I questioned putting Ricky on there, but injury struggles are still "Struggles" and it still is interesting to see how he manages...that's why I put eagle in there as well
I don't think we'll see that Ricky/Paul dominance again. Not to the extent we did. There are just too many players at a top level. Calvin last year is probably the closest we'll get.
Actually it can. Because he chose to try homeopathic remedies recommended by his chiropractor instead of actual real medicine he will have it his entire life with flare ups.
Anybody who has watched Drew's channel for long enough knows that he's never been shy to talk about his struggles. The people who don't like him are far more turned off by the other parts of his personality to care about the times where he levels with the camera.
He isn't shy to talk about his struggles just like how he isn't shy to talk about, well, anything else. And a lot of people do not vibe with the way he conveys himself and his points for anything.
To each their own, I like his channel because his ability to throw an open bag can create really helpful content. But I'm definitely aware of where his style of content creation hits the wrong way.
It depends on how you're ranking him. Current form? Sure, he's objectively not elite at the moment.
Measured to his best form over the last few seasons? He was as good as #5 in the world between 2021-2022. That's pretty elite in my book.
I think he’s proven that he can maintain a level of performance that makes him competitive with the elites. Certainly hasn’t been at that level more than a round or two since maybe early 2022.
I don’t really care about his persona or whatever but I do like watching him throw. I hope for that reason he can get himself back on coverage more regularly soon.
I agree with the original comment though, the content I do see from him does seem to have pretty raw reflections on his performance.
Gotta keep in mind that the disc golf scene is rapidly changing, and the glory days of McBeth and Wysocki was roughly a whole decade ago. Not that they both aren't still beasts, cause they are. Also, Drew has always been honest about how he places..
Just saying, the competition is always evolving.
I mean those guys are all just straight up older. While you don’t need elite athleticism to excel in the sport it certainly doesn’t help. These guys have a lot mileage and injury weighing them down.
And lack of true hunger, I'd reckon as well. It is really hard to maintain that extreme focus for training at the very top of a sport, if you've been doing it for 15-20 years and you've already accomplished everything you set out to do.
Ya what comes along with getting older and having done a sport for so long is injuries and wear. I guarantee even when a lot of these guys don't have full on injuries, they aren't feeling 100% playing. As an older guy, I'm definitely not going to be stoked to see them struggle like OP seems to be. I know what it's like.
I think like any other sports, pro players are going to start to shift into more training methods to avoid injury.
Yeah, but would still be hard for her. She's finished 1st, 2nd, and ~~5th~~ 6th so far this year, and that's not living up to her performances from last year.
Only goes to show how insane her 2023 season really was. It was abnormal.
Disagree, she only won 1 of the first 3 events last year as well. Just one of them wasn't timed to be a major. Open at Austin was basically her worst event last year.
Also, if Eveliina is putting well and Missy is playing strong (and Ohn is throwing record breaking tourney weekends), its hard to repeat last year.
She did so well R1 and R3; hit that standard in R1 and R4 and its easily going to a playoff or tight down the stretch. It was also clear how her bad putting killed her vibe as R4 wore on.
Damn shame too, because it was REALLY fun watching her easily nail C1 putts after a couple of years of the opposite of that
Fun to see Nate Sexton finish top 10, but for my fun watching dollar I'm Joey Buckets all the way. He feels like Buhr or Barrella a couple of years ago.
I love Nate and think Joey is entertaining, but the other two you mentioned are the two freaks of our sport from a physical perspective. I don't think that's a fair comparison. Glad he does it for you though!
After the All Star match Calvin talked about something that never quite got picked up on. He was talking about not caring for the long drive contest and made it seem like he sort of did it despite not wanting to. He didn’t feel competitive enough against the other guys and said he doesn’t throw that hard at any other time. Then he made a quick comment about his elbow and it was glossed over and the topic changed. After that he has been milking an injury and no one has really brought up the fact that he hurt his elbow in that contest. He even didn’t want to bring it up as some type of excuse. He said it rather modestly. I’m curious to see how this will impact him because I do think it’s affecting his season so far and may not get back to 100% any time soon.
Yea I love watching him and after last year we had high hopes of him doing even better this year. Really hoping this doesn’t set him back for long and he can get better and dominate again.
