Disc Golf Daily

A DGPT History: Pete Johnson, The first DGPT investor - S0E9

summary In this conversation, Seth interviews Pete Johnson, a PDGA member, about his early involvement in the Disc Golf Pro Tour (DGPT). Pete shares how he got into disc golf and his experience playing in tournaments. He also discusses how he met Steve Dodge, the founder of the tour, and his decision to support the Pro Tour. Pete highlights the growth of the tour's payouts and the impact it has had on professional disc golf. The conversation provides insights into the early years of the DGPT and the challenges and successes it has faced. keywords disc golf, PDGA, Pro Tour, early involvement, tournaments, Steve Dodge, support, growth, payouts takeaways Pete Johnson got into disc golf after being challenged to throw a disc golf disc farther than an Ultimate Frisbee disc. He quickly became hooked on disc golf and started playing in tournaments, eventually winning in the novice division. Pete met Steve Dodge, the founder of the Disc Golf Pro Tour, through his involvement in the Massachusetts disc golf community. Pete supported the Pro Tour from the beginning and played a role in spreading the word and convincing other players to participate. He is impressed with the growth of the tour's payouts and the opportunities it has created for professional disc golfers.

Duration:: 25m
Broadcast on:: 09 Aug 2024
Audio Format:: mp3

Pete Johnson got into disc golf after being challenged to throw a disc golf disc farther than an Ultimate Frisbee disc.
He quickly became hooked on disc golf and started playing in tournaments, eventually winning in the novice division.
Pete met Steve Dodge, the founder of the Disc Golf Pro Tour, through his involvement in the Massachusetts disc golf community.
Pete supported the Pro Tour from the beginning and played a role in spreading the word and convincing other players to participate.
He is impressed with the growth of the tour's payouts and the opportunities it has created for professional disc golfers.

(upbeat music) - Welcome back everyone to Disc Golf Daily on the Weekends, a DGPT history. This weekend, we're joined by Pete Johnson, PDGA 9,009. I think it's always really interesting to get a four digit PDGA member on the podcast. So thank you, Pete, for being here. Looking forward to talking to you a little bit about your involvement early on in the tour. - Sounds great, good to be here. - Awesome. - Yeah, so first off, what I'd like to start by asking everyone is just sort of, how did you get into Disc Golf? - I was playing Ultimate Frisbee at the University of Arizona, and somebody bet me that I couldn't throw as far as they could with their Disc Golf Discs. And I showed up the next Saturday morning, even though I was hung over to see what was up, brought some lids and stuff. And the guy that bet me, I could throw it farther than him with my disc or his disc, but there was guys there that could definitely throw the Disc Golf Disc farther than me. And the very first time I threw it, I threw it out there about 2.50 and it hooked left. And I just leaned back and I ripped it across my chest, like 'cause I used to go throw on the beach all the time, and I just put it out there on a giant anhyzer and it went way out and turned over, and they're like, oh, they're like, you could play pro. And I was like, what, what kind of sport is this? I was like, this is some sort of joke. I was like, pro my first day. And then I met Jeff Homburg, who's the statistics and records gentleman for the PDGA, good friend of mine. And he basically told me I need to learn how to putt and do all these different things, but it was him and Dan Ginley and everybody in Arizona that got me into Disc Golf. I never played anymore Ultimate. And I had been playing Ultimate on a team where they didn't even, I didn't even have to have cleats and I had been barefoot for about two years when I, when I met these guys and they're like, you're gonna need shoes to play this. And so I had to go get shoes specifically to start playing Disc Golf. And I played in my first tournament in about three months in and I took it down in the, well, it was then Am too. So now this, I guess. - But. - Yeah, so what year, like, what year was that? - I'm on 1994, I believe. - Okay. - '94, yeah. I think it was September '94. I got my first Discs. Someone gave me a set for my birthday. So I probably just found it out, you know, like a couple of weeks before that, over that summer. - Man, so '94 that puts us, am I counting right, 30 years? - Yeah, yeah, this year was actually 30 years. I managed to get into a couple tournaments in Australia this year, or in New Zealand and in Thailand. And then I played in the Vegas Challenge this year to make sure I got a couple tournaments in. - That's awesome. - So you had been playing, I guess, Disc all for quite a while then, whenever you met Steve Dodge, the founder of the tour. So I guess, how did you and Steve end up meeting? - Well, I was friends before I moved to New England from Tucson, I moved in like 2001. I had already met Jason Southwick, his cousin. So I had been taken to Jason's to play as a visiting pro basically and played some doubles there and met Jason and Matt Storica and a few other people. And then I moved to Massachusetts in like 2001 and from Tucson, Arizona, where I'd been. And when I moved there, I started playing and I played in all the incarnations of the MSDGC and the Vibroma, et cetera, et cetera. In fact, I think I was one of the last ones to finally miss it. It was down between me and Yeti and maybe Dez and BoB. And we were down to the last ones that had played in every iteration of it. But so when Steve came along to do the MSDGC, it's really when I met Steve, I guess, that would be, when he moved up from Virginia. - Awesome, yeah, and so the MSDGC, I think, is actually a good thing to maybe talk about for a little bit because for many people, it was, at the time, the way I understand it, a premier