What It's Like Running a Disc Golf Store - Basketcase Disc Golf - podcast episode cover

What It's Like Running a Disc Golf Store - Basketcase Disc Golf

Nov 20, 202547 min
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Episode description

n this conversation, Bobby and Amy from Basketcase Disc Golf discuss the journey of running a disc golf store in Tulsa, the growth of the sport, community engagement, and the impact of major events on local businesses. They explore the evolving vibe of disc golfers, the challenges of running events, and the importance of understanding disc stability. Additionally, they touch on the Veterans for Vets initiative and future aspirations in the disc golf community.00:00⁠ The Journey into Disc Golf ⁠

02:47⁠ Community and Growth in Disc Golf ⁠

04:36⁠ The Evolving Player Experience ⁠

09:44⁠ Impact of Major Events on Local Business ⁠

13:58⁠ Balancing Big and Small Events ⁠

20:15⁠ Running Successful Disc Golf Events ⁠

22:47⁠ Post-Pandemic Reflections on Disc Golf ⁠

24:20⁠ Navigating Inventory Challenges ⁠

31:27⁠ Understanding Disc Stability ⁠

36:51⁠ Impact of Pro Player Contracts ⁠

42:49⁠ Promoting Disc Golf Events ⁠

46:27⁠ Looking Ahead to 2026

Transcript

⁠ The Journey into Disc Golf ⁠

All right, Amy, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. How about yourself? I'm doing fantastic. I appreciate you getting on the show with me to talk a little bit about running a disc golf store, running events, and then we'll talk a little later about Veterans for Vets. That's this the season that's kind of coming up here for us here at Dynamic Discs.

But first tell everybody a little bit about how you got your start in disc golf and that how you decided to hey, I want to open a disc golf store in Tulsa. Oh, it's actually a fun story. My husband picked it up. He started playing disc golf and he would be like, I mean, I'm gonna go play disc golf and I'd be like, OK, whatever. And I was finally, I started asking questions. I was like, what exactly are you doing? And he's like, explain the game to me.

And I was like, you're throwing discs in the woods. And he was like, Yep. So one day I decided I was going to see what this was. So I went up to Chandler Park. That's one of our courses here in Tulsa that's very popular. And they were playing and I watched and I got intrigued and so I went started playing with him after that. And Tulsa had a couple of locations where you can get some discs. But as a female, First off, trying to find discs that were good for me was very, very hard.

The stores have destroyers, the stores have sergeants, the stores have all the different high speed drivers. They don't have a lot of the under stable discs. They don't have a lot of the discs that are good for people who are beginners, First off, and a female. So we would we start asking around and talking to people and saying, hey, what if we opened up a store? What would you think? And everybody was gung ho on it. And I had been laid off from my job and was sitting at home

bored. And so one day, Kent said, would you get off the couch and get a job? You're driving me nuts. And I was like, OK, I can do that. And I said, how serious are you about opening up a disc golf store? And he said, let's do it. So I went out that afternoon and found our location where we're at now. We signed the lease the next day, took out some money out of savings and voila, here we go. And that's. What year was that? 2017. 2017, Wow. OK, Yeah, that's awesome. Very cool.

So now specifically, let's talk about just the year since we're kind of in, you know, we're in November, so people start looking back at the year and stuff like that. So looking back at 2025, what has surprised you the most about having a disc golf store in Tulsa?

⁠ Community and Growth in Disc Golf ⁠

We have not. We still keep gaining customers. We still have new people coming in all the time wanting to find out about disc golf and it's just, and I've seen and heard that it's declined in other states, but in our area a the weather's a little better year round to play disc golf, but we don't ever, we haven't seen that decline like other places are saying that they're seen. Really. Why do you think that is? We have so many courses.

To be totally honest, I think people see it so much, and Tulsa as a city and the surrounding areas have really started focusing on outdoor activities. They're putting in new trails, they're putting in all sorts of new places for people to do stuff outside. So Tulsa's kind of switched its mentality from indoor activities more to outdoor activities, especially among the young people. A lot of them are putting away their their video games and are

getting out and doing stuff. Now that's becoming more of the trend we're seeing. So we're seeing a lot more young people actually coming in. Yeah, so, and I'm familiar, obviously people know I'm, I live in Broken Arrow and I've lived in Tulsa for most of my life. So I know what's going on. And I know that like even the river parks, the Riverside, you know, the huge investment out there. So yes, definitely Tulsa is definitely one of those communities where they are

investing in outdoor activities. So I can see how a sport like disc golf would benefit from that type of mentality and culture created. So yeah, so it's it sounds like,

⁠ The Evolving Player Experience ⁠

or it seems like it to have successful store that you need that type of community where outdoor activities is a thing that people are used to doing. What's something that you notice when new players come in that maybe surprises you when they come in and they start asking questions about what discs should I throw? There it always stays about the same that every new player comes in and they want, especially if they've thrown in any of their friends discs.

