Professional disc golf has not ‘turned a corner,’ and it certainly hasn’t hit the mainstream. The sport is more popular than ever, and growing at the same steady pace it has been growing at for more than a decade. But the cash to be won by playing professionally – a bottom line if ever there was one – hasn’t changed much at all during that same span.
I’ve gone on record before with my opinion that disc golf needs to be exponentially bigger as a recreational sport before it’ll be anywhere near a spectator sport, or something that makes economic sense to broadcast on TV. But really, all it takes is one forward-thinking corporate sponsor to jump-start the whole thing. If and when that happens, this is how I see true ‘professional’ disc golf’ taking shape:
- A ‘World Tour,’ (as opposed to the current National Tour) will be sponsored and promoted by a corporate entity that is able to take it to the next level. Each event will have a purse of 100k and a first prize of more than 10K.
- This World Tour will have the money to write its own rules, so to speak, and the PDGA will happily accommodate it to finally break throw to what it sees as the big-time.
- As opposed to all current NT events (with the exception of the USDGC), participation is limited to the top-rated touring pros, and regional qualifiers
- These regional qualifiers will consist of what are now A and B tier PDGA events, so nothing really has to change with the majority of the events going on already. The serious players will just have more to play for now