Green Bay Disc Golf Association

The 2022 GBDGA Masters saw the league flipped on its head; Paul Fischer and Micah Wheeler who have both faced struggles over the course of the season truly shone in the crucible that is the GBDGA masters.  Both players needed to show something with only two tournaments remaining and with Wheeler surprisingly finding himself towards the bottom of league standings and Fischer having several decent performances, but recently being targeted by the GBDGA podcast as someone who needed to step it up.  Paul was able to expertly handle the tight lines at Pamperin Park and played the role of “rabbit” for the majority of the round, maintaining a narrow lead with both Wheeler and Zach Jaraczewski in hot pursuit.  Adding to the already significant challenges presented by Pamperin was continued rainy weather that has been the common thread throughout the whole season.  The weather lead to a number of falls among our players and turned already difficult conditions into outright treacherous, and while the rain let up for the second round, the damage had already been done.  Ultimately, the round came down to the putting green on 18 where Micah Wheeler had the chance to push the tournament into extra holes, but there just wasn’t enough gas in the tank, leaving his 15 foot putt just short, and allowing Paul to walk away victorious.

​As the GBDGA broke into draft day, anticipation was building as the Captains traded picks, Micah Wheeler of team Badrinath getting the first overall pick, and Michael Carlson of team Finkelstein trading down for pick two and three. From this point on the competition was on. In what turned out to be a dreary day at Grignon Park in Kaukauna  Wisconsin, the day started to heat up as Team Badrinath came out firing. The determination was in their hearts as Both Micah and Zach had never won before, Dillon had a redemption arc, ready to turn any questions on draft day into distance memories, and Carver was praying that Micah and Zach wouldn't once again let him down. In the end, all of this was to come true and the boots would belong to Team Badrinath. Now that we have finished with this exciting team event we look to the future and the upcoming Founders Cup and Tommy's pursuit of the elusive Triple Crown.

This year’s Subaru Classic continued the trend we’ve had of unfortunate weather with persistent rain lasting throughout the vast majority of the first round, maybe creating the worst scoring conditions we have seen thus far, and hopefully bringing an end to our unlucky weather as we move forward into the mid-season break and then major tournament season.  And just like the Kardashians, Tommy Purdom’s strong play this season also kept up, with him taking a well deserved dub home, without even needing a come back.  Purdom employed a never before seen cowboy hat strategy for the first round, which helped keep his glasses and scorecard clean.  Our other players were less fortunate, leading to some significant lost strokes, but potentially even more significant loss of mental composure; Michael Carlson was quoted on the 18th tee as saying roughly, “it doesn’t matter, nothing matters”, showing some clear frustration with his play which was also reflected in his score.  Mike Shiffer also fell off the wagon early with a number of strong side chain-outs that left him questioning the laws of physics as well as his game.  While the weather cleared up significantly for the second round, for many players, the damage was done, though scores did improve.  Ultimately though, the day always belonged to Purdom, getting last year’s monkey off his back and taking home the coveted racecar trophy.  This is Tommy’s second win of the season, and with his previous victory at the Player’s Cup he is in hot pursuit of the triple crown.  Let’s see if he can keep up his momentum and winning ways as we move through the mid-season break and the GBDGA Das Boot Classic.

The Third tournament of the year saw the GBDGA fighting through a new course at O'Huaser Park. With tight lines and high winds, it was stiff competition. From Hole one it was tough sledding. One of the few GBDGA courses with Out of bounds water, there were a few rouge discs that found their way for a dip in the creek. After 18 holes it was a close race which opened up in the second round. After 36 holes of hard fought disc golf, it took one extra for Doug Cassel to claim his crown. Mike Shiffer put up a fight to stay on Doug's tail until the end. We saw excellent play from Tommy Purdom and David Schneider who are both having strong seasons thus far. Overall, everyone gave it their all and disc casualties were left to a relative minimum given the conditions. We look ahead to the Subaru Classic and the over challenging Canyon's at Dellwood Park.

The second tournament of the year is in the books and brought with it plenty of excitement.  Despite fighting off inclimate weather and making some last minute course changes, the tournament went off without a hitch, this time at the Yahara Hills Winter Disc Golf Course.  Yahara presents a mix of long holes and a few more technical holes through some small wooded sections, with some serious water hazards to contend with, much to some of our golfers’ dismay.  As mentioned, our golfers had to deal with a wet course and some wintery mix throughout the day, but given the luck we’ve had with this tournament in the past, we were due for some less than perfect conditions, let’s just hope we’ve gotten that out of the way for the year and we’ll have smooth conditions moving forward.  It should come as no surprise that the weather did have an impact on scoring, I think all of our players left a few strokes out there that they would love to have back.  Even our eventual winner, Tommy Purdom, needed the front nine before he was able to get dialed in and ready to go, but once he kicked it into gear he was nearly unstoppable, with birdie after birdie.  This win makes Tommy this year’s player to watch for the Triple Crown.  With the low turnout for the tournament, this win launches Tommy ahead in the Overall Championship race as well.  Rounding out the top 3 were good rounds from Mike Shiffer and Paul Fischer.  Overall, everyone gave it their all and disc casualties were left to a relative minimum given the conditions.  With this tournament in the books, it’s time to look forward to next month’s Green Bay Open at an exciting course that is new to the league in O’Hauser Park.

The GBDGA Winter Championship went for a wild ride this year. Mother Nature came out swinging, giving the field gusty winds and frigid temperatures. In the end the King of Legion fought the hardest coming out on top. Zach Jaraczewski managed to win his fourth Winter Championship. Tommy Purdom put the hammer throw to rest and relied on his forehand to make a push but it wasn't quite enough. The scores were high at this one and the GBDGA looks to have a bounce back tournament at their first major of the year. 

The GBDGA 2022 season is upon us and with lots of hype and excitement coming into the preseason it looks to be another great year. We have seen lots of offseason work being done by the members, as well as a top competitor declaring Casual status this season. After a strong comeback year for the GBDGA that saw Zach Jaraczewski and Nico Baron take home a share of the GBDGA Overall Championship, who will look to carve their names in the history books this year? Could it be the year the triple crown finally gets captured? Will we see a shake up at the top of the standings? The Commissioners have weighed in, giving their preseason ranks, find out where they think you stand, and try to prove them wrong as we start the 2022 season at Legion Park for the GBDGA Winter Championship on January 22nd.

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Preseason Rankings:

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Commissioner 1:                               Commissioner 2:

1. Zach Jaraczewski                         1. Tommy Purdom
2. Doug Cassel                                 2. Zach Jaraczewski
3. Micah Wheeler                            3. Mike Shiffer
4. Tommy Purdom                          4. Micah Wheeler
5. Mike Shiffer                                 5. Doug Cassel
6. Paul Fischer                                 6. Andrew Carver
7. Andrew Carver                            7. Dillon Raunio
8. Dillon Raunio                               8. Paul Fischer
9. David Schneider                          9. David Schneider
10.Michael Carlson                        10.Michael Carlson
11.Luka Zishka                                11.Luka Zishka