Courtesy of DGWT

Disc Golf World Tour Shows Promise

The Disc Golf World Tour showed it had a ton of potential to be the professional level event hardcore disc golf fans have been clamoring for. Kicking off at La Mirada Disc Golf Course, the the DGWT hosted the 2016 La Mirada Open. The real first run of how future DGWT events would go provided fans with on screen stats, commentary, live video, updated live scoring, improved player graphics and bio information and more. The Disc Golf Metrix system allowed us to see stats like putts in the circle, putts outside the circle and so on. Overall the quality of the product was good, most of the best players in the World attended the event and it should definitely draw more eyes to the sport. As was the goal.

Watch the 2016 La Mirada Open
Round II LIVE Coverage  Round III LIVE Coverage

For all the positive’s the event brought to the sport, the DGWT couldn’t escape some of the negativity. The most glaring omission from the event? Woman. Catrina Allen was on the featured card for Round I but wasn’t heard from much the rest of the way. Allen, the only female competing with the males played better than half the field. Allen finished in 45th place shooting (+4) for the tournament. This did not go unnoticed on social media.

As I spectate the final round at the Disc Golf World Tour, I can’t help but feel confused and angry because women were not given the opportunity to compete in their own division. – Sarah Hokom

The Disc Golf World Tour rolled out all the marketing it could to not only promote the event and location, but the players as well. Namely Simon Lizotte and Paul McBeth. Both players are considered “Ambassadors” of the tour so I would expect to see them a bit more, but it was over the top. McBeth and Lizotte were featured in a promo video, their pre-event interviews were up before everyone else, and their names came out of Jamie Thomas and Avery Jenkins mouths the most. Of course, McBeth is the best player in the World. Lizotte bring some showmanship and international flair so maybe this is what we will have to deal with, but did it have to be so obvious?

Jamie and Avery, the on screen personalities if you will, for the DGWT did a good job. Being on a LIVE broadcast can’t be easy. With that I only wish they would call the action better. It seemed as though they were more focused on promoting the tour, the website, the apparel that at times they forgot a tournament was happening. One clear example would be the spit out from a Philo Brathwaite putt on Hole 10 during Round III. Philo gets the nasty

DGWT/The Flight Record
DGWT/The Flight Record

spit out and Jamie Thomas comments “Philo hitting a nice putt there”. What was he watching? Will the production and commentary improve? I am sure. SpinTV is always one of the best when it comes to media for disc golf so you know it will get better. Another notable exclusion from the broadcast was holes one through nine. Viewers were only treated to half of both rounds. Was this decision made to make the production value better? To speed up editing time for post production? Who knows, but most fans want to see a complete round when watching the best players in the world. It can be done and done quite well as Smashboxx TV proved just last week at The Memorial.

To close out the Disc Golf World Tour brought events and Live broadcast to another level. Although it feels very much like a giant advertisement at times for Innova and Discmania, the DGWT did provide a quality LIVE feed with next level stats. Only one questions remains. What are they going to do about the Women?

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Paul McBeth Slow Motion CRUSHER!