summary
In this episode, Steve Dodge discusses the cell phone ban at Pro Worlds and the announcement of the DGPT 2025 season. He talks about the challenges of providing wifi on disc golf courses and the reasons behind the cell phone ban. He then goes on to discuss the 2025 Pro Tour schedule, highlighting the notable events and omissions. He also mentions the 10th anniversary season and the different swings of the tour. Finally, he mentions the season caps and the collector's merchandise for the 10th season.
keywords
disc golf, cell phone ban, Pro Worlds, DGPT 2025 season, Pro Tour schedule, swings, season caps, collector's merchandise
takeaways
The cell phone ban at Pro Worlds is aimed at improving the viewing experience for those watching on YouTube or the Disc Golf Network. The 2025 Pro Tour schedule features several notable events and omissions, with the expansion into Europe being a significant development. The Pro Tour is celebrating its 10th anniversary season with five semi-official swings and the release of collector's merchandise. The season caps for DGPT events offer limited tickets and special perks for attendees. The 10th season collector's merchandise is expected to be a valuable and sought-after item in the future.
We are the podcast that covers disc golf news and growth in about ten minutes. And on the weekends, we cover the future of our sport with interviews with movers and shakers as well as the history of our sport as we recap the formation of the Disc Golf Pro Tour with the people that made it happen.
Music: Strange Bop by contreloup
(upbeat music) Hello, race fans, and welcome to Disc Golf Daily. We are the podcast that gets caught up with Disc Golf News and Grove in about 10 minutes, saving you time and effort. Today is Friday, so normally we go over our opinions on certain different topics. However, today is a special day 'cause a lot happened yesterday. Today we were supposed to talk about the cell phone ban at Pro Worlds, which is happening next weekend. If you are going to Pro Worlds, leave your cell phone in your car. We will still talk about that, but we've got bigger fish to fry with the announcement of the DGPT 2025 season yesterday. First, I am glad they are getting this out earlier in the year, waiting until November or January was brutal on planning. But before we get into that, let's do the quick hits on the cell phone ban. Short version, it's where our sport is, sorry. We don't have hundreds of thousands of dollars to invest in equipment to wifi the whole course and then do it again for the next course with Sketchy Self Service. I'm looking at you, Maple Hill, De La Vega, Milo, IDGC, and now Lynchburg, Virginia, some of our best courses. There's a lot of infrastructure to do that. And as far as I know, the Pro Tour isn't in the black yet, so it just isn't going to happen. They did invest a couple hundred thousand dollars in some cell boosting relay technology, and it definitely makes things better, but it still relies on cell towers. Some sporting events, the masters for one, ban cell phones and cameras. This is straight from their website. Cell phones, beepers, and other electronic devices are strictly prohibited on the grounds at all times. Cameras are strictly prohibited on tournament days, but they are allowed on practice round days, Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday. Devices such as fitness trackers and electronic watches are permitted, but the use of such devices for phone calls, emails, text messaging, text messaging, and photo, video, and data recording, or transmission is prohibited. Anyone violating this policy will be subject to removal from the grounds and the permanent loss of credentials, meaning don't come back. So in their case, it is likely because cell phones easily cause distractions and they don't want non-credential photos and videos getting out. This all makes sense. Pro Worlds is doing it so that those of us that can't watch in person will be able to watch on YouTube or the Disc Golf Network. That's a lot nicer reason than the masters, but the results the same. Leave your phone in the car. And in the long run, this might become a common practice at all pro-tour events. Not because of cell signal, but because we don't know how polite and respectful, we don't know how to be polite and respectful when we have our phones with us. Perhaps if we have to leave our phones in the car, going to a pro-tour event will be a respite from the outside world, a place where you can just be present and enjoy the flight of the disc. I think I might actually like it better if they made this a blanket policy. No phones at pro-tour events come watch and enjoy being present. Not a bad way to do it. Now, let's get to brass tacks. The 2025 pro-tour schedule. There is lots to discuss. The schedule itself, the omissions, the swings, these are new things, whether or not new, but it seems more official now. The season pass and the 10th season celebration. Let's get into it. Starting on the first weekend in March, we have the Florida Open, formerly the chest.com Open. Hopefully it'll be that again. We have Waco and we have the Open at Austin. In April, we have the Music City Open and the KC Wide Open. In May, the Champions Cup at the OTB Open kicks us off, followed by the Cascade Challenge and the Northwest Disc Golf Championship. Also in May, DGPT Europe kicks off with the Kona Peace Day Open. In June, we have the Preserve, US Women's, the Des Moines Challenge and DGPT Europe will see the alla open. July is all Europe all the time. Listen to this July. Starting with the PCS Open, the Crocal Open, the European Disc Golf Festival and Pro Worlds in Finland. That is an amazing July. The Turku Open ends the DGPT Europe season in early