The following is provided via NADGT through their partnership with PDGA.

Disc golf is a journey.

As I write this, four of our most recent DGPT partial tour card winners are practicing for the Play It Again Sports Jonesboro Open. They are joined by other past NADGT champions, such as Zachary Nash, Lucas Carmichael, Silas Schultz and Kyle Klein.

They have had to learn to compete while traveling, on unfamiliar courses alongside the world's best players. Some are learning to play with camera crews in their line of sight and under the watchful eyes of fans lining the fairway. Even with an abbreviated schedule, they are learning the economics of travel and the reality of how hard it is to win money on the Disc Golf Pro Tour. Shelby Cowen (#124064) made the cash at the Queen City Classic, but we can be sure that money didn't last long.

Our 2025 Tour Finale Champion, Lucas Carmichael (#151146) has chosen the camper route for his sophomore season. He recently secured a spot on the Trash Panda team and last year earned cash in three DGPT events. He's learning how much work is involved, even when he's not on the course.

These new pros started the same way as the rest of us. Someone mentioned, "You should come play, it's easy!" 

I remember back in 1992 when I found the IFO (Identified Flying Objects) store in Little Five Points, Atlanta. I bought three discs and headed to Redan Park. This would set me on a path of fun and friendship, a few aces, and a LOT of lost discs in the lake. We all begin and try to stay under the radar worried that we might be the worst players ever. But we kept going and improved, and then someone mentioned playing in a tournament.

Tournaments were so exciting for me, I was pretty bad but didn't care. I especially enjoyed traveling to new courses and meeting new people. The distance I traveled continued to grow, and I learned that disc golf is not the same for everyone. I traveled the country and saw disc golf from coast to coast, learning that we all deal with challenges unique to our area. Whether I was ankle deep in water in Oregon, sweating in the Arizona desert, or wondering where the basket was in opaque fog at Maple Hill. I was still playing disc golf, but these courses shared little else.

Traveling to play disc golf in other areas provided the greatest reward, the people I met. When our players gather in Austin for our North American Disc Golf Championships from across North America and sometimes the world, they experience Texas disc golf. And that's definitely a "if you know, then you know" situation! More than just competition, there are also fun side events where they can relax and enjoy new friends.

In 2016, we started the NextGen tour with 12 events. With the goal of bringing the pro disc golf experience to amateur disc golfers. Our founders, Dave & Synthya Feldberg had traveled the world and wanted to share his experience and connect players with mold-breaking events and prizes. In the early years, we gave away two cars, a $10,000 cash prize, and even 8 full DGPT Tour Cards. Currently, 15 players in the DGPT top 50 have benefitted from their idea, gaining direct tour access, cash, or connections with potential sponsors. We've helped hundreds of players switch from amateur to pro.

Our focus remains on the amateurs though. The PDGA tells us that our events bring the most new players into tournament play across the United States, and we strive to show them the fun of competition with a consistent experience. In the past 10-years we've hosted over 75,000 players and paid out over $10,000,000 in prizes. We also support disc golf charities, like the E.D.G.E. program (edgediscgolf.org), with donations of over $100,000.

We're grateful to all the local TDs that host our events and continue to devote their time to promoting disc golf. And, we're grateful to all the manufacturers for being partnered with our tour, showing their dedication to amateur disc golfers.

For most of us a DGPT Tour Card may not be coming, but you can be sure we'll be having fun (and probably still hitting trees.) And if you have a pro tour player that you are rooting for, buy a disc to help them out and offer a kind word if you can - they are working hard to chase their dream!

Tony Thomas (#111329)

NADGT Director of Marketing