Technical Standards Update - Effective September 2018

The PDGA Board approved an update to the Technical Standards effective immediately with the following additions:

• Confirmed that the Mini Disc Golf Federation determines the rules for minidisc competition including the specifications for minis acceptable for competition.
• Target manufacturers may produce permanent or temporary upgrade kits for their PDGA Approved models. Some types of upgrades may not require the target to be re-approved.
• Target owners are allowed to make limited enhancements to the deflection assembly on PDGA Approved targets if similar enhancement not available from target manufacturer and the enhancements are done on all targets of the same model on a course.
• An alternative chain design option is now available for new target models to receive Championship approval. New targets may now have a single set of crossing chains with small enough gaps. Targets with this alternative chain configuration cannot get official approval until January 1, 2019 but may be used in A-tiers and above for the remainder of 2018 with a waiver from the PDGA. The current Championship standard remains where the traditional two sets of chains will continue to be approved.

This Tech Standards Update is effective immediately. Here's the background from the 2018 Spring Summit on this initiative:

"Roddick/Chargualaf explained that the Technical Standards Committee (TSC) received a request from Prodigy Disc in 2017 to approve a target at the Championship-level that utilizes an external cross chain design that does not have the traditional internal chain assembly as is currently required for Championship-level targets. Prodigy Disc contends their cross-chain model (T3) catches as well as any currently approved Championship-level target, but uses less material to manufacture. It is lighter weight (reduces shipping cost), cheaper to manufacture, and is overall more eco-friendly. Informal hands-on experience and feedback from players using a portable version of the T3 basket at the IDGC for a few months indicates the near elimination of cut-throughs on this design, suggesting no need for an inner chain assembly. While the T3 is not the first to introduce a cross-chain outer chain assembly to the market, now seems like a good opportunity to introduce a new cross-chain Championship-level target variant to help spur innovation in this area. Ultimately the market will decide if the new standard is successful and more widely adopted as a viable Championship-level option. All other existing Championship-level target specifications will remain unchanged. All currently approved Championship targets continues as approved."