tournament, like a tournament to be at, sort of thing. And so what was that like, I guess, moving from Tucson and then being at a place where there's a tournament that is starting to gather pros, not just from regionally, but from across the country? - Well, I mean, we did have the memorial. So, and I had been playing in a lot of the Vegas tournaments for years. So we had a few out there, but yeah, the first couple of years, we didn't really know what we were doing. I mean, yeah, it was big, and we had a couple of different courses. But most of the courses, there was only a couple of par fours over at Jason Southwicks, and there were still not that many par fours even on the over at Maple Hill yet. So it was a lot smaller courses, for sure. It's probably what is the shortest courses now out there. - Yeah, and so just to let everyone listening, sort of give them a frame of reference, if you don't know Jason Southwape, Jason runs a course in Massachusetts called Pyramids, and has also is a big part of Marshall Street disc golf, if you've heard of that. And so just right there across from Maple Hill, nowadays people know Maple Hill a whole lot more because of the Pro Tour and stuff. But there's a whole lot more disc golf going on in Massachusetts than just Maple Hill. - Yeah, Jason had been there for 20 years already, running, having a course opening to Batpoint. - Yeah, and so Steve and Jason are running the MSDGC. It evolves into the Vibram Open, it's on the national tour. And then Steve starts to come up with this idea of the Pro Tour. When was sort of, I guess, the first time that you heard Steve talk about the Pro Tour, and what was it like, or what were your thoughts with his ideas there? - Well, he said he wanted to do something different, and he wanted to step it all up. And there had been rumors already that the tournament had been told that they needed to watch out how much they were paying out because they were starting to become so large, that the powers to be didn't want them paying out that much at that moment, I guess. And Steve didn't like that, I don't think very much. And he didn't like the whole idea of the governing body holding us back at that moment. And so he came to me and asked me if I would support him. And I'm someone who already has the finances. I've been being told, and we thought long, many years ago in the 90s, that we should start an amateur disc golf association, which would, we thought would force the PDGA to be like, wait, we wanna be the amateur disc golf association, because all the money was 70% of the people and every, all the money was in the amps. So I had been trying to figure out a way to have at least two organizations to run the thing and stuff like that before. And Steve came along and said he wanted to run this tour, and he was gonna bring it to the PDGA. And I told him then, I said, you know, it doesn't matter if you bring it to the PDGA and they say no, because I'm in the ear of all the disc golfers, I'm on tour every year, I've been on tour every year since '08 at that point or '07. And so, you know, I knew all the golfers, and I told them that they would come if we just paid them. We didn't have to, it didn't have to be sanctioned or anything. They weren't gonna worry about that too much. If it was a big event, they'd be there. And I was in their ear. So it was really simple to act like we could pull it off either way. Yeah, and so, you know, Steve's pitching this idea ultimately, you know, he goes to the PDGA. The PDGA isn't quite on board with the idea of supporting it in the full sense. And so at that point, he sort of, I guess for lack of a better way to put it, turns private. He starts to look for other ways to support the tour beyond just himself. And so it's my understanding that you are one of those sort of early supporters, early investors. Besides your, like, already being in with the players and being on tour, what was it, I guess, with Steve's particular idea that made you say, "Hey, I want to support this," as opposed to maybe, I mean, at the time, whether other people knew it or not, you know, we had the World Tour coming up. Yeah, you see asking me to support the World Tour as well. And I looked into that. But there was a lot of complications in giving money to a business that's not based in the US. So that ultimately left me with the one choice of someone to support to further disc golf. I wanted to do, you know, I'm already known as somebody who sponsors like every tournament I've ever been in pretty much. So I just wanted to do something more than just at that level. Because I've never been one to run any tournaments. That's not what I did. I played. So, it was, you know, UC's idea was good, but I think that what Steve was going to do was better. Awesome. And so when, like, I guess, how early on would you say that you came on board? I feel like in some ways you're probably kind of there from the beginning since you're in Massachusetts already and talking to Steve, maybe more regularly than others. But was it, you know, a pretty quick, yes, I want to do this, or did you, you know, have questions? I mean, I had questions when it came to the financial part of it, but I knew that I was there to support him no matter what, in some form or another. It was just a matter of, you know, working out the details, basically. Awesome. And so, you know, I just, to give the audience, I guess, some insight into things. When you say, like, you were a touring professional, like, one of the things that I remember is even, you know, even though the Pro Tour was an MPO/FPO event, I still remember, you know, for the first, I mean, all the way through 2019, we had you coming out to tournaments and competing in the open divisions. Because to your point about being a person who played tournaments, you were there to play. You weren't all that interested in helping Ryan. And so that was always a highlight for me being out at the early tour events of seeing, you know, you out