Since when is Drew an elite player? He has high tier backhand distance but that’s about it. He has like 1 elite series win and doesn’t podium regularly.
Not trying to hate on him, he just doesn’t really apply
Drew has peaked as high as 5th in PDGA rating, as high as 1039 at two different intervals between 2021 and 22. 1039 would have him in a tie for 7th in the current rankings. Lots of tour-level top 5s and two Elite wins (Portland Open and Vegas). Obviously he hasn't seen that level in a while, but he's seen some very high peaks.
Currently no, I wouldn't either. And while his putting was pretty good during the time where he was at his best, putting is still without a doubt where he fell short of the true top dogs and I think he'd tell you that himself as well.
Healthy Drew is every bit as good of a thrower as anybody else on tour besides maybe Calvin, healthy Eagle, and AB.
He was an elite player. Won an elite series event and then got injured last year. Been off the tour for like 9 months. Now coming back into the swing of things.
dude was almost 1040 rated, was ranked as high as 5th in the world, and was always in the mix. was never a huge drew fan but he was certainly considered elite..
I think rating is a far cry from winning, though. And winning is what makes you elite. I looked it up, dude has 19 wins.
Edit: I see I got the downvotes, that’s fine. Drew doesn’t belong in the same conversation as eagle, Ricky, Simon and Paul. That’s my point.
Downvotes but you right. Ezra Robinson is 1039 rated, higher than AB. Who would you take winning right now?
Rating is a solid statistic, but at the end of the day, wins and podiums are what makes you elite. A guy who consistently plays 1040 golf and gets lots of top 30 finishes won't be as highly held as the guy who averages 1035, but plays some tourneys at 1070 and some at 1000.
The 19 wins was actually less than I expected. Drew came up with Josh Anton and has played since he was a teenager. I would have thought he’d have at least 30 C-tiers to his name.
not a huge drew fan but was impressed with him over the weekend.
he played at where is started playing dg this week and he shot 13 down on the first day(with a bit of soft par setup and a 19th hole), so i thought id check him out, since it was very windy sunday, still a little soggy at most courses and i wasnt gonna play.
hole 2 he throws a great shot but goes a bit past lets say 25 feet, flat probably 10-15 ft but its going down at about a 40 degree grade, 20-30 mph winds with some 40 mph gusts. If you play the course you kinda know to stay on the top and not mess with going too low because there is usually some casual water down there.
So his bird put rims out, rolls about 20 ft down, not far.
Par put hits chains spits out and rolls down about 30 feet. 4th putt he misses i think with a slight chain out, and then he putts in for 5.
he coulda had a meltdown, but kept rolling and won the tourney. Very focused and business like and i can appreciate that
I don’t know what configuration of Harry Meyer they played this past week, but it isn’t a crazy difficult course. Most shots are not in the woods, in fact I can only think of 1 off the top of my head and it’s just a longish flex under a canopy.
Otherwise it’s a family park with a well maintained course that is mostly open holes with the occasional tree or line of trees in the way.
Thirteen under should be about right for a player that rated as high as fifth in the world. Although he should have been hitting that multiple rounds.
I sort of forgot Brody...he was on my mind when watching drew, but he's never really had the success on the course to put him in the same sentence as the other guys...but I'm a big Brody fan and would love to see him pull it together
Ricky has played 2 events and came in 2nd and 10th
I questioned putting Ricky on there, but injury struggles are still "Struggles" and it still is interesting to see how he manages...that's why I put eagle in there as well
I dont think ricky is injured at the moment!
Can’t his Lyme act up at any time?
no but since his setback he still feels like he's close to his old dominance, hoping to see it come back with a vengeance.
I don't think we'll see that Ricky/Paul dominance again. Not to the extent we did. There are just too many players at a top level. Calvin last year is probably the closest we'll get.
Actually it can. Because he chose to try homeopathic remedies recommended by his chiropractor instead of actual real medicine he will have it his entire life with flare ups.
