If you were a touring pro, would you stop or keep going? COVID-19

[Monocacy]

If you were a touring pro, what would you do after the announcement of Waco?

The answer will depend on each person's financial circumstances, non-disc golf income, etc. So I am reluctant to advise because circumstances will differ for each person.

I will say this: A March 16 research article in Science Magazine (link below) examined early COVID-19 cases in China and found the following (emphasis added):

We estimate 86% of all infections were undocumented (95% CI: [82%–90%]) prior to 23 January 2020 travel restrictions. Per person, the transmission rate of undocumented infections was 55% of documented infections ([46%–62%]), yet, due to their greater numbers, undocumented infections were the infection source for 79% of documented cases. These findings explain the rapid geographic spread of SARS-CoV2 and indicate containment of this virus will be particularly challenging.

Substantial undocumented infection facilitates the rapid dissemination of novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV2)

 

[Jugular]

It of course depends hugely on your situation but one option could be to go on a road trip to a remote campground with a group of healthy young DG pros, a few weeks of supplies and build yourself some fun courses, trick shots, practice and make youtube videos about the experience. There will be a lot of roaming eyes on youtube, use the time to build a following, and if you do it in a group you'll benefit from better quality, variety and ingenuity.

 

[Enzy]

YOUTUBE CONTENT. There are enough ideas in this thread to fill a channel. This is the only way we will be able to see the Disc Golf Community.

If you want to interact with the Disc Golf Community post discussions here on DGCR - Great job Holly

 

[Jay Dub]

Make a YT video showing people how to play disc golf while keeping a safe distance. Dos and don'ts of being near other players during these times. I haven't heard of anyone doing that right now and quite a few are asking how.

 

[Moose33]

With so many events cancelling, it would be a hard call to make? Do you go and try to cash at anywhere you can find tournament, while risking your heath and spending the money to get there? Or do you lean on another avenue to try to make money while being safer and spending less?

It's quite the conundrum. My gut reaction would be to buy supplies and go to somewhere that I could get by inexpensively and try to do something to make some money from home.

It would not likely be enough for full support, but hopefully a good supplement and a way to keep your mind occupied.

 

[kevdiv48]

The United States is headed for a national quarantine. Forget disc golf.

Classic BigSky response.

 

[brutalbrutus]

PDGA just pulled all sanctioning.

 

[perklc]

PDGA just pulled all sanctioning.

Through at least the end of March.

 

[Steve West]

As most of you know, our major events have been postponed or cancelled. Some of the smaller events the A's, B's and C's, Leagues are currently still scheduled.

If you were a touring pro, what would you do after the announcement of Waco?


Play all small events?
Go home and get a side hustle?
Attend all leagues?
What are your ideas?

Just curious what your mindset is during this interesting time.

I am currently at home. All tournaments are halted for a minimum of 3-4 weeks.

I might catch up on my other obligations to the PDGA which can be performed from home at a keyboard.

 

[Halcón]

Forget disc golf.

Classic BigSky response.

Ten minutes later:

PDGA just pulled all sanctioning.

You were saying?

 

[Three Putt]

PDGA just pulled all sanctioning.

I'm seeing this in a lot a things. The actual answer is to go nuclear and shut things down, but no one really wants to do that so so they baby-step toward it until they reach the conclusion they should have come to in the first place. Everything is getting shut down, folks. It's just a matter of how long it takes the people in charge of each particular thing to actually face that reality. The PDGA should have realized last week that they had a huge liability in allowing sanctioned events on any scale to continue and pulled the plug then.

 

[Three Putt]

At any rate...the effect is confusion. If the PDGA pulls the plug on all events last week when they shut down the DGPT, then players that were on the road would have known they had no option of staying on the road and trying to pay the bills hitting up B tiers. They would just have to go home, which is what the CDC guidelines say they should do. By waiting until today, there are probably touring players who have wasting time and money traveling toward someplace that isn't going to have an event; that's more places they could be exposed to COVID-19 or expose others if they already have it.

 

[ThrowBot]

If I was a touring pro (ha!) and actually depended on tourney winnings to eat, I'd ask my sponsor for a stipend while I self isolate.

All the big tournaments being canceled frees up money that would otherwise be added cash, player incentive bonuses, etc.

I'd hope that sponsors see the sense in distributing funds that were already earmarked to go to touring pros, in one way or another. This isn't the time to be stingy if your players just wanna stock up on ramen and pay bills.

 

[ballgolfconvert]

Make a YT video showing people how to play disc golf while keeping a safe distance. Dos and don'ts of being near other players during these times. I haven't heard of anyone doing that right now and quite a few are asking how.