August. The rest of August is filled with legstone, the LWS Open at Idlewild. And then September, the season begins its wrap-up with just like this year, DiGlo, GMC and MVP. And the final events are the USDGC and the Tour Championship in October. Owen, the Tour Championship will be moved from Charlotte to Lynchburg, Virginia for 2025. Yes, the same location as Pro Worlds, which starts next week. I'm excited to see the 2024 Pro Worlds, which is a precursor to the 2025 Tour Championship. It's nice when Pro Worlds is a warm-up event. That was a little tongue-in-cheek for those of you, well, it doesn't even matter whether you're watching or listening. That was meant tongue-in-cheek. Anyway, that is an action-packed season, but there are some notable exceptions. The first three events are identical and the last five events are pretty identical. And then we are missing, but we are missing Texas States and the Jonesboro Open. Another event that is not on tour is the Dynamic Disopen. The OTB Open, while not technically on tour, is actually being run as the Champions Cup in 2025. I'm gonna refer to it as the Champions Cup at the OTB Open. I think it's important that the Shawns get their credit of building that event into an event that the Champions Cup wanted to be hosted at. Two other events that are missing are the Portland Open and the Beaver State Fling, which seem to have been replaced with the Northwest Disc Golf Championship. Let's hope they choose the best of both worlds and make an amazing event. This will probably also help bolster the number of spectators on site, rather than cannibalizing and saying, "Do you wanna go to Beaver State or the Portland Open?" Now you just go to the one event, the Northwest Disc Golf Championship. The Northwest deserves a big event and they're gonna get it. On the European side, the Copenhagen Open and the Swedish Open have been dropped from the schedule. The Pro Tour did mention at the end of the press release that the Jonesboro Open, the Dynamic Disopen, and the Swedish Open, by name, are events that will likely be, they said will be included in the 2026 season. And interestingly enough, there are open weeks for JBO and DDO between Pro Tour events, where these events could be slotted in as eight years to keep the momentum going and build them up for 2026. Last year, it was tough to get on tour as a player. In 2025, it's tough to get on tour as an event, and both are only going to get harder as we go forward. Pro Disc Golf's best days lie ahead, and they're not too far ahead. We're getting really close to being super special. The Pro Tour has broken the 10th anniversary season into five semi-official swings. Here are those swings. We start with the Southern swing, with Florida, Texas, Tennessee, and Kansas. The West Coast swing with California, Washington, and Oregon. The Midwest swing with Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Iowa. And then we have the European swing, goes through Chetchia, Sweden, Norway, Estonia, and Finland. Then we return to the States, to Illinois, Kentucky, and Michigan, which I'm going to consider part two of the Midwest swing. And then the East Coast finish, Vermont, Massachusetts, South Carolina, and Virginia. With the expansion into Europe, putting the Pro Tour in six countries on two continents, the global reach of the Pro Tour is being realized. These are exciting days with every region of the USA being represented on the tour. Show off what you've got and thrill us. I'll be watching. (upbeat music) Additionally, the Pro Tour also put out another press release about their season pass. I'm not going to try to go over the details because, well, they don't look fuzzy, but I think they need to be a little more clear. That's a little contradictory, but it looks like you can get tickets to every DGPT event for a fantastic price. But supplies are very limited. Also, it says you get a gold pass to multiple events, but I feel like that's probably different than the MVP gold pass, which is a full immersion into the MVP Open by OTB, including candle pin bowling with the pros, a guided tour with the course designer, the brewery tour and tasting and much, much more. That is not included would be my guess. Although the wording makes it unclear, but on the Eventbrite page down below, they actually do spell out exactly what it means to get a DGPT gold pass. And it's different than what the MVP Open gold pass is. Sorry for that aside. But anyway, if you are going, I don't know if these are transferable as well. I don't know if you have to go to every event or if you could get one of these and just have friends go to all the different ones. That's a really interesting idea. Lastly, the Pro Tour has released a ton of 10th season collector stuff. I've already purchased my supporter box and I'll tell you I do not plan on opening it for at least a decade. This is the first offering of this merch. We have no idea what is going to be the disc everyone needs, nor do we know if any of this stuff will ever be available ever again. In my opinion, snag one to use and one for the collection. It feels like in 10 years, it is going to be a real part of disc golf history. That does it for us today. If you have some news, thoughts, or opinions, shoot us an email, discolfdaley@aol.com. Have fun, throw them straight, and please, please, please share this podcast with a friend if you think they're gonna find it interesting. And even if they don't find it interesting and you don't like them, share it with them and say, "Oh, you're gonna love it." Anyway, do all that and hit the thin gap. Have a great day. (upbeat music) Thank you so much for watching. Please like, subscribe, comment, and share. It really does help us grow. (upbeat music) [BLANK_AUDIO]
