2019 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships Aug 12-17

[_MTL_]

Like parents sometimes say: "Because we said so!"

Just like the golf ball golf US Open, PGA Championship, or (British) Open, it's what they call it, therefore it's what it is.

It's the knowing at the end that if you win THIS tournament, you will be called "World Champion" for all time.

While all of this is correct, it's not as simple as choosing to call it a world championship. The fact that sponsors recognize this as the world championship both in bonuses and signature discs validates that this is the world championship.

It would be one thing if the PDGA said "no this is the world champion" and no one outside of them recognized it.

 

[takman]

Uhhhhhhhh, Nate grew up in Santa Cruz, California. The greater Portland, Oregon area was not "local" to him. Even now that he resides in Oregon, it's not local to him...Bend is a good three hour drive from Portland.

To be fair, he has won the BSF...once, in 2007.

How long is the offseason from those grueling Santa Cruz winters?

 

[araytx]

Like parents sometimes say: "Because we said so!"

Just like the golf ball golf US Open, PGA Championship, or (British) Open, it's what they call it, therefore it's what it is.

It's the knowing at the end that if you win THIS tournament, you will be called "World Champion" for all time.

Could they improve the quality of the tournament? Sure. Could they improve the qualifications to get into the tournament? Sure. But in the here and now, it's "Worlds", and the winner is the World Champion.

It's exactly like the tennis majors also. Great tennis players are measured by the number of grand slam championships they've won -- not by being the #1 player for the year. It's nice to be both, but having the title of the World Champion is big (even though it's just one event) is huge, as is having the title of the US Champion. By the same token, there will be a day when the US Champion is not an American, but by winning the USDGC you earn that title.

 

[JuanA]

It's exactly like the tennis majors also. Great tennis players are measured by the number of grand slam championships they've won -- not by being the #1 player for the year...

Similar to how Cycling's World Champion is overshadowed by whoever wins the Tour de France.

 

[Steve West]

Hole Performance Chart.

Northwood 9 has remarkable correlation to the total score of other holes, for such a narrow scoring spread and small average score.

Eureka 12 is the standout for providing both scoring spread and correlation for a small average score.

 

[MattS]

Hole Performance Chart.

Northwood 9 has remarkable correlation to the total score of other holes, for such a narrow scoring spread and small average score.

Eureka 12 is the standout for providing both scoring spread and correlation for a small average score.

I love these plots. Thanks for all the work in providing them.

The data tells everything about Eureka Hole 3. It feels like every single card has a player park it by sneaking to the "wrong" gap on the right near the end of the tunnel and another player go OB by coming closer to pureing the gap and taking the kick. Awful hole on a course that seems to generally be very fair.

Any chance that you could somewhat easily rerun the plot with correlation to Rating instead of total score? I'm sure it would be almost identical, but it would be cool to see if there are any strong indicator holes that correlate better with finishing place than generic skill. (I'd actually really love to see that for Idlewild, as I have suspicions that hole 1 there correlates better to rating than placing).

 

[DiscFifty]

Hole Performance Chart.

Northwood 9 has remarkable correlation to the total score of other holes, for such a narrow scoring spread and small average score.

Eureka 12 is the standout for providing both scoring spread and correlation for a small average score.

I would love for you to start a youtube channel to correspond with these charts, where you could have a pointer, discuss the data, etc, etc. Any chance of that?

 

[Steve West]

I love these plots. Thanks for all the work in providing them.

The data tells everything about Eureka Hole 3. It feels like every single card has a player park it by sneaking to the "wrong" gap on the right near the end of the tunnel and another player go OB by coming closer to pureing the gap and taking the kick. Awful hole on a course that seems to generally be very fair.

Any chance that you could somewhat easily rerun the plot with correlation to Rating instead of total score? I'm sure it would be almost identical, but it would be cool to see if there are any strong indicator holes that correlate better with finishing place than generic skill. (I'd actually really love to see that for Idlewild, as I have suspicions that hole 1 there correlates better to rating than placing).

Sure. Here they are side-by-side.