Of course they want what their friends are throwing. If they don't, we starter sets are fantastic. Those are great what we use a lot of times and then we have a huge use section here at the store. That's another great place to get them a starter set so they can go try it before they come in and start spending the little bit more money on the new discs. So the starter sets are we sell out of those things all the time.

We keep we just, they're a great tool for them, for the new players, but we have a lot more women coming in playing now. They won't play tournaments, they're just they want to play with their significant other. But we've seen a lot more ladies come in. So we've like, we've set up a really large lightweight section specifically geared towards

females. Wow. So other than more females coming in, is there anything that over since, well, I guess looking back 2017, has there been a like a change in the vibe as far as disc golfers that come in and any kind of shift and how they think about or approach disc golf over the last few years? It is the vibe is kind of almost grown. They've it seems like our players are taking a new people are more interested in that the courses are actually taken care

of, that they're maintained. So I think that's it used to be that they were just happy to have a course to play on. Now that they have so many, it's actually hard to recommend courses, you know, for newbies. The vibe though, I think it's been just all when, when they skip, when they get the bug, they are just excited and it just stinks. And then it seems like life comes along.

They have kids and then we're starting to see like we had some people that started out when we first opened the store. Life happened. Now the kids are at an age where they can actually either go play with them or they don't have to drag them along with them or so now they're getting out and playing again and having a blast at it so they can play again. So our vibe here has always stayed very dynamic and very hype, I guess is the best way to describe it.

Yeah, yeah, with having so many courses. But the one thing I thought when you said this, it sounds like some of the newer players maybe or, or the the disc golfer has matured a little bit in a sense that like you said, at first, it was just happy to have a course, you know, and have a variety of courses. Now it's like, OK, but I want the courses to be well manicured or at least mode. I know I've gone to a couple courses and thought, man, they

haven't mowed this in a while. So it seems like that. I don't want to say that the disc golfer has become more picky, but maybe expected a little bit more. I think so it's, we've kind of up until this year the rain was a whole issue, but up until this year, the parks, you know, normally we're never having to send.

And when I'm saying we, we have a group here in Tulsa called Tulsa Disc Sports Association and we're, I'm an admin on that board, but we work with the city and the county on the parks. And so we've been working with them and this year we've had to holler. We've got courses that need to be mowed, We've got courses that need to be mowed. And that gets very frustrating. And so people, when the courses weren't being mowed, we had less people play. They'd noticed that because no one wanted to.

I didn't want to go tripping through knee high grass. You having those little black seeds stick to you and everything else, it's not fun. It's just trying to find your disc. It's miserable. So we've noticed that we did have slowdowns when the main courses haven't been mowed. Now you recently had Tulsa, just

⁠ Impact of Major Events on Local Business ⁠

recently had the the world, that was it, the world champs or the AM championships? We had junior worlds. Junior Worlds. We had Junior Worlds as a store owner in a in a town where they're having a big event like that. How does does that affect your traffic at all? My gosh, it was incredible. It it we had, we got to, we saw we were keeping track. We had 11 of the 19 countries come into the store.

Wow, yes, we got to meet quite a few, like even Essie who's playing right now in the European GGBT, Trinity Bryant. We got to meet a lot of the juniors that are taking the stage. And it was, it was fat. It was so cool. We just had a blast getting to meet everybody and have so many people come to the store for as a store owner, it is very beneficial. Yeah. Have something like that.

