Has ESPN Become The Holy Grail Of Disc Golf?

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Unless you’ve been off the grid for the last several weeks, you have probably heard about the incredible round put together by Paul McBeth during the Discraft Great Lakes Open. During round two of the event, it seems as if Beast Mode had been activated after a rather long hiatus, and McBeth managed to shoot an 18 down for the day.

While that was impressive enough on its own, it also earned him a spot on ESPN’s SportsCenter, but instead of a quick clip featuring one shot, a nearly two-minute segment highlighted the bulk of his round. The Internet practically broke, as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram was full of chatter about this incredible accomplishment. The icing on the cake? It was also Paul’s birthday.

Defining “Success”

If you take a snapshot of what the disc golf world has said about this round and its subsequent TV spot, you’d think that “making it” in the sport was heavily tied to being featured on ESPN. While Paul’s round was truly nothing short of miraculous, one has to wonder, is this the highest level of success in the sport?

The obvious answer is no, but time and time again, you can find shares and reshares of shaky home videos of people’s televisions as an ace lands on the Top 10 list for a handful of seconds. Less fanfare is given to those who shoot 1100-rated rounds, or for the players who far surpassed their own previous best rounds at a given course.

When it comes down to it, success in disc golf isn’t about making the big bucks or even about being featured on television, although both of those things are pretty nice. Success comes from your own internal barometer of what feels right and what personal milestones make you feel like you have accomplished something huge.

The Future Of The Sport

With that being said, the more we can spread disc golf to the masses, the better! Paul’s segment on ESPN was certainly a milestone in our sport, as one can only guess how many millions of viewers got to see a new side of disc golf. Perhaps that one TV spot was enough to convince someone to buy some discs or was the final push to get them to register for their first tournament.

Thankfully, one of the producers of SportsCenter is a disc golf enthusiast, or else the round may never have been featured at all. In many cases, it’s a grassroots effort to bring awareness to incredible performances, as we’ve all no doubt seen #sctop10 grace our social media feeds from time to time when someone hits an ace.

Since it’s up to us, how can you specifically help to draw more attention to the sport? Is ESPN really the Holy Grail, indicating when we’ve “made it” as an athletic event that’s worthy of their airtime? Instead, what if we all put in the extra effort to recognize our local players who do an outstanding job and alert the media to their performances, even if it’s on a smaller level? We’d love to know your thoughts on the subject in the comments below!