Weekly Newsletter #10

Happy Friday!

Welcome to The Albatross. We turn all your tabs into an easy to ready email. So you can stay updated in less than 10 minutes versus 10 hours. 7 minutes & 35 seconds to be exact

I'm late this week with sending out the newsletter (my apologies). Got some exciting updates coming soon! One thing I can promise you is I will always send out a weekly newsletter 🤙

On the lead card this week:

• Music City Open Recap 🎵

  • Can't forget about Throw Down the Mountain ⛰️

• All the links and content to stay updated

  • We got you covered on new discs, merch and the best tips from the week

• Yes - more disc golf this weekend!

  • Another silver series before the first major of the season

Let's tee off 🥏

🎵 2022 Music City Open Results | Throw Down

Winners: Chris Dickerson and Missy Gannon 🏆

MPO:

I had a feeling Chris 'Silver Series' Dickerson would be victorious this weekend. And sure enough he was. Chris played solid all weekend and was able to walk away with a 3 stroke victory. Averaging 1060 rated golf over the weekend. 

FPO:

I forgot to add my prediction in here last week. But I'll admit I didn't think Missy would win. But she played good golf (avg 974) and walked away with a 4 stroke victory. Her first of the season. 

Throw Down The Mountain

Another tournament that took place this weekend was the Throw Down the Mountain. A McBeth fav. It was predicted him and Heimburg would battle it out for the win. 

Weather caused it to be a shorter tournament. McBeth would birdie 18 to hand Heimburg a 2nd straight loss. We'll see how Heimburg bounces back before the 1st major next week. McBeth, I'm sure will try to activate McBeast mode. 

WSJ Exclusive - Disc Golfs Struggle with Success 

Y'all know how bullish I am on disc golf. It's #ToTheMoon 🌑. Disc golf got a spotlight with The Wall Street Journal. Writing an article on the success and struggles. With the growth it's experienced since the pandemic. It's paywalled (unfortunately). But no worries! The Albatross always has your back 🤝

TL;DR Summary

The 'Holy Shot' gave disc golf a bigger spotlight. During a time when it was already experiencing rocket-ship growth thanks to the pandemic. 

Once considered a niche sport. Has started to become a flourishing real industry. With a cult like following (a key reason why disc golf will continue to grow).  

Like many industries. Companies (manufactures) are limited in production. Classic Supply vs Demand. And supply can't keep up. Largely due to polypropylene being hard to obtain with supply chain constrains. 

MVP,  experienced massive growth amongst their passionate community (hey that's me). They went from 2 machines in 2020 to 15. Not to mention they produced more discs in the 2021 than the previous 11 years. 🥶

Discraft has also struggled to keep up with demand. But Discraft might be the best positioned. A large part due to the super star roster they've assembled. 

Paul McBeth is considered (in many peoples opinion) the GOAT. Regardless, he's a pioneer for the sport. He signed the first massive contract in disc golf. A whopping $10 million for 10 years. 🪙 Ricky signed earlier this year for $4 million for 4 years #4for4. $250K in bitcoin ain't bad either 😏 

Discraft, jumped from ~40 employees pre-pandemic to 90+ and it's hiring. However it's struggling to keep staff employed in the warehouses. Despite upping production by 600%. 

$20,000 per sponsorship and tournament earnings were the average. In a few years 6 figures will be the norm. More will break into the millions as the sport grows. It'll become the norm and young kids will start consider disc golf their calling (like some do with ⚽ 🏀 and 🏈)

The craziest thing about disc golf? How young the sport still is. It technically got started in 1975 when the modern basket was invented. With social media, blogs and Jomez YouTube... Disc golf has the opportunity of a lifetime to be America's The Worlds next big sport ⛓️ 

The Albatross Take:

Disc Golf is still in the early innings. I think the sport will continue to experience massive growth. Along with that will come growing pains. But winners will emerge and some will fail along the way. Including a sponsorship signing that kills a company.

But the market will correct itself. Disc golf will go from a niche sport that can earn you a good living. To one where the top pros on tour will earn millions. 6 figures will be considered the lower end. And eventually some events will carry prestige like the Masters ⛳

PS: Want access to the [full] article? Respond and I will share a link. Giving you access. 

In case you missed it | Tips to improve your game 🤔

Early Season Check In

PDGA STATS. One of the best twitter accounts to follow. Shared in their newsletter some interesting stats among players on tour. As known, birdie % might be the most important metric. Lines up pretty well with the current world rankings. 

I'm super bullish on Valerie. And her jump in stats prove it. She was recently featured on the Trevor Staub Show.

Catch up on the week: 👇

• Nikko Locastro. Love watching him play but he needs to speed it up ⏰

  • He took an average of 20 minutes to throw. Just on Sunday.

  • On the bright side, he's doing a giveaway on his IG for Clash discs 🍿

• Sad news. Heather Young, one of the most prominent young players in FPO. Will be taking some off. Due to personal reasons. We hope she's back soon and everything goes well.

• Putting Woes for Eveliina have continued. Hopefully she'll be able to bounce back mid season. To live up to the hype. Off the tee she's crushing 💣

• The first major of the year is next week. Throwback to the epic battle between Heimburg vs Hammes

  • Speaking of Adam. Watch him pure this shot on Rota YT channel. 

• Gannon Buhr is back at it with some advice. Check out this putting tip to up your game

  • Ricky also has some advice to unleash your inner #Raptorlegs 🦖

• Speaking of Ricky. He kicked off 'The First Putt Initiative'. You love to see it!

  • This will only help grow the sport more. Because everyones biggest regret is 'I wish I would've played sooner'

Disc Golf is evolving. With that comes the rise of youth and aspiring professional development. Such as College Disc Golf. There will be coverage of this years event via the PDGA youtube. And also on Central Coast. 

• You can learn more about clubs here.

  • The next great talent is just getting started

    • Yup, Scholarships are starting to be offered!

🥏 New Plastic Arrivals 🥏 In the Bag

Chris Dickerson seems to have dialed his news sponsor of plastic quickly. He's 2 for 2 in silver series (He won't play any other silver series this year). Check out his latest, in the bag. Personally, surprised with his choice of putter!

• ROTY Ella Hansen NEO Essence dropped.

  • I bag an essence and they are money. These things like to fly and you can shape some nice shots. Also if you got the arm, these become excellent rollers. Just ask Eagle

• Discraft dropped their tour series discs. Anhyzer DG still has some available

• Drew Gibsons Era dropped. There's still some left at his fav online retailer 

  • Need a review? Got you

What's cooking next week? 🍳

• Preview and Predictions for the 1st major of the year 🏆

• Recap of the Open at Tallahassee - the Silver Series Taking Place this week 🥈

  • Our Predictions? MPO: Gannon Buhr | FPO: Valerie Mandujano

    • So far my picks aren't looking too strong. As Tamm and Fajkus shot the hot round today 🔥

• Enough links, content and drops to be the most educated golfer on the course 🤓

Be sure to share The Albatross Disc Golf Newsletter.  I'll be doing a giveaway every month. This month's giveaway (announced in May) is a Tour Series Buzzz! 

Until next week, 

-Arod @ The Albatross

What did you think of this weeks newsletter?

• 🦅Birdie🔥

• 🥏 Par 🥲

• ⛓️ Bogey 👎

My brother and I getting a lunch round in, during todays job 🥏