I remember how we we had it in Emporia and of course I was doing some video work for it. And I would have to say, I mean, I get excited when I go to big events just because you see people playing and having a great time around disc golf. But to see those little kids just put their all into it, like they treat it as serious as like the adults. And then I, I can't, I feel bad, but I don't remember his name,

but the 11 kid, he won. I think it was either MJ 12 or or or younger, but he wanted he was so stinking excited and it just was like the the emotion you felt was like, man, that is so cool. Was there any particular moment that you remember from having worlds there that that stuck out to you to say, man, this is This is why I love being in in disc golf. It was just the whole

environment and vibe. The players pack pickup was so fun because we got to see almost every single kid hearing the different languages being spoken. When you were at it was just it was crazy. The Chinese group that was here had the world's worst time getting out of Tulsa. That one, I felt so horrible for them. They called us and it asked if I could take him to the airport from the Airbnb and I was glad to. So when picked him up, took him

to the airport. About 10:00 that night I get a phone call and their flights was one of the ones that have been cancelled because there was a bunch of flight cancellations. So we finally figured out how to get them over to the hotel. They're out at the airport and thankfully they had rooms available and they ended up sitting in the airport till the next afternoon before they finally got out. So that of course will always, you know, stuff like that.

You always, I stay in touch with the the guy that was sponsoring them and brought them over and they're all having a blast.

So I think it's the friends that you make from stuff like that that stand out of my line, my mind, 'cause like when I see EDA on coverage, I get very excited because I know her and I get to, I've watched her grow and I watched her unfortunately lose on the last hole at Post Oak. And when I the sight that will always stay in my head was her and Jennifer Allen hugging and she was just in tears. And it just broke my heart. I was thrilled for the other girl.

But you know what you that heartbreak hurts. It makes it tough. So it's memories like that that stay in your mind and make it worth it. Absolutely, for sure. OK, so big, big events definitely help, but I also know just from working at Dynamic Discs that smaller events actually help as well.

⁠ Balancing Big and Small Events ⁠

And I know from your presence on the Tulsa Facebook page, the disc golf page, that you guys run quite a few events during the season. Tell me a little bit how, what do you think, in your opinion, what works better, the bigger events or the smaller events? Or is it like maybe both?

It's both. People want the big events because if they're competing, most people are at the point that they are wanting to make it to a world, be it am World Masters, Worlds, Junior Worlds. You're, you know, if you're a PDGA member and you're playing in sanctioned tournaments, that's your goal or it should, in my opinion, it should be your goal. Try to get your points.

So in that situation we look at it from we want to offer as many opportunities at a reasonable price for people to be able to get those points. So because we like next year 2027, we have world, we have masters worlds coming to Tulsa and I'm of the age that I can play. So my goal for this next year is to rack up my points so that I can play in worlds in 27. So yeah, it's going to be in my backyard. You wouldn't want to play now

you. Got me thinking maybe I need to figure out my game and and and play. Yes, because you know the courses and we'll have some new courses debuting for that. So it's we've got some exciting stuff coming for that. But from this tournament standpoint, you don't want to over saturate your market with too many expensive tournaments because then your people just don't have the money to play in your smaller tournaments.

So the C tiers are great way to throw a tournament out there where people need points, they can grab points. You don't want to over saturate your market though because if there's too many tournaments then you don't get the turn out that you need to make it to where at least you break even. So what are some of the events that you run that you think are successful and what are some things that maybe most players don't ever notice that takes a lot of effort in making sure

those events run first. First, tell me what type of events you run. So we run a mixture of sanction tournaments and unsanctioned stuff. My, my favorites are the, we do the one at the Driller Stadium where we put in the baskets in the stadium. We've had, in fact, DD has come out and filmed that the first year we did it. And then we've started a new one where we go out to, there's a place in Muskogee called the Castle of Muskogee and it's got a whole Renaissance village.

And then they use it for Renaissance. They use it for a haunted. They have a big haunted Halloween thing that they do out there. So they've got trails makes for great disc golf. So we got to put in two courses out there this year and we're going to do it again in the spring. And that's the type of stuff that I enjoy more than anything is getting to create a course and have everybody come play it.

And so I do my sanction like we just held AB tier in Stroud and had a great turn out, had a fun time. The hardest thing I've found is finding unique player packs. That's where to answer your second part of that question. That's where people look for stuff that's different. I actually had people sign up because we did a stool and a metal mini and they were like, that's a cool player, Pat, we're going to sign up. So that's where I struggle.

