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PDGA Radio Episode 33: Paige Pierce, US Women's Championship

PDGA Radio Episode 33: Paige Pierce, US Women's Championship

Jay "Yeti" Reading talks charity, and a look at the new world rankings update

Wednesday, September 26, 2018 - 01:14

Three-time United States Women's Disc Golf Champion Paige Pierce joins this week's episode. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen

This week is (almost) all about the United States Women’s Disc Golf Championship on PDGA Radio. First, Steve Hill and Sara Lamberson look at the shake-ups from the usual players on the top of the leaderboard (3:18), Vanessa Van Dyken’s road back to rebuilding her form after injury (6:18), and how Paige Pierce changed up her putt to find greater success (8:30). Later, Pierce stops by to talk about the victory, her journey through the ups-and-downs of the season, and her goals for the United States Disc Golf Championship (21:20).

After the break, Steve and Sara discuss some of the player feedback from the USWDGC and how the event can continue to evolve along with the growth of the women’s field (37:55). Jay “Yeti” Reading joins to talk about the Chains For Charity initiative taking place in conjunction with the USDGC (54:00), and the hosts open up The Comments Section to take on the recent PDGA World Rankings update (1:03:30).

Listen to "Episode 3.33: Paige Pierce, USWDGC, Jay "Yeti" Reading, PDGA World Rankings" on Spreaker.

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Comments

Submitted by birgit on

Thanks a lot for your radio episodes, I listen to them once in a while and really appreciate them.
49:00 "We haven't heard a lot about French Disc Golf."
France has a long DG tradition and what KJ Nybo is to Denmark, Sylvain Gouge is it to France: I believe, he's the 12 times French DG champion. For the 1st time Sylvain competed in MP40+ at the European DG Championships which were held in Croatia this year and he won gold battling it out with some great competitors on that difficult course, except him all top 10 players being Scandinavians: https://www.pdga.com/tour/event/35265#MP40.
Yes, come to Europe and you'll be able to see some extraordinary disc golf also there!

Submitted by wshinevar on

Well it was pretty disappointing to hear some of Paige's comment on the event. I think they could have been worded a little more constructively. Definitely some things to improve on if the event is ever here again. It should be noted that, to my knowledge, no one else made a bid for this event. Not 100% on that one. Hopefully some of the areas she mentioned take her advice and consider hosting the event. Or the PDGA steps up and takes full control of the event to host it regularly at a location and improve the standards for the event and women's disc golf as a whole. I think she had a chance to applaud all of the women of Michigan and across the US for setting a record turn out and in doing so continuing to positively grow the women's side of disc golf, but instead it came off pretty critical and down which was a really big bummer coming from the winner of the event and someone whose voice carries a lot of weight in the women's disc golf world.

Comments about the event, or the courses? She said the event was ran well. She disagreed that the caliber of courses chosen were up to USWDGC standards. She also backed that statement with facts from her rounds. Being a Lansing local, you're obviously sensitive to rebukes about your courses, but Paige has both the experience and the credibility to make those statements.
This was an honest reflection from the champ. It would be a shame if the opportunity to improve was blinded by disappointment.

Submitted by patblazek on

I have an idea about how they could improve the accuracy of the world rankings.

It basically comes down to a minimum amount of events played to qualify for the top 10, as well as for the top 20. Currently, for the men there are 6 events included in the calculation, as well as their player rating (7 factors) and women have 5 events (6 factors). You have people in top 10 and top 20 for the men and women who have only played one event and one person in the top 20 who hasn't played any events and it's just based on rating.

In my opinion, for the men the top 10 should have to play at least 4 of the 6 events to even be considered for the top 10 and the top 20 should have to play at least 3 of the 6 events to qualify. For the women, do 3 of 5 events for top 10 and 2 of 5 for top 20. The remainder of the players can follow the current qualifications for both men and women. In my opinion, you should have to show some consistency to be considered one of the best in the world. I think solely basing it off of a player's rating hardly does that. Playing one or two events helps, but doesn't quite qualify for proving to be one of the top 20 in the world.

I'd love to hear more ideas and discussions on how to improve the rankings system.