Will this ever happen again?

Hopefully not.

With the tourney moving to North Carolina next year, don't you think the locals will be looking to duplicate the success that NorCal/SoCal had this year? Course knowledge played a huge part in California's success this year. I have never played any of the Tarheel courses, but I would still expect the usual suspects at or near the top when the dust settles.

Several items stacked in favor of the Cali folks due to 2011 Worlds format that won't occur in 2012 and hasn't occurred in the recent Worlds prior to 2011.

Please explain more chuck

Just my observation if you look closely.

Poison oak!!! :) :(

Several items stacked in favor of the Cali folks due to 2011 Worlds format that won't occur in 2012 and hasn't occurred in the recent Worlds prior to 2011.

Two main factors are the relatively high number of pros in Cali and course familiarity.

Personally, I had played DeLa the most of the 4 courses (roughly 30 times), but had only played Pinto Lake 3 times, Ryan Ranch 1 time and The Oaks once also. There's no doubt that it helped local guys like J Michael Barry and Jon Baldwin (who hadn't won a tourney other than the Faultline since 2009).
There's alway good home cookin' for the locals at the worlds.

So, who are the North Carolina favorites with the home-course advantage for next year?

Scwebby? Stan McDaniel? Brian Mc?

MJ(!!!), Jerm, Wysocki

So, who are the North Carolina favorites with the home-course advantage for next year?

Scwebby? Stan McDaniel? Brian Mc?


Maybe in Masters.....

MJ(!!!), Jerm, Wysocki
plus Cam Todd and Barry Schultz.

My pick for open, though, is some guy from Florida to pick up lucky #13.

Cam is currently designing one of the courses Open may play.

Maybe in Masters.....

Scwebby: Open
Brian Mc: Masters
Stan Mc: Grandmasters

"...and Jon Baldwin (who hadn't won a tourney other than the Faultline since 2009)."

Not exactly Kenny.

Since 2009, I haven't won the Faultline Classic. I did, however, win it in the Open Division in 2007. Maybe you were thinking of the 2009 Coyote Classic in Ventura, where I beat all but 2 players in the whole tournament on two courses I had never played before?

And I have won a tournament since 2009. This year actually. I won the 2011 Steady Ed Birthday Memorial (Lakeport) two months prior to winning the Worlds.

If you are going to disparage someone on a public forum, get your facts right... ;)

I actually did the research a long time ago and got the facts mixed up. I think I saw Steady Ed's name and extrapolated that to Santa Cruz. My bad. I was just trying to make a point that "home cookin'" helped all of us Californicators at the worlds this year.

I'm moving to North Carolina...not really, but if I retire I think it would be cool to move to wherever the worlds is for each year.

Once again, JB. A thousand apologies for my errors.

No worries Kenny, if I were actually upset, I wouldn't have ended it with a wink...

California disc golf is a bit different, and takes some getting used to. I came across so many competitors during Worlds who were playing one or more courses for the very first time...they never had a chance. On the other hand, size matters: California is a huge state with lots of outdoor sports enthusiasts, and there is a large pool of disc golfers from which those occasional explosions of talent occur. How many 1000+ rated players are in California? Probably a lot more than any other state.

Plus, we had a very poor showing of competitors traveling from east of the Rocky Mountains. At one point I checked and there were less than 20 of them in the entire roster! If other states want to win more Worlds titles, then they have to get off their butts and play Worlds.

Anyways, California disc golf holds more surprises for the world, and an army of up and coming players you've probably never heard of, so it isn't outside the realm of possibility that Californians would again win the majority of divisions in Worlds, maybe even in 2012.

Santa Cruuuuuuz!

MJ(!!!), Jerm, Wysocki

David Wiggins Jr. 1 hour away and knows the courses.

1000 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 1.26
California: 0.91


1020 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 0.42
California 0.24

Source pdga, us census

California is not just behind, they are eating our dust. They are probably not just behind NC but several other states as well. I just don't feel like rubbing it in by going through the calculations. IMHO, those California boys need to start practicing. One thing they are #1 at though - making false claims of their amazing abilities ;-)


I'm not sure, but I don't think you will find many states other than NC where a 1000 rated player can show up at a local "c tier" with 10 pros and have to beat a higher rated player just to cash.

1000 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 1.26
California: 0.91


1020 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 0.42
California 0.24


California is not just behind, they are eating our dust. One thing they are #1 at though - making false claims of their amazing abilities ;-)




Eating your dust? Really?

CA: 36 million+
NC: 9 million

You should put some smiley faces in there. I'm also curious as to who is making these false and amazing ability claims.

Eating your dust? Really?

CA: 36 million+
NC: 9 million

You should put some smiley faces in there. I'm also curious as to who is making these false and amazing ability claims.

:-) Your population numbers are right. Now divide using the number of players over a certain rating and you arrive at my results. If one does not normalize the data based on population it takes away any concept of something special about the courses, environment, competition, etc. that accounts for the difference. It brings it all down to the biggest population which IMHO is meaningless. One might as well say the world has the best disc golfers in the world because it has all the 1000 rated players.