I always try to find make it so that I want the players to feel like they've gotten their money's worth for their entry fee and so that they want to come back and play my tournaments. So that's the resources that you use to kind of find unique items. Usually I'll call up the different distributors and see what they have that is unique right now. This time we use Dirty Birdie and they were the ones, you know, when I talked to him, I say, all right, what what can we

do? They were like we have. Stools. And I was like done. So it's, it just depends on what you guys have to offer as to what attracts, you know, you just kind of have to look at what people like. And stools are something that if I don't give them all away, if they don't, I'll go, I'll have them for inventory. I can sell them. So it's not, I'm in a little different situation than some tournament directors are because I do have the store, I can use

it for payout. And that's a big plus to people playing in my tournaments. And that's why they like playing in them is because I'll take some discs with me so that they have payout. But I give them the option to bank it and come to the store and use it. And I get usually my anybody local will do that. If they're from out of town, they'll go ahead and take their payout there at the store, but the rest of the time they're coming to the store. So there's.

Advantages. Yeah. What's what's something you would tell a store owner or maybe someone that's connected to a store that's hasn't run events yet, What's something you would tell them to remember or keep in mind if they decide to start running events? Your biggest piece? Piece of advice?

⁠ Running Successful Disc Golf Events ⁠

Perception, how people perceive you if they perceive you as a like, if you're wishy washy, if you're not, if you don't know the PVGA rules, you, you as a store owner, I get put, I'm expected to know every single rule and I get asked it all the time. And so as a tournament director, I have to make sure that I know the rules, that I portray the store correctly, that I'm not out there running around partying. You know, you have to extend

your store to the tournament. So however you act in the store, you need to act that way as a tournament director. That's the best advice I can give you because. I've seen Facebook posts where the tournament director is out playing or out drinking or out whatever. Yeah, and that's that's not, not a good look when you're trying to run an event. No, because everything you do, I have to be very careful about what I say on social media. I have to be very careful about what I say in the store.

I have to be very, very politically aware what's going on so that I don't say the wrong thing because it could hurt me and my business, so it could hurt me personally. So as a tournament director, you have to remember that and you have to, you have to treat the tournament like it's your business. And if you do that, usually you've got all your dot i's dotted, your T's crossed so that everything goes smoothly and you don't have issues.

If you treat it more like it's a big party, then you're in trouble. Yeah, let's kind of switch gears a little bit. I've, I've, I've been hearing a different talks about, you know, we're still kind of leveling out after the pandemic, after the craziness of the pandemic, You know, the dynamic disks where I work, we're not, we're not immune to all the stuff happening with, with finances and things like that as far as it's slowing down.

But like, as a store owner, what, what are you feeling as far as the height of the pandemic coming down?

⁠ Post-Pandemic Reflections on Disc Golf ⁠

And, and is, do you still feel like this? You, you mentioned earlier about you still get new people. So it seems like disc golf is still a sport that's growing. It's just not quite as crazy as it was the hyper growth that it was. What what? What are your thoughts on that? It definitely is leveling out. We're noticing that our sales have definitely declined. The pandemic was that the first year of the pandemic was just crazy was seen as everybody realized that we could play disc

golf. It went nuts. And then it has we have noticed that it is leveled out over especially the probably the last two years more so. And it's not, it's not the fact that people are not playing, it's we're noticing that when people come in instead of going straight, we're, we're starting to notice the financial side of it. The impact people are instead of going straight to the new disks are now walking in and going straight to the used disks because they can get, they can

get more for their money. So that's where we're noticing the big shift right now due to the economic. Financial uncertainty, uncertainty. Going on yeah, certainties that are going around right now.

⁠ Navigating Inventory Challenges ⁠

So that's definitely where we have seen the biggest difference. It's not really like we've levelled out like I said over the last two years we've levelled out. We have about the same amount of customers every day. You know, we're we're maintaining nicely. It's not we're not millionaires, you know, but it's it's it's going OK. Like I said, we're we're noticing it now is the higher priced is definitely are very hard to sell. So it's we're just kind of playing it by ear right now.

But on leveling it out, it has leveled out, that is for sure. As far as across brands and stuff like that, do you does it over the years? How do you, I guess how do you navigate when a branch like way on top it kind of goes down and then another brand comes up and then goes down. That's got to be like crazy because you want to make sure you have the right inventory for when people come in based on what's popular for that, you know, for the season or forever,

how long. So what's kind of is there? Is there any sort of strategy for that or you just kind of learning as you go? We have started that. We have back stock upon back stock upon back stock of discs that we have bought thinking, oh, this disc will be fantastic, people are going to buy it. It's a guessing game from the standpoint of the store owners. Some discs you, you hit it right on the head, you order the right amount, everything goes great.

