Brodie Smith PDGA #128378

[Jugular]

The bold part is what a lot of people get wrong. He is not new to disc golf.

You're being pedantic there, his dalliances in the past weren't anything serious. I wouldn't have been interested in his views after his handful of encounters 5-10 years ago, I see him as fresh to the sport in terms of concerted persistent interest.

 

[autocrosscrx]

I was kind of curious about the golf thing and went down a rabbit hole.

From what I can tell, he never competed at golf, at least seriously. He became a low handicapper (and I'm sure you can imagine how people disputed his claimed handicap), but mostly did fun videos and leveraged his status to promote some courses and products and whatnot. It looks like he linked up with other personalities to form BroFive and then his partners sort of cut him out of the process and went back to their old platform. Then he moved on to disc golf.

He seems to breed drama.

...but at the end of the day, he makes content and it either interests you or it doesn't. It isn't my favorite content, but it generally interests me enough to watch.

 

[Jay Dub]

There are new eyes on disc golf every day, week, month and year. Brodie is self absorbed trying to make a living off this. That does not make his statements or takes any better or a "wowza" mode except for his big fans who adore him for some reason.

Nothing he says is ground breaking. A cut after 2 rounds?? WOWZA!!! I wonder where he got that idea from?

 

[DiscFifty]

OK, I tried. I find it just uncomfortable to watch.

Just for clarity...I posted the link to a podcast (audio only) done by Jamie Thomas (The UpShot). Where it was a more serious discussion from all 3 of them. His youtube stuff is clearly acted out to appeal to that demographic.

 

[perklc]

My takeaway from that interview:

Brodie during that interview (paraphrasing): I'd like to think that most everyone on tour isn't a bunch of sheep.

Also Brodie during that interview (me summarizing his hot takes): We need to do what all of the other sports do.

 

[Jugular]

There are new eyes on disc golf every day, week, month and year. Brodie is self absorbed trying to make a living off this. That does not make his statements or takes any better or a "wowza" mode except for his big fans who adore him for some reason.

Nothing he says is ground breaking. A cut after 2 rounds?? WOWZA!!! I wonder where he got that idea from?

Sure but not new eyes from someone coming from both Brodie's background, level of skill and dedication so far. No doubt many of his ideas are cribbed from another sport's plans but if he truly believes in their value I would expect him to be able to clearly explain why that's the case. Apparently he was a maths teacher in the past but he failed to give any good reasons for why changing the rating structure to represent players playing at their 'best' rather than their 'average' play was in any way an improvement. I feel like there might be some value in what he's saying or in the process of shooting down what he's saying by having a clear dialogue with someone on the other side of the fence. You may be right that it all amounts to hot air and controversy to keep his name on people's lips (fingers?) and he hasn't thought any of it through. If for no other reason than he has a (growing?) following and fragmentation of governing bodies etc. seems unlikely to be in DGs interests.

 

[ru4por]

Just for clarity...I posted the link to a podcast (audio only) done by Jamie Thomas (The UpShot). Where it was a more serious discussion from all 3 of them. His youtube stuff is clearly acted out to appeal to that demographic.

OK, I still tried. I guess, in his defense, Brodie is up front on saying his opinion is only about the pro tour. So, from my perspective, I don't really care. The pro tour does not really represent anything for my disc golf world. Mildly interesting to watch from time to time, but not much of a connection to the tens of thousands of players, that really make up and support the game. I think he does fail to see that "fans" of the game ARE all disc golfers. I don't see how changing infrastructure in the pro tour would benefit the game, but I am not convinced it would necessarily damage it either.

 

[txmxer]

Exactly. And there is nothing wrong with that. I do caution against placing much importance to his take on "changing the game". He is interested in changes that benefit Brodie and potentially a couple hundred players globally.

While I concede making touring, for a living, a viable opportunity and see the potential for YouTube getting some eyes on the game, it is only a VERY tiny part of any "grow the sport" discussion.

Disc golf is a grassroot, amateur sport. This is where, nearly all efforts and money should be aimed. Changes to the game should be directed at ensuring this group of players are the benefactors.