I would love for you to start a youtube channel to correspond with these charts, where you could have a pointer, discuss the data, etc, etc. Any chance of that?

No.

Like vampires in mirrors, actuaries don't show up on video.

 

[Tigga]

How about Worlds as a birdie eliminator? Everyone plays 1st hole. Only birdies advance. Continue until only one player left.

Wouldn't that have ended on Hole 12 where only James Conrad and 12 other had birdies out of the entire field?

 

[brutalbrutus]

64 player single elimination match play...

 

[brutalbrutus]

 

[JC17393]

64 player single elimination match play...

Been there, done that.

 

[brutalbrutus]

I wasn't actually being serious.

 

[BENFTS]

It's exactly like the tennis majors also. Great tennis players are measured by the number of grand slam championships they've won -- not by being the #1 player for the year. It's nice to be both, but having the title of the World Champion is big (even though it's just one event) is huge, as is having the title of the US Champion. By the same token, there will be a day when the US Champion is not an American, but by winning the USDGC you earn that title.

The Tennis point structure makes it very very difficult for someone who hasn't wont at least one or more majors in the given year to be ranked #1.

 

[araytx]

The Tennis point structure makes it very very difficult for someone who hasn't wont at least one or more majors in the given year to be ranked #1.

UH... not really. There have been multiple cases of players reaching the #1 ranking and holding it for many weeks, sometimes years before winning a major and in some cases without EVER having won a tennis major. Twice on the men's side (Lendl, Rios) and seven on the women's side (Clijsters, Mauresmo, Jankovic, Safina, Wozniacki, Ka.Pliskova, and Halep)

 

[BENFTS]

UH... not really. There have been multiple cases of players reaching the #1 ranking and holding it for many weeks, sometimes years before winning a major and in some cases without EVER having won a tennis major. Twice on the men's side (Lendl, Rios) and seven on the women's side (Clijsters, Mauresmo, Jankovic, Safina, Wozniacki, Ka.Pliskova, and Halep)

Multiple cases? Two cases...on the men's side...and kiinda two more. That being said IT IS incredibly difficult and extremely rare to be World #1 and not win a major. Women's tennis is a different animal and doesn't have a place being compared to men's stats. There are no cases in which someone held world #1 for years in a row without winning a major.

Jimmy Connors - Ended year as world #1 with no majors
John McEnroe - Ended year as world #1 with no majors
Marcelo Rios - 6 weeks at #1 - Did not end year as world #1
Lendl - was the #1 seed at a major without being world #1 overall...He then won the French Open in the following year and became the world #1.

 

[Jolt]

This might be an odd question but i will give it a try.

We see 3 players in the top 6 on the FPO side beeing non Americans. . but all Americans on the MPO side

So my odd question is, Do players like Eveliina, Henna and Kristin play alot with the MPO players in Europe?

 

[perklc]

This might be an odd question but i will give it a try.

We see 3 players in the top 6 on the FPO side beeing non Americans. . but all Americans on the MPO side

So my odd question is, Do players like Eveliina, Henna and Kristin play alot with the MPO players in Europe?

On one of the podcasts they mentioned either Eveliina or Henna talking about how there usually aren't women's tees when they play in Europe, everyone just plays from the same tee. So I don't know if they are playing with MPO, but they are playing the same exact course quite often.

 

[JC17393]

On one of the podcasts they mentioned either Eveliina or Henna talking about how there usually aren't women's tees when they play in Europe, everyone just plays from the same tee. So I don't know if they are playing with MPO, but they are playing the same exact course quite often.

That's typically the same case at 95% of tournaments in the States too, so I'm not sure there's necessarily any kind of advantage gained from it. The trend of FPO playing different tees from MPO has mainly come about as more of the big tournaments (Majors/NTs/DGPTs) are being played on true Gold level courses. If the tournament isn't being played on a Gold course, there's not much reason to having the women play a different set of tees from the men. In many cases, the longest tees/pins on a given course are more appropriate for FPO than MPO to begin with.

 

[brutalbrutus]

There are several short vids up on Terry Miller's channel from the distance comp at worlds...

https://www.youtube.com/user/thediscgolfguy/videos