Over the last 5 years disc golf has seen a huge boom. There are more players than ever, courses are popping up in every community & the viewing audience for professional disc golf is rapidly growing.
Disc Golf Going Mainstream
Have you ever driven by a park and seen a group of friends with backpacks of disc, laughing and having fun? Chances are in your very own local park you've seen the metal chain baskets and this very scene. This is Disc Golf, a wonderful sport for anyone who like to spend some of their free time enjoying nature and taking in their needed dose of fresh air. Maybe you know a little about disc golf, have played a few times and just haven't been paying attention but just in the past five years this classic past time of hippies has matured into a highly competitive and challenging sport.
What is the future of Professional Disc Golf?
Disc golf has seen a huge uptick in the amount of fans that are subscribing to disc golf media outlets like GK PRO & SpinTV on youtube. There is quite a bit of organic growth happening at the grass roots level of this sport. There are no media giants or online distributors that have pushed this forward, this was 100% fan driven.
Record Number Of Players Going Pro
Ever heard of Paul McBeth? He just signed an industry first 4 year 4 million dollar contract with Discraft. Those are huge numbers and aren't exactly reflective of the rest of the touring pros but as you can see there that professional disc golf is a huge trend that now allows elite disc golfers like McBeth to start being paid on par with the other elite athletes of different sports. Players like Eagle McMahon & Ricky Wysocki won't be far behind in the coming years with the amount of growth happening in the sport. The length of contracts are seeing a big change up as well. Where most elite players were riding out single year contracts top names are getting 4 year & 5 year contracts. It's obvious that Brands like Discraft & Innova are looking to grow with these huge names.
Final Thoughts
Disc golf is growing rapidly but it's still waiting for a real game changer to appear and take the game mainstream enough to pull the bigger corporate sponsors that the PGA, NFL & NBA enjoy.
The integration of disc golf is becoming more everyday, ESPN has aired many ACEs over the last few years and celebrity players like Bubba Watson & Ben Askren. At this point its only a matter of time before this growth. We in disc golf are all just waiting.