This. If pros can make a living as a consequence of amateur interest more power to them.

If the pro side generates benefit to the grassroots then we all win.

 

[kyflash]

https://www.pdga.com/player/16672
Keep an eye on this guy.
If he gets to be what the was...….

 

[wims]

I don't like the idea of having a cut in disc golf. The pro side of the sport is not robust enough, people are literally living from hand to mouth while touring around.

 

[ChrisWoj]

There are new eyes on disc golf every day, week, month and year. Brodie is self absorbed trying to make a living off this. That does not make his statements or takes any better or a "wowza" mode except for his big fans who adore him for some reason.

Nothing he says is ground breaking. A cut after 2 rounds?? WOWZA!!! I wonder where he got that idea from?

Yeah, I responded on Twitter to one of his rants with something along the lines of "This is nothing we haven't been hearing in disc golf circles for over a decade."

I think it was something to do with the payouts. Can't remember exactly. But his response was "Well that makes it even more sad." Which completely ignores the fact that the ideas weren't feasible until players were making better money from their sponsorship deals, able to survive aside from pure payouts.

He often thinks his ideas are groundbreaking, when in reality we've been discussing them forever - but the reality is that the same thing that attracted him to disc golf (the money beginning to flow in) is the same thing that prevented the ideas being feasible before.

 

[ChrisWoj]

https://www.pdga.com/player/16672
Keep an eye on this guy.
If he gets to be what the was...….

There are probably a thousand guys out there who would be 1010+ players if someone gave them the opportunity to be what they could be.

I'm most impressed by the guys who have their time for disc golf taken away from them and they still stick/become 1010+ guys.

 

[Jay Dub]

There are probably a thousand guys out there who would be 1010+ players if someone gave them the opportunity to be what they could be.

I'm most impressed by the guys who have their time for disc golf taken away from them and they still stick/become 1010+ guys.

Exactly. If all of us had the resources to be able to play golf all the time we'd be a hell of a lot better.

 

[ru4por]

There are probably a thousand guys out there who would be 1010+ players if someone gave them the opportunity to be what they could be.

I'm most impressed by the guys who have their time for disc golf taken away from them and they still stick/become 1010+ guys.

I think this point is overlooked all the time. Every area has a handful of 970 to 1000 rated pros playing in local tournaments. Most of them would quickly jump over 1000 if they disc golfed for a living.

 

[ChrisWoj]

I think this point is overlooked all the time. Every area has a handful of 970 to 1000 rated pros playing in local tournaments. Most of them would quickly jump over 1000 if they disc golfed for a living.

My entire 15 years in disc golf has been watching guys who would CLEARLY be 1000+ rated players pop up annually in my area and then within a few years just not make it because kids, careers, etc.

I almost put "thousands" plural... and i kinda regret changing it to singular.

 

[Dcinmd]

https://www.pdga.com/player/16672
Keep an eye on this guy.
If he gets to be what the was...….

Really not impressed by his 16th placed finish at Coyote Hills.

 

[Cgkdisc]

I would suggest that Brodie and others interested in commenting on how to improve the Pro Tour and payouts, with the number one goal of getting more spectators, read the 5-part series on PDGA called "Let's get more Spectators" along with the comments posted at the end of each article. See how far we've gotten in implementing any of these concepts in the past 5 years since they were posted in 2015.

 

[hanger129]

I don't like the idea of having a cut in disc golf. The pro side of the sport is not robust enough, people are literally living from hand to mouth while touring around.

I don't see how a cut would impact the financial stability of a touring pro. If they don't make the theoretical cut they aren't getting cash anyway.

 

[Jugular]

I don't see how a cut would impact the financial stability of a touring pro. If they don't make the theoretical cut they aren't getting cash anyway.

What's the upside of a cut?

 

[hanger129]

What's the upside of a cut?

Good question. The first one that comes to mind is fewer players on a given card going into the final rounds which I would expect to speed up the pace of play (or at least reduce the number of times there is significant back up during a round). On the flip side, what is the benefit of not having a cut?