Other disks you sit on and sit on and sit on and pray at some point that somebody's going to want that disk. We so it's a struggle. We've, we have to figure out like every time we get a new order for you to like, we get Maverick sends out the weekly update and we go and look at it on Fridays and we're like, OK, here's what's coming up. What of this do we want to buy? What if this, do we already have 20 judges, classic blend judges in stock right now?

Do we really need just because it's got a different state? You know, we, you have to look at all the different things. If it's a different plastic, of course we're going to buy it because it's something that people like. The 0E peak has become my favorite putter. I absolutely love that thing and I got it in a trilogy challenge. So it's things. It's it's tough. It really is. You have to kind of know what like right now, this craft is of course the hot commodity.

So you have to look at what they're putting out. Like the Luna Battle packs coming up. We had to guess. We had to take a big guess how many to order. We may get stuck with 20 of them leftover. We don't know. So it's there isn't, there's not any one disc that people are going. You got to get it. It's across multiple distributors.

I think that's so interesting and, and, and the fact that there are so many different manufacturers out there, you know, you got the little guys that think they have the the next best thing and they may be hot for a while and then they kind of, you know, kind of go away.

So I can't imagine as a store owner trying to figure out because you want to make sure you have enough because you want to sell, but then you don't want to, you want to make sure you don't have too much because it's like you said, it's, it's just sitting there and then that's just money sitting there, not allowing you to make more money. So I'm sure that can be, yeah, I'm sure that can be frustrating.

What it what with that in mind, what's, what's something that you noticed that when people come shopping, what's like a a misconception they have or something You're like, man, I wish they knew better as far as coming in and shopping. Oh what the difference is between stable over stable and under stable? I think it's like a regional thing, I feel like. So you tell me what? How do you tell? How do you explain the stability

of a disk to people? So First off, we we will go through the numbers with them, but we've got to get people off of the fact that stable does not mean over stable, right? So what we, because we have, yeah, well, people come in, I want a stable disk and you're like, fantastic. Do you want it to go straight or do you want it to go to the left? And they'll be like, oh, I want it to go to the left. You want it overstable.

This the other thing we use that works very well, but it I mean, we say it, you'll probably hear us two or three times throughout the day, especially with new people. Show them how to add the last two numbers together to turn in the fade. If it's a negative number, it is going to be a if you can get it to the right speed, it is going to do its flight numbers, it's going to go to the right. If the numbers equal out to 0, it's going to end up very

straight in front of you. If they end up positive, it's going to go to the left. You know, of course. And then we explained that the higher the number, the more it's going to go. So like my escape does a beautiful little S and ends up pretty much it's all ends up being it's a .5 and so it just ends up slightly to the left. So we found that that using that analogy has helped a lot to get people to understand the difference between under stable,

stable and over stable. I've made that mistake myself. Big, I mean, because I'll throw something and I'll be like, man, that thing is stable. What I really mean is it's over stable. But it's been ingrained in my head that stable means that it's turning hard, you know. So anyway, I probably should start realizing that as I do my video so that people understand that I mean more over stable.

I guess in my mind, sometimes when I say band that is over stable, I don't want people to think that I'm thinking the extreme. So when I think over stable, I think the extreme of it fading hard, whereas stables more like what is this kind of going to do its natural fate over to the left. So, but but yeah, I can see that. I can see that being a an issue when. There needs to be one more word, one more terminology in between over stable and stable for the.

I know exactly what you're trying to get to. Yeah. Because there is. There's a difference between. I get it. I do, yeah. OK, so I, I, I want to switch

⁠ Understanding Disc Stability ⁠

gears again because one of the reasons I reached out to you is because you had, I posted something on AI, can't remember what Facebook group it was, but asking people about veterans for vets because it was the time of season to run that and you had run one before. So what drew you initially to wanting to run a veteran for vet event? We actually have a veterans group, A veterans disc golf group in Tulsa and they have been working on raising money.

And so they reached out to me and asked me if I would run 1. And I was have utter love and respect for our military and was glad to. So we chose a company called The Coffee Bunker, which helps with legal woes for people, for veterans. And so we very much, they're literally a coffee house and they're fabulous. So we chose them as our beneficiary, beneficiary. We've actually done it two years and raised between the two years $4000 for them. That's awesome.