there scraping it with the big dogs. Well, I appreciate it. And every now and then, I'd get off a good round. But, yeah, it was a lot of fun. And I wanted to compete with them until, you know, until it became, you know, separated like it is now. And the way it is now. And I always said, I said, I said, guys, someday, you know, a thousand rated Pro isn't going to be on tour, you know? And I never made it to a thousand ever. The highest I was ever rated was like 976, I think, maybe 978. But, you know, the ratings have changed as well, but, you know, over time. So, yeah, yeah, that's the truth. That's, you know, that's the excuse that I tell most people when my rating goes down, is that the ratings have changed over time. Exactly. So, you know, the, I guess, when the, you know, the goal of the podcast really is to sort of tell the history, sort of give people an insight into the people that were behind sort of the starting of the tour. And, I mean, outside of, like, some monetary investment, what other things, and I apologize because I wasn't, I didn't start with the tour until 2017. So, I don't know even fully, like, in those early years, what other things besides just the monetary and sort of verbal support, did you, did you help play a role in? You know, it was, it was most, it was mostly just spreading the news to the other pros that this was happening. You know, there was a lot of mixed sentiment do it. A lot of, a lot more people than I thought were like, well, you know, if the PDGA doesn't want to do it, we may not do it. And I have a feeling a lot of that was pressure from the disc golf manufacturers to, to, you know, have them, you know, sign up to tournaments that are PDGA sanctions. So, but it never became a problem because they jumped on board. They realized it was coming either way. It's still a while to me to think back how much tournaments have changed, especially on the pro tour, from when it started in 2016 to where it is today, to the, you know, like people, people may hear you say, you know, I was out there talking to pros and like convincing them. But like the reality is, is that tournaments, A tiers national tours, even worlds back in the early 2010s, it was still very much community driven. And there wasn't this like separation of, of like an elite level touring player. It was all just one happy disc golf family. All right. For lack of a way to put it. Yeah. There were so only a couple of people that didn't travel on the main tour, you know, you know, some of the guys that were 10, 20 rated when everybody else was 10, 35 rated, some of those guys went on, you know, they just kind of mapped out their own A tier tour. But most of them were, were out there. And, and those guys are still on the pro tour today. You know, still grinding captain of captain of this craft there was, was one of them, you know. So he was out there grinding eight years and trying to get to the big events as well. Yeah. And so, and so like when, when, you know, when Pete's talking about how he was sort of out there, spreading the word and trying to convince people, it wasn't always this like everyone's going to the same events, you know, to your point, Paul would be out there finding different eight years that he could play out. And, and so it, I think that even, you know, even in, even in saying like, hey, I was out there talking to people, like that's a pretty big step just to be, you know, the word of mouth. I mean, the, the, the, before the internet, and this is, I mean, obviously the pro tour is, is in the internet time, but before the internet, the, the way that people found tournaments was through word of mouth. And it's really been sort of, I guess, one of the key stalwarts of growing the sport, even for us is, is just getting out there and telling friends, you know, whether it's about professionals like the pro tour or even just saying, hey, come play disc golf, you know, or, hey, you can throw this, I bet you you can't throw this, this disc golf disc farther than you can throw it with. Yeah, no, I agree. And, and, and there's the thing about telling everybody is, you know, there was, there was worlds where you'd see everybody, but other than that, there was some really good pros that just didn't go. The, the NTs had kind of started to disintegrate in the early 2010s. Not as many people were going to them. They were, they, you know, people were talking about the, the courses were too small. They weren't able to be played in the same way as they were, you know, records were being set. And, and so, you know, there was people like Matty that was, you know, down in Alabama. And he just, he just stayed down there and won all the eight years within a two or three hundred mile radius, came to worlds, got second place, a lot, you know, and, and, and, you know, he's still out there grinding. So, so a lot of those guys were local pros still that needed to be convinced that there was enough money out on tour to support them. Yeah. And, I mean, and Matt's a great example of someone who even, you know, made that decision late, him and, and Garrett and, and a few others, you know, were really high level pros that were competing regionally and then sort of weren't there consistently for the first start of the tour, but now are just right out there placing in the top even still. And that's a, you know, Matt, for me, I, I'm from Arkansas originally, so going to the Southern Nationals Championships in 2014, first time that I ever saw like a pro final nine and Matt was obviously one of the first guys that I saw because it was Southern Nationals, you know. So, so, so yeah, but it's, it's, it's really great to see, you know, where, you know, where things have come from, you know, in, in this season of the podcast, we're really focusing sort of on that pre launch of like what, what it was like in 2015 to go into 2016, but I really, while I have you here, I'd love to hear just sort of like your perspective on how, how things have