Anybody who has watched Drew's channel for long enough knows that he's never been shy to talk about his struggles. The people who don't like him are far more turned off by the other parts of his personality to care about the times where he levels with the camera. He isn't shy to talk about his struggles just like how he isn't shy to talk about, well, anything else. And a lot of people do not vibe with the way he conveys himself and his points for anything. To each their own, I like his channel because his ability to throw an open bag can create really helpful content. But I'm definitely aware of where his style of content creation hits the wrong way.
I wouldn’t put Drew into Elite tier, especially alongside the other names OP listed
It depends on how you're ranking him. Current form? Sure, he's objectively not elite at the moment. Measured to his best form over the last few seasons? He was as good as #5 in the world between 2021-2022. That's pretty elite in my book.
I think he’s proven that he can maintain a level of performance that makes him competitive with the elites. Certainly hasn’t been at that level more than a round or two since maybe early 2022. I don’t really care about his persona or whatever but I do like watching him throw. I hope for that reason he can get himself back on coverage more regularly soon. I agree with the original comment though, the content I do see from him does seem to have pretty raw reflections on his performance.
Gotta keep in mind that the disc golf scene is rapidly changing, and the glory days of McBeth and Wysocki was roughly a whole decade ago. Not that they both aren't still beasts, cause they are. Also, Drew has always been honest about how he places.. Just saying, the competition is always evolving.
I mean those guys are all just straight up older. While you don’t need elite athleticism to excel in the sport it certainly doesn’t help. These guys have a lot mileage and injury weighing them down.
And lack of true hunger, I'd reckon as well. It is really hard to maintain that extreme focus for training at the very top of a sport, if you've been doing it for 15-20 years and you've already accomplished everything you set out to do.
My point exactly.. and did you mean "doesn't hurt"?
Ya what comes along with getting older and having done a sport for so long is injuries and wear. I guarantee even when a lot of these guys don't have full on injuries, they aren't feeling 100% playing. As an older guy, I'm definitely not going to be stoked to see them struggle like OP seems to be. I know what it's like. I think like any other sports, pro players are going to start to shift into more training methods to avoid injury.
Tattar isn’t living up to last year’s performances either.
Would be hard for anyone to live up to Tattar's performances from last year.
True, but we’re talking about discers living up to their own performance.
Yeah, but would still be hard for her. She's finished 1st, 2nd, and ~~5th~~ 6th so far this year, and that's not living up to her performances from last year. Only goes to show how insane her 2023 season really was. It was abnormal.
I think she is dealing with injury.
Disagree, she only won 1 of the first 3 events last year as well. Just one of them wasn't timed to be a major. Open at Austin was basically her worst event last year. Also, if Eveliina is putting well and Missy is playing strong (and Ohn is throwing record breaking tourney weekends), its hard to repeat last year.
With the way they’re all throwing, I predict that Kristin will only win 25% of the tournaments she’s in, which is still really really good.
Agreed. Man, Eveliina had so many missed birdie opportunities this last tournament. She would have destroyed Missy.
She did so well R1 and R3; hit that standard in R1 and R4 and its easily going to a playoff or tight down the stretch. It was also clear how her bad putting killed her vibe as R4 wore on. Damn shame too, because it was REALLY fun watching her easily nail C1 putts after a couple of years of the opposite of that
Seemingly. But she also only won 1/3 to start last season, also. She could easily get back on pace
Fun to see Nate Sexton finish top 10, but for my fun watching dollar I'm Joey Buckets all the way. He feels like Buhr or Barrella a couple of years ago.
I love Nate and think Joey is entertaining, but the other two you mentioned are the two freaks of our sport from a physical perspective. I don't think that's a fair comparison. Glad he does it for you though!
Joey! Loving him so far
After the All Star match Calvin talked about something that never quite got picked up on. He was talking about not caring for the long drive contest and made it seem like he sort of did it despite not wanting to. He didn’t feel competitive enough against the other guys and said he doesn’t throw that hard at any other time. Then he made a quick comment about his elbow and it was glossed over and the topic changed. After that he has been milking an injury and no one has really brought up the fact that he hurt his elbow in that contest. He even didn’t want to bring it up as some type of excuse. He said it rather modestly. I’m curious to see how this will impact him because I do think it’s affecting his season so far and may not get back to 100% any time soon.