So having the raffle item with the veterans having the basket was fantastic because that people will shell out 100 bucks easy to buy raffle tickets because of the cost. Yeah, that's awesome. Is there any particular moment from a past veterans for vet that stuck out to you? We actually had a whole group come over and play from Little Rock at the last one we did and they they run one in their city and they wanted to come and support us when we ran ours.

And they were a great bunch of guys and our group welcomed them in and everybody had a blast. But that's the that's the I remember us all standing in the room doing the raffle and they were hooping and hollering and just having a ball. And so shout out to them. They were definitely a memorable put a smile on my face every time I think of it.

The other thing is having a friend of mine go Did you know that this disc I got from your Veterans Investor Vets tournament is the best disc I've ever had? That's cool. And she doesn't stop throwing it, she still throws it to this day. So it's things like that that make them memorable and make them fun and knowing that you are helping a charity that is for a good 'cause that's doing work.

Yeah, it's, it's fun for people to be able to play an event, you know, get out and compete because they love competing. But then there's also that underlying like this is actually going for a good cause. And so no matter how you play your best, your best round or your worst round, your you can at least walk away and say at least I helped make a little bit of a difference in some veterans lives.

So I think that's great. It's fantastic and we're so thrilled that you guys offer it for us to be able to use. Yeah, I'm excited about what this one y'all have to figure I'll have to watch for your dates so I can come. Maybe I, if you'll let me, I can maybe use it as kind of A to create a video about veterans for vets. Yeah, to post on there. I think that'd be kind of fun.

I would love to. I'll get with you after this and we'll figure out, I'll go look through the calendar and we can figure, figure out what a good date would be. Yeah. So looking forward to 2026 again, because at the end of the year, and this is how people start thinking like, what's something you'd like to try in 2026 that maybe you haven't done yet when it comes to your store? Question because I hadn't thought of that.

No, Yeah, yeah. Any opportunities you see maybe in in in Tulsa that you haven't tried or? No, not really. Unfortunately, that's kind of boring on this point just because we're still hesitant on what's happening with the economy and everything. We're we're being very careful about our decisions of what we're buying and kind of expenditures going forward. We're just trying, you know, We're just playing it safe right

now, to be totally honest. Well, do that in that vein because right now, well, we talked about it in the last episode where I think it was like 60 something out of the 91 pros have their contracts ending in 2025, which means there could there could be a lot of changes as far as people moving. And I know from my experience that that really people, you know, the die hard fans, they really pay attention to that stuff. Yes, they do. Yeah. So how does those how do those

big shake UPS affect a store? Maybe they don't at all. They do kind of. Unless you are a Ricky Wysocki, unless you are a Page Pierce a the big names. Most of the smaller names pros don't sell discs so people don't

⁠ Impact of Pro Player Contracts ⁠

switch companies when they switch. Now when your big name switch then yes you have a big upset and if some like when disk craft got so many people that's why they became the top right now. So unless you're a super big name, you don't sell discs. We don't have people coming in asking for lower name people. And it's it sucks, but it's just part of right now how disc golf is going.

Now they don't get me wrong, if they're at a tournament and the people are there selling their discs, they will go and buy them from them because they want to support them on tour. But we don't have people come in going, can I get a disc from Nate Doss? We'll just use just trying to throw names out there. You know, we only have them come in looking for big names. So that makes it a little bit

tougher on our side. It's interesting that is that that's because a lot of people always say they want that. They're like it. We we want you to make, you know, discs in these people's names. But it sounds like it's it's proven to really not move the needle as much as some people think it does. It doesn't, it really doesn't. I mean, even the from the disc craft standpoint, the commutative discs that they're putting out for when someone wins, those don't sell.

People will buy them when they just want a disc because they look cool. But like we'll order some and they'll say that we have a table that we put new releases on and they'll sit on there for a while. It's that is not the for for the majority of disc golfers, that is not something that people ask for. But I'm going to caveat that I would say probably 60% of disc golfers don't even care about DGPT. They're just out to play the sport recreationally and have fun. They don't care about

tournaments. They don't care about many tournaments. They don't. They just want to play disc golf and from a store. That's like when I look at the majority of the people that walk in my door, I'll go one out of five place tournaments. So if they don't play tournaments, they usually don't pay as much attention to the DGPT side of it, the competitive side of it, till I guess is the better way to say it. So when they look at a disc that has somebody's name on it,

they're like, who's this person? Yeah, OK. Yeah. They're like kind of like, oh, OK, that's nice. Yes, that's and they look at it. I have more people come in and go. This stamp has a bear in it. I love there and that's why they buy the disc. And it's just, you know, when you look at the numbers of how many people play disc golf versus how many people play competitively, the number is so small in the big picture of the people that are playing.

