The Season so Far: Rising Stars and Falling Stars in MPO
Photo: DGPT
The 2024 pro disc golf season is underway and already a narrative is beginning to take shape: Rising Stars. I want to be clear and acknowledge that we are only 3 events in to the season, which is not much, so nothing in this article is meant to be a rigid prescriptive decree about what this season is or will be. Simply observations about exactly what the title says: the season so far.
On the MPO side, two out of our three events have been won by up-and-coming players that had been so close to victory so many times, but had never been able to close the deal in past seasons. I am of course referring to Anthony Barela and Niklas Anttila winning the Chess.com Invitational and The Open at Austin respectively. With Barela and Anttila being regular top 10 and podium finishers for at least the past season, nobody doubted the concrete disc golf ability of either of these players. Their actual skills have not been in question for a long time. The lingering question marks have surrounded their ability to win. To be consistent and mentally tough enough to bring home a victory. Having a skill level as high as theirs, for most in the disc golf world, the question was not if they would win, but when. As a fan, I am thrilled to see that they wasted no time this season in proving that they have what it takes.
There has been talk for years of a changing of the guard. The field is so much younger now than it was several years ago, and it seems like every year at least one new phenom bursts onto the scene. It was Klein and Buhr in 2021, Isaac Robinson and Anttila in 2022, and Redalen in 2023. There is only so much room in the highest echelons of any sport. The question that has floated around the disc golf world for years now is: is this the year that the young blood forces out the old guard? With two out of three events this year being taken down by first time Pro Tour winners, and three out of three being won by players under the age of 25, the answer this year, more than any other year before, is looking like yes. McBeth, Wysocki, Dickerson, Heimburg, and Lizotte have been considered top dogs for a long time, but the performance of these old stalwarts has not been up to the standards of the younger players this year. While Wysocki and Heimburg can’t necessarily be said to have under-performed, both have already missed an event due to injury. And McBeth and Lizotte have absolutely underperformed. There’s no other way to put it. Chris Dickerson has made a decent debut this year, and good for him for doing so, but Dickerson’s 2023 was lack-luster. And where is Eagle McMahon? While his age can’t necessarily put him in the category of “old guard,” I would argue that his history on tour probably would. He hasn’t played at all this year, and according to his schedule, will not do so until Champions Cup at the end of April. I am not going to equate Eagle’s absence with poor play, but my point is, he’s not particularly relevant in the scene at this exact moment.
Now, I fully acknowledge that the implications I’m making above are pretty bold, especially when the season is so young. I am not saying that the older pillars of our game are washed up and will never see success again. I am talking more about a shift in disc golf’s image. For so long, Paul McBeth, Ricky Wysocki, and co. have been the face of disc golf. It is their pictures you see in the proverbial dictionary under “professional disc golfer.” My point is that the early trajectory of this season, with young and wildly talented stars rising to the top and seizing their destiny as elite players, points to this season possibly being the beginning of a generational transition. A couple years from now, maybe discs that say McBeth won’t sell as well as discs that say Barela or Klein or Buhr. Such a transition is bound to produce a wide variety of emotions from disc golf fans. Excitement for the new talent, and sadness for a figure so beloved as Paul McBeth struggling to take cash. But it is inevitable. Time waits for no one, and all stars eventually burn out.