It would be a good time to review the way the game is played etiquette wise. We need to get rid of everyone standing behind the furthest away disc. Let players advance to their disc even if it is ahead of other players. Of course common sense dictates when this isn't plausible, but players need to spread out and be in position to play their next shot quickly. Same when it gets to C1. Spread out, get behind your disc, of course paying attention to stay out of direct line of sight of whoever is putting. Like in ball golf where every player gets behind their ball to start looking at their line even when it is not their turn. i would also like to see players putt out after missing from within the circle. Putt out and then get out of the way.

Not only would this make disc golf safer from virus transmissions, it would also lend itself to faster play and better continuity of play. Taking these actions would go a long ways to making the game more popular.

 

[ru4por]

If I was a touring pro (ha!) and actually depended on tourney winnings to eat, I'd ask my sponsor for a stipend while I self isolate.

All the big tournaments being canceled frees up money that would otherwise be added cash, player incentive bonuses, etc.

I'd hope that sponsors see the sense in distributing funds that were already earmarked to go to touring pros, in one way or another. This isn't the time to be stingy if your players just wanna stock up on ramen and pay bills.

Well....to a degree. Discraft sold us player packs, payout inventory for an April A Tier, now likely cancelled. We will now use that inventory for a future event and forgo buying anything from them, for that event. Even disc manufacturers will not be left without financial scarring.

 

[ru4por]

It would be a good time to review the way the game is played etiquette wise. We need to get rid of everyone standing behind the furthest away disc. Let players advance to their disc even if it is ahead of other players. Of course common sense dictates when this isn't plausible, but players need to spread out and be in position to play their next shot quickly. Same when it gets to C1. Spread out, get behind your disc, of course paying attention to stay out of direct line of sight of whoever is putting. Like in ball golf where every player gets behind their ball to start looking at their line even when it is not their turn. i would also like to see players putt out after missing from within the circle. Putt out and then get out of the way.

Not only would this make disc golf safer from virus transmissions, it would also lend itself to faster play and better continuity of play. Taking these actions would go a long ways to making the game more popular.

I play with old guys....this is how we do things most of the time.

 

[ThrowBot]

Make a YT video showing people how to play disc golf while keeping a safe distance. Dos and don'ts of being near other players during these times. I haven't heard of anyone doing that right now and quite a few are asking how.

I promise that my drive is way off the fairway for the sake of social distancing.

That's the only reason.

 

[ThrowBot]

Well....to a degree. Discraft sold us player packs, payout inventory for an April A Tier, now likely cancelled. We will now use that inventory for a future event and forgo buying anything from them, for that event. Even disc manufacturers will not be left without financial scarring.

Oh, for sure. It's a balancing act. I'm not advocating that anybody put themselves out of business. But depending how your balance sheet looks, a stipend to help keep your players healthy could be seen as a savvy investment.

How about this. I just got my tax refund! Call me EconomicStimulusBot. I'll buy something from any/every disc golf company that is helping out its players/employees during this weird time. Even if it's Dynamic Discs

 

[armiller]

As most of you know, our major events have been postponed or cancelled. Some of the smaller events the A's, B's and C's, Leagues are currently still scheduled.

If you were a touring pro, what would you do after the announcement of Waco?


Play all small events?
Go home and get a side hustle?
Attend all leagues?
What are your ideas?

Just curious what your mindset is during this interesting time.

I am currently at home. All tournaments are halted for a minimum of 3-4 weeks.

This whole thing (pandemic?) is really an interesting socioeconomic phenomenon and I think it's safe to say that it's one without real parallel in any of our life times. (Feel free to correct me.) It certainly transcends disc golf, and disc golf followed other "mainstream" sports.

The whole social distancing issue is an interesting one. I think the PDGA is right (following the NBA, NCAA, UEFA, and others) in suspending and not sanctioning events. It would be somewhat irresponsible to disregard the larger effects to society.

At the same time, I find it interesting that we disc golfers (and particularly disc golf pros) are in a very low risk group. In other words, if you (Holly) or other pro disc golfers become infected with COVID-19, you appear to be at extremely low risk of morbidity and mortality due to being young and fairly healthy. However, you may simultaneously at a relatively high risk of being asymptomatic but spreading the virus to family or other unsuspecting folks you contact who may be at a much higher risk. In that sense, even playing local leagues is probably a risk...

Personally, I work in healthcare, am relatively young and healthy, and come into contact with elderly and vulnerable individuals on a daily basis. I have very low concern for myself or even my family, but I've had to cut back significantly on personal travel and planned vacations because becoming infected could potentially kill these folks. At the very least, getting the virus means I should self-quarantine for a prolonged period.

Sorry for the long rant. But this is really a crazy time and has significantly disrupted our lives in many ways. I think we can all agree on that. There is a lot of uncertainty, and it will be a while before things return to normal. How long will that take? Who knows, but I don't think anyone foresaw us being here 2 or 3 weeks ago.

This reminds me... I need to go see if there's toilet paper available. Or hope that my soft leafed bushes start growing this spring before the poison ivy...

 

[mj20300]

Stay home