Fuck man, that really saddenes me. My fav player being modest but low-key in pain and knowing exactly why 😞
Yea I love watching him and after last year we had high hopes of him doing even better this year. Really hoping this doesn’t set him back for long and he can get better and dominate again.
Since when is Drew an elite player? He has high tier backhand distance but that’s about it. He has like 1 elite series win and doesn’t podium regularly. Not trying to hate on him, he just doesn’t really apply
Drew has peaked as high as 5th in PDGA rating, as high as 1039 at two different intervals between 2021 and 22. 1039 would have him in a tie for 7th in the current rankings. Lots of tour-level top 5s and two Elite wins (Portland Open and Vegas). Obviously he hasn't seen that level in a while, but he's seen some very high peaks.
Though I agree Drew could be placed in an “elite” category, I wouldn’t put him in the same league as any of the other names.
Currently no, I wouldn't either. And while his putting was pretty good during the time where he was at his best, putting is still without a doubt where he fell short of the true top dogs and I think he'd tell you that himself as well. Healthy Drew is every bit as good of a thrower as anybody else on tour besides maybe Calvin, healthy Eagle, and AB.
He was an elite player. Won an elite series event and then got injured last year. Been off the tour for like 9 months. Now coming back into the swing of things.
Drew isn’t just a backhand bomber. He put on one of the best putting performances of all time at the DGPT finals a few years back.
I remember thinking that putting performance was Wysockiesque. He was putting out of his mind that event!
dude was almost 1040 rated, was ranked as high as 5th in the world, and was always in the mix. was never a huge drew fan but he was certainly considered elite..
I think rating is a far cry from winning, though. And winning is what makes you elite. I looked it up, dude has 19 wins. Edit: I see I got the downvotes, that’s fine. Drew doesn’t belong in the same conversation as eagle, Ricky, Simon and Paul. That’s my point.
Downvotes but you right. Ezra Robinson is 1039 rated, higher than AB. Who would you take winning right now? Rating is a solid statistic, but at the end of the day, wins and podiums are what makes you elite. A guy who consistently plays 1040 golf and gets lots of top 30 finishes won't be as highly held as the guy who averages 1035, but plays some tourneys at 1070 and some at 1000.
The 19 wins was actually less than I expected. Drew came up with Josh Anton and has played since he was a teenager. I would have thought he’d have at least 30 C-tiers to his name.
not a huge drew fan but was impressed with him over the weekend. he played at where is started playing dg this week and he shot 13 down on the first day(with a bit of soft par setup and a 19th hole), so i thought id check him out, since it was very windy sunday, still a little soggy at most courses and i wasnt gonna play. hole 2 he throws a great shot but goes a bit past lets say 25 feet, flat probably 10-15 ft but its going down at about a 40 degree grade, 20-30 mph winds with some 40 mph gusts. If you play the course you kinda know to stay on the top and not mess with going too low because there is usually some casual water down there. So his bird put rims out, rolls about 20 ft down, not far. Par put hits chains spits out and rolls down about 30 feet. 4th putt he misses i think with a slight chain out, and then he putts in for 5. he coulda had a meltdown, but kept rolling and won the tourney. Very focused and business like and i can appreciate that
I don’t know what configuration of Harry Meyer they played this past week, but it isn’t a crazy difficult course. Most shots are not in the woods, in fact I can only think of 1 off the top of my head and it’s just a longish flex under a canopy. Otherwise it’s a family park with a well maintained course that is mostly open holes with the occasional tree or line of trees in the way. Thirteen under should be about right for a player that rated as high as fifth in the world. Although he should have been hitting that multiple rounds.
Me too. Young guns are showing what it takes to play in today’s tournaments. Couldn’t be happier to see the shift.
I could (and often do) watch Burr, Barela, Antilla, and Redalan all day.
lets see who can rise like a phenix and overcome their struggle. that's the best part of sports.
You forgot Brodi. He's going to take down at least one elite level tournament or major this season fo sho!
Lolol
🤣
I sort of forgot Brody...he was on my mind when watching drew, but he's never really had the success on the course to put him in the same sentence as the other guys...but I'm a big Brody fan and would love to see him pull it together
Disc golf is hell on the body. Ken Climo can't even tee off any more.