. Performance-based play could become a trend. When ratings were first introduced to disc golf at the 1999 PDGA World Championships in Rochester, they were scorned and scrutinized, much like this performance-based system is being critiqued today. Now, we all celebrate the advance of ratings-based play throughout our sport. Therefore, why would we not now want to further extend this model and create an event where everyone competed on a level field of play? Up to this point in time, ratings have been used merely as a way to stratify competitors in a given field. Why not use performance-based play (essentially derived from ratings), as a way to bring divergent fields together? It may be a trend we come to embrace in the future.
c. Bringing AMs to Winthrop Gold may accelerate their development. When you consider that there are three-times as many amateur disc golfers in the PDGA, as pros, it would seem that our top disc golfers would want that ratio to be more even, so that the pro fields could continue to grow and be more competitive throughout the disc golf season. The obvious virtue of larger fields, would be that more cash would be available to the top performers in stroke play competition. Allowing the top amateur disc golfers the opportunity to play the Winthrop Gold course against a smattering of our top pros may, in fact, be enough of an impetus to help these “sandbaggers” realize, “Hey! Despite my resistance to moving up, I now see that I can play with these guys.”
d. Scaling down the USDGC this year may make it stronger next year. Let’s face it, Innova dedicated an enormous amount of resources, both in personnel and finances, to the success of the first 12 USDGCs. There have been estimates in excess of $1 million flowing into the event, and it definitely showed. But after 12 years, the question had to eventually be asked, “Is this sustainable?” We know it is not sustainable for the Japan Open (which started in the 1980s). We know that it is not sustainable for the European Open. After stepping back and looking at it objectively, how could we possibly think that the USDGC in its One Division. One Winner. format could be sustainable? Clearly, making the decision to throttle back the USDGC this year was controversial. But whether it was the “right” or “wrong” decision is unanswerable even once the event is concluded this year. It will indeed only be at the conclusion of the 2012 United States Disc Golf Championship where the merit of this year’s changed format could be addressed.
e. It may actually come down to an incredible ending. This is more wishful thinking than anything based on the demonstrable examples provided above, yet, imagine an ending where a Jussi Meresmaa and a Pete May are locked into a tie with only three holes remaining. How about a Barry Schultz and Mike Solt battling it out for USDGC supremacy? Could a Dave Dunipace and Harold Duvall possibly be crawling around the course on the leadcard at the end? Sure they could! And it will be that unlikely name, whether we know them or not, who will be paired up with a known player to determine the Championship. And you know who the pressure will be on, right? The more accomplished player, where there is no room for error! Make believe ending? We will have to wait and see.
Regardless of how this year’s USDGC ends up, this October classic will continue the legacy of excellence that it began 13 years ago. Whether it was laying string out all over the course, creating an event with just one division and one champion, or bringing 18 states together to rally behind one event, the 2011 United States Disc Golf Championship will again do that one thing it has done so successfully in the past…break through the barriers of our sport. And for that we applaud you.
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