So it makes it tougher to get them to know who these people are. Does that make sense? No, absolutely. And I'm glad I'm glad that you brought that up only in the sense that I think it was Seth that was on a podcast. Seth who's over House of this, that he said something very similar to what you're saying as far as like that. You know, the the big, the big

die hard fan fans are important. It's not that the you guys aren't important, but you you don't make the bulk of the disc golf shopper or the disc golf demographic the more casual guy. And I remember a buddy of mine, I played with him quite a few years ago. Well, yeah, a few years ago. And I had switched over when I was doing stuff for class discs. And we started talking about disc golf. And he'd like I, he ordered his bag off Amazon. He ordered his dirt bag off Amazon.

And I'm like, don't you, don't you shop locally? But yeah, I go to, I go to basket case every now and then. But and then I would start talking about certain players, you know, like who you know, And he had a full bag of discs, right? You know, he had all kinds of discs and he had bought stuff from you guys. He had bought stuff from Amazon and he was just, that's just, he loves his weekend disc golf. He'll play a tournament every

now and then. But to him, it's just a Saturday, Sunday thing to get out and have some time being outside. But other than that, he could care less of who who won what or who played what big event. Yeah. So that's interesting. So. So. OK, 110. Yeah, go ahead. He's one that we converted. He was a casual player.

He still won't play tournaments, but now we've got him quite addicted to every weekend he watches a disc golf and but he's still he's not one that will go buy a disc because of somebody's name on it. He's that's just not his now he loves his disc, don't get me wrong, but he just bites him because he likes the disc. It doesn't matter who's on it.

⁠ Promoting Disc Golf Events ⁠

OK, one final question. If you had a magic wand, it can change one thing about disc golf going into the next year. What would it be and why? I would love to have some sort of tool that was a little easier or all right, I got. So my issue has been trying to promote anything that we do. We have Facebook and we have Instagram. And if people are not on those two platforms, it's very hard to reach them because we don't want to e-mail everybody and you know, because I hate getting the emails.

So if I had a magic wand, there would be some magic app out there that was literally Facebook for disc golf where everybody could be on it. No politics, no you, you could promote all your stuff, all you wanted and everybody could see it. You didn't have people, you know, because there's some people that don't like Facebook, there's some people who don't like TikTok, there's some people that don't like Snapchat, there's some people that don't like Instagram. You know, just one little app

where all it is is disc golf. If I could read you the magic on 2026 that would be it. That would be it, huh? Well, unfortunately, Amy, that's why I have a job because there's so many different platforms that you need people that that's all they're doing is pushing stuff out on the different platforms. There used to, there used to be. What was the big one that I know disc golf's seen, but of course it's it's kind of turned to me. It's just turned into a place to look for events.

It's not really a community to talk. But remember there was, there was one that was popular for a while and then it kind of went away. I did. It. No, it was something else I had. It was very Myspace looking. Gosh, I don't remember. And I know some people are listening, probably going to yelling at the radios or the TV telling me what it is, but I can't remember.

Anyway, I remember it was a, it was dedicated to disc golf and you could go and you could, it was back when like forums and those were real popular and it had a, it had forums. We can go on and talk about stuff and so rid of that. Yeah. But it's, it's gone. It's gone away now. Or maybe it's still out there, just not. I don't know that it's very

active. Yeah, that would be my the, the biggest struggle has just been figuring out how to promote stuff so that get as many people as possible to know about it. And that's where I'm finding that for 2026. I'd love to wave a Magic wand and find a solution to that. That's because I've had people come up and go. I just found out that you had a tournament last weekend and I'm like, we've been doing everything we possibly can. We put an event on you disc. We put an event, you know, we

put it on disc golf scene. We put it on Facebook, we put it on it's, you know, we put it everywhere we possibly can. And if people, you know, you put it on your web page, you put it everywhere you can and you still struggle. So I'd say that's probably the magic wand moment. Got you. OK.

⁠ Looking Ahead to 2026

Well, thank you for that. And thank you so much for, again for being on the show, talking about your store and some of your thoughts and of course, about veterans for vets. And so, yeah, I appreciate it. I appreciate that very much, Amy. Glad to.

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