gone, you know, from, from when you first, you know, agreed to support Steve with the tour to where it is now. Like, is it, you know, is it what you thought it would be? Is it better than what you thought it would be? Like, like, what's, what's that sort of mindset? Um, well, you know, I, I think that, you know, it's had its growing pains. It, you know, there, for the first couple of years, I felt like I was going around and telling and I'd have to be like, guys, I'm part of it. And, you know, because they, that people were like, this thing sucks. We don't like this anymore. You know, we don't want to have to do this. And, and, and I was like, I was like, you guys too realize I'm an investor. And so, you know, I can take what you say back to other people and let them know. But other than that, um, you know, I, since I've left mass and I haven't had a lot to do with much, you know, stopping playing as much. COVID and, and I haven't really continued to the same extent. I got a course in my yard. I can play there when I want to. And, uh, but I think that the level that, that the payout level is absolutely astounding. I remember in 2012, somebody pointed out that the world's payout had been the same now for about 10 years. So since about 2000, 2002, the world's payouts were very, very similar. And, and that was the main goal was to make it so that people could earn a living. Therefore, other people could earn a living around the sport to think that there's caddies and stuff now and, and, and all this stuff. I mean, I didn't even keep track of my aces because I didn't, I thought that would be like keeping track of your aces and miniature golf. That's the way I looked at it when we started. I really, I was, I was looking for a sport to play and disc golf kind of fell into my lap. So what happened for me? So. Yeah, that's, that's some great insight. I, you know, I, when you said caddies, I think, you know, I don't think that Brad ever thought caddying for you Lee would be like as much work as what he did whenever he was playing professionally. Right. Exactly. And it's a, the, the growing the payouts, you know, the, the pro tour has kept reinvesting and growing the payout so much so to a point that on the, even to the, to the majors, right, with worlds and sort of their alignment with the tour, their, the PDGA has looked at, at sort of capping it at percentage increases each year because they don't want to just blow all of the other tournaments out of the water. They also don't want to set unrealistic expectations of like, hey, we've got to grow the purse, you know, by 10% or 40% every year or whatever it is because, you know, other sports, people, people like to compare us to other sports and say, hey, you know, their, their payouts are so much bigger, but I think it is sort of important to note that in the past, you know, five to six years, we actually have seen very strong percentage growth in the payouts to a point to where it's now sustainable for people to tour. And that's, you know, I tell, I tell the person who introduced me to disc golf all the time, like, I don't think when he introduced me to the sport that he ever thought I'd work full time, you know, and he was, you know, he was, he is actually pretty high up in the PDGA at one point. And, you know, he never worked full time on the pro, or full time in disc golf, you know, he's a, you know, you know, an everyday blue collar worker. And so it's, it's just been phenomenal to see, you know, I, I know Pete, you and I've seen each other ad tournaments, but like, I've started with Steve in 2017 as a volunteer, you know, and so that's sort of the grassroots that it's all come from. Yeah, you were just out on tour helping, right? Yeah, Steve said, hey, I need someone to help a social media. And I volunteered. And then I showed up to Ledgestone that year because one of my friends was playing. And, and he, Steve looked at me and he goes, you should probably be at all of these. And, and I said, well, if you can pay for me to get there, then, then I can come. And, and it sort of grew from there. And it's, it's been a wild ride, but I, I think, you know, my goal with this podcast, as I've said from the beginning is really to help showcase all of the different people involved. I think that there's a lot of people. It's sort of twofold. There's a lot of people who think that the pro tour is just this massive conglomerate and like, why aren't they doing more because they should have more people, but then there's also the realization that especially in from 20, you know, from 16 to 2018, the pro tour was only four to five people with three to four investors behind it. You know, there wasn't like a lot of, there wasn't a lot going on into it. And I, I love your, your anecdote about people complaining and you having to be like, well, guys, I'm, I'm part of this. I, I can do something. You know, one of the things that Steve and I found super valuable was when I was out there doing social media, I was able to hear the players talk about things as they played. You know, and that was, you know, on the course feedback that you can't get when you're just one person and also people, maybe for Steve being the guy running it, they maybe don't want to take it to him. But it was, it definitely has grown and it's been great to have, you know, people like you who sort of stepped in at the beginning to help give it the push that it needed. Yeah. Well, I appreciate you talking with me, Seth. It's been, it's really going to be interesting to see this all put together. Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for, thanks for being here. I, I don't really have much else to talk about. If you have anything else you want to add before we wrap, feel free. Otherwise, we'll call it a night. That sounds good. Thank you so much. Yes, you too. Bye bye. Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share. It really does help us grow. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]