As far as who, I'm not really all that serious. I did hear a lot of smack talk about how great California disc golfers were this summer as one would rightly expect from any locale hosting the worlds.

I just thought I'd throw some real numbers into the equation and also show that NC disc golfers can smack talk with the best of them. Looking at the numbers, I'm just sayin'.....

NC disc golfers are ready to take on the world. Bring it on...

but I do know how to do division, but thank you for the tutorial. :)

I just looked at the ratings for NC. I see that I would be the 8th highest rated player in NC if I lived there. How could that be with all of your great players and high-end statistics? I've alway said that ratings are over-rated.

Who knows how many rating points have been shaved off of my and other CA golfers' ratings due to the 2-m rule that is in place for every tourney I play out here on the left coast.

PS: I'm rooting for 'lil Wiggins this year.

1000 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 1.26
California: 0.91

1020 rated players per million inhabitants:

North Carolina: 0.42
California 0.24



Just to play devil's advocate, the comparison might be better made on the basis of a million disc golfers, rather than a million inhabitants. Under that basis, the results are:

1000+ rated players per million disc golfers:

California: 20,309
North Carolina: 18,237


1020+ rated players per million disc golfers:

California: 7311
North Carolina: 6079

pterodactyl - Who knows how many rating points have been shaved off of my and other CA golfers' ratings due to the 2-m rule that is in place for every tourney I play out here on the left coast.
Doesn't matter. It just raises the SSA but doesn't lower ratings. Now, if CA and NC players are in the same event and the CA players take 2m penalties and NC players don't...

if I am in a tourney and I am the only player to get stuck up 2m+ and it happens 3 times during a round...that doesn't affect my rating?

It's no different from OB hazards in NC that you go into 3 times over a round. Both hurt your personal rating the same but it affects everyone to some percentage of shots and it raises the SSA for that course compared to not having any OB or 2m rule such that the net effect of the hazards doesn't change the overall average ratings produced for players that round.

But I'm not going to throw OB next year in NC! :)

Not too much OB on the courses you'll likely be playing and only really affects lefties...

I've alway said that ratings are over-rated..

You've ****** off Chuck, now you're really in trouble.

Just to play devil's advocate, the comparison might be better made on the basis of a million disc golfers, rather than a million inhabitants. Under that basis, the results are:

1000+ rated players per million disc golfers:

California: 20,309
North Carolina: 18,237


1020+ rated players per million disc golfers:

California: 7311
North Carolina: 6079

I think you are talking about licensed disc golfers, but the talent pool consists of licensed and unlicensed disc golfers. We all know of the nonconformist nature of Californians so it is a safe assumption that there is a far greater percentage of unlicensed disc golfers in California meaning the number of 1000+ rated disc golfers in California per million disc golfers would again fall below that of NC. Q.E.D. :-)

You guys might want to look at world rankings for your discussion. It's likely the winners will come from that list.

Eric McCabe has been the lowest World Ranked player (31st just before Worlds) to win Worlds. However, he had a 1025 rating and was around 10th rated at the Worlds he won. Ratings more than rankings would probably be a better indicator for winning Worlds potential.

Eric McCabe has been the lowest World Ranked player (31st just before Worlds) to win Worlds. However, he had a 1025 rating and was around 10th rated at the Worlds he won. Ratings more than rankings would probably be a better indicator for winning Worlds potential.


Ratings don't mean anything unless you get it playing against good competition. I could name you lots of players with ratings higher than their ability to compete in a real open setting. All you have to do is be very good at one or two local courses. No offense to Eric, but that was a career performance. He is a very good player and he happened to be putting lights out at that tournament. Even so, by your logic, his rating would not have predicted a win for him.

davei - Ratings don't mean anything unless you get it playing against good competition
C'mon Dave, for 12 years now, it's been shown that it doesn't matter who is playing in the event. The course ratings (SSA) are independent of who's playing and what rating a score gets.

Regardless, my point is that ratings of the top players (based on at least 25 rounds) are still better than rankings if you're placing odds on a particular player winning. For example, Jussi will drop out of the World Rankings in early 2012 without any stats in majors but still have around a 1023 rating.

I think you are talking about licensed disc golfers, but the talent pool consists of licensed and unlicensed disc golfers. We all know of the nonconformist nature of Californians so it is a safe assumption that there is a far greater percentage of unlicensed disc golfers in California meaning the number of 1000+ rated disc golfers in California per million disc golfers would again fall below that of NC. Q.E.D. :-)

or, it could be argued that the non-sanctioned north carolina home grown tour provides enough evidence to assume that the ratio of pdga members to total disc golfers is lower in north carolina than in california.

All these statistics don't really matter in the long term, since in each instance it is only one player who will win in each division. Statistics don't work well with small numbers. For example, do the reverse logic, and try to construe Climo's career as a characteristic measure of the typical Florida disc golfer...it's totally skewed.

if I am in a tourney and I am the only player to get stuck up 2m+ and it happens 3 times during a round...that doesn't affect my rating?

No, it only changes the SSA.

But, the California disc golfer doesn't think of a tree as a disc catching device, like a NC disc golfer does...but guys like Nate Doss spend a lot of time playing east coast rules and can easily adjust, and still dominate.