How much money do top pro disc golf players make a year?

Via tournaments? I'm thinking about quitting my day job.

[wayhighoffire]

Avery Jenkins #7495


2008 $31,940

[Tino "SilverBack" Medina]

in the flying disc magazine there are breakdowns on winnings. As well as the innova site has a list of players event and I believe purses

[Geoff]

I would hope they receive $ through sponsorship and endorsements, bonuses for top finishes.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Not enough to live on.

[Samuel Adam Sherwood]

Ya not to mention its not cheap getting to an event and then room and board when there.

[Todd Mitchell]

Don't quit your day job!!!! Sponsors for the top pros don't dole out cash as you'd hope. It's not like they get a contract for $10,000 annually to wear, throw, thank and support their sponsors. They get free gear.

Bottom line - if you can't beat Avery, Dave, Ken, Steve, Nate, Barry, Eric, Jesper, etc. you won't be able to make a living at this game for sure.

There are bonuses (a couple hundred dollars at A Tier and above events) for team sweeps (i.e., Discraft, Innova) - if Innova players (Discraft players) sweep the top 3 spots they each get a bonus.

Innova and Discraft also have RVs that they'll allow their players to tour in.

As far as I know, that's the extent of the sponsorship support given to the top pros in the game.

The exception are those players who have discs with their name on it (i.e., Ken, Nate, Dave, Barry - the World Champs for nearly the last 2 decades) have independent agreements with the disc mfrs - but it's only those 4 as far as I know (formerly Juliana too).

It's actually a pretty sad state of affairs for the top disc golfers in the world - they certainly should be receiving CONSIDERABLY MORE for their efforts in terms of cash payouts (ooooh, $600 for winning when it can cost upwards of $1,000 to get to and play in some of those tourneys), sponsorship cash (not just gear), endorsements (on top of just gear). However, where is the money suppose to come from? Between the disc mfrs, who are running businesses? It's not fair to ask them to have their businesses support the entire game and forget about the first rule of business - making a profit.

Ideally, we could generate advertising dollars (like other sports), but our biggest problem with disc golf comes to bear on one issue - that's image. It's not possible to have big time advertisers (Coke, Pepsi, Allstate, Aetna, etc.) (Vibram is a huge abnormality and those golfers that made that happen could offer up their experiences and suggestions to others looking to generate outside sponsorships) jump in and give cash and support to a bunch of "hippie potheads." We HAVE to clean up the image of the game if we want that to happen. What people have to appreciate is that it's not a persecution, simply a decision we all make - do we want to see this game advance into a successfully recognizable sport at a TV level? If so, we can't have people taking hits on TV in the middle of a round, or at a Ring Of Fire (being filmed).

Therein lies the rub. We have two large factions within this game...those that get the fact that real money can only be made by staying away from the "hippie pothead" label often used to describe the sport, and those that don't care about the financial opportunity the sport stands on the brink of realizing. (see the recent conversation on the happenings at the 2008 Players Cup)

The resolution lies somewhere in the middle - as always, regardless of the issue.

[Chuck Kennedy]

The image is a relatively insignificant factor compared with lack of spectators either in person or online, especially those that pay to watch. We are a participation sport where most people would rather play than watch. If that continues, we can become as big as softball in participants, but still no spectators, meaning few sponsors outside the sport, if any. If we were pulling a few thousand spectators to an event, bigger sponsors would notice. As long as the top players kept on a straight line in public, any overall image produced by casual players would not matter. Use snowboarding as an example.

[Terry "the Pirate" Calhoun]

Agree with Chuck. When we have top pros at a DGLO for a Final Nine and many of the Am players who already played a round in competition would rather be out playing another round on the parts of the course not in use than watching in the gallery for the top pros. . . well, that's a participant sport, not a spectator sport.

Now, in terms of value for money for players, and in terms of lifelong fitness - that's good. In terms of spectators to push ads to, not so much.

[Red Line Disc Golf]

Like every one else has said keep in mind that the following information did not take into account: travel expenses, food, equipment, maintenance bills (hospitalization, medication, etc.) as well as additional sponsorships from which they may receive money or gear. Also keep in mind these totals are gross pre tax totals so once uncle sam takes his cut the numbers will be less.

Points leaders: Pro Open players top 50 According to PDGA tour statistics published 2008

Name PDGA# Events State Country Points Cash Rating

Avery Jenkins 7495 28 OR USA 20258 $ 31940 1028
David Feldberg 12626 26 OR USA 18663 $ 36854 1039
Eric McCabe 11674 33 KS USA 17688 $ 28519 1029
Barry Schultz 6840 24 WI USA 15608 $ 21686 1031
Jay Yeti Reading 15864 30 IA USA 14830 $ 11629 1011
Geoff Bennett 24962 54 MI USA 14638 $ 16904 1015
Nathan Doss 11794 13 CA USA 14440 $ 26545 1036
Cale Leiviska 24341 23 MN USA 13255 $ 13818 1022
Steve Brinster 10628 20 NJ USA 12910 $ 9433 1020
Paul McBeth 27523 29 CA USA 12728 $ 11603 1018
Chris Sprague 16425 35 IL USA 11758 $ 10775 1011
Will Schusterick 29064 32 TN USA 11643 $ 10143 1002
Nikko Locastro 11534 24 MO USA 11543 $ 12948 1024
Steven Rico 4666 20 CA USA 11345 $ 15825 1030
Adam Olsen 26100 34 IA USA 10698 $ 10220 1009
Matt Orum 18330 14 AL USA 10645 $ 12453 1028
Kris Orrick 20020 24 TN USA 10613 $ 11062 1014
Nathan Sexton 18824 26 OR USA 10430 $ 9670 1017
Gregg Barsby 15857 19 CA USA 10235 $ 7749 1006
Markus Källström13150 12 PA USA 10020 $ 8597 1034
Paul Ulibarri 27171 25 AZ USA 9788 $ 6739 1005
Josh Anthon 17946 13 CA USA 9750 $ 9280 1029
George R. Smith 4034 19 MO USA 9180 $ 6935 1016
Kevin McCoy 9453 23 GA USA 8980 $ 8126 1008
Karl Johan Hoj Nybo 28903 14 Denmark 8773 $ 5913 1009
Robbie Bratten 21541 24 TX USA 8470 $ 4397 996
Coda Hatfield 23651 31 OK USA 8135 $ 9743 1016
Ville Piippo 27555 17 Finland 8123 $ 6267 1015
Jalle Stoor 8992 15 Finland 7825 $ 2603 995
Christian Dietrich 27984 16 MT USA 7663 $ 6869 1011
Jeff Layland 17682 26 CO USA 7620 $ 4947 995
Espen Møkkelgjerd 17666 11 Norway 7573 $ 3976 1006
Garrett Gurthie 13864 19 FL USA 7435 $ 6139 1019
Patrick Blazek 25325 22 NV USA 7365 $ 4124 994
Matthew Blakely 15410 19 OH USA 7043 $ 5799 1008
Anders Kallstrom 13175 10 Sweden 6955 $ 1832 997
Jesse Heinonen 30940 9 Finland 6873 $ 1996 1001
Linus Åström 26586 11 Sweden 6858 $ 715 984
Brian Schweberger 12989 24 NC USA 6818 $ 11495 1025
Philo Brathwaite 26416 14 CA USA 6783 $ 4320 1010
Manabu Kajiyama 8139 12 Japan 6655 $ 6771 1010
Kim Scott-wood 19777 14 ON Canada 6650 $ 5349 1008
Brad Schick 7992 25 OH USA 6598 $ 9872 1017
Karl Arnby 8961 8 Sweden 6588 $ 3396 1011
Tyler Horne 16058 30 OH USA 6533 $ 5913 995
Ken Franks 25447 18 CA USA 6510 $ 4389 1003
Bill Themm 18967 20 MI USA 6440 $ 3812 1000
Emil Dahlgren 29048 8 Sweden 6370 $ 2987 1002
Kyle Crabtree 25596 16 CA USA 6330 $ 4083 1009
Mats-Åke Öberg 16995 11 Sweden 6285 $ 2006 991

[Jamestown]

I suppose if I could make any type of living with disc golf, I would do it.

[Lotto]

aaaaaaaaahahahaha, dont quit your day job. maybe be a comedian.

[Red Line Disc Golf]

The issue is that disc golf has yet to cross the threshold of being main stream, we all know that were on the verge but its yet to happen. In order for this to happen we will need major sponsorship, form more than just Innova, Discraft, Gateway, etc. we would need sponsors like Pepsi, Coke, Million dollar sponsors and lots of them. Think of it as a trickle down effect, in order for top pros to make 6 figures the top people above them in the chain would need to make twice that and so on till you get to the top were you have the investors like Pepsi. In order to pay the pro's 6 figures we would need to over a billion dollar a year business and in order for that to happen we would need to sell TV rights, mass merchandising, not to mention have spectator turn out equal to Worlds at every NT event.

Chad Curtis said:

I would love to be a touring pro--even if it only paid half a living. You can supplement that with other jobs hopefully in the recreational field.
But why can't the pros get paid like other atheletes?? Even 14 year old skateboarders make six figures. And if we pay a football player miliions to entertain us, why not disc golfers.