When wrist injuries and the pandemic robbed her of an outlet for her competitive spirit, Sarah Austin rediscovered disc golf. Austin, an Elon senior, now frequents local courses and tournaments as a proud professional disc golfer.
Disc golf, much like golf, is played on a course of nine to 18 holes. Each hole has a set par, or number of disc throws that is expected to get the disc in the basket. The object of the game is to complete the course in as few throws as possible for a higher ranking.
Though she was introduced to the sport as a child, playing once or twice a year with her family, Austin said she did not begin to take it seriously until early 2020.
Austin began hitting the course at least once a week, but when the pandemic arrived, it only pushed her play more.
“I played almost every single day,” Austin said. “Then by August of 2020, I decided I wanted to join the PDGA, which is the Professional Disc Golf Association, and I started playing competitively, and I’ve been playing competitively since then.”
The PDGA hosts and sponsors disc golf tournaments around the globe, including several within a short drive from Elon. Disc golf tournaments are similar to golf tournaments. They typically last two to four days, during which players compete in one round per day of 18 holes each.
Professionals and amateurs often play in the same tournaments at the local level, but pros pay a higher entry fee. The highest reward an amateur can hope for is store credit to the disc golf club or a local sports equipment store. As a pro, the reward for winning a tournament is cash.
Daniel Bascuñan-Wiley ’21, an amateur disc golfer, said there’s not much difference between professional and amateur tournaments, other than the value of the prize.
“You can still get a payout, but normally that in like a voucher for merch or swag or discs or whatever so I feel like the stakes might be a little bit lower,” Bascuñan-Wiley said. “It is not as serious as if you were playing pro, where you put a lot of money in and you have a lot at stake so you have to be really zoned in every time.”
For Austin, the high stakes sounded exciting, so after she had won her fair share of disc golf merchandise, she began looking for something more rewarding.
“After playing for a year and a half, I accumulated probably more than 150 discs,” Austin said. “I thought, ‘I’m done with being an amateur, I think I’m ready to go pro.’”
Austin submitted an application to the PDGA in November 2021 and paid the $75 annual membership fee, and she became a professional disc golfer.
“I’ve made about $600 in the past two months, and that’s just from playing in local tournaments in North Carolina,” Austin said. “That $600 came from four different tournaments, I believe, and I won all of them. I’m on a bit of a winning streak right now.”
Austin’s winning streak has taken her across the Southeast. Her latest tournament, the Alamance County Pro-Am, was hosted at Cedarock Park — only a 20-minute drive from Elon’s campus — but she has traveled as far as Florida for tournaments.
“I played in the amateur world championships last August, so I went and played in Orlando,” Austin said. “But I’d say typically I travel between 30 minutes and two hours for a normal weekend.”
Bascuñan-Wiley also competed at the Alamance County Pro-Am, playing in and winning the second amateur division. The Alamance County Pro-Am, like most disc golf tournaments, is divided into different divisions ranging from novice to professional, based on experience and PDGA membership.
Austin’s recent success has earned her a sponsorship deal with the Burlington franchise of Play It Again Sports.
“This is very exciting for me,” Austin said. “Play It Again Sports is a company I’ve been familiar with since I was young.”
The sponsorship, which began in January, had Austin promote Play It Again on her social media page and at tournaments, and the company gives her around $100 a month to fund tournament and equipment fees.
Sponsorships also interest Bascuñan-Wiley, but not just for himself. Bascuñan-Wiley runs ROBOT Disc Golf, a disc golf organization that posts tips and gives an inside look at PDGA tournaments, with his friend Matthew Mitten ’21. For now, ROBOT is just a way for Bascuñan-Wiley and Mitten to brand themselves on social media, but they have dreams of transforming it into a business, and offering sponsorship deals to professional disc golf players.
“We’re hoping to start sponsoring people,” Bascuñan-Wiley said. “Right now, we don’t know what that will look like. We’re thinking about doing social media content for people, sending out some merch, creating golf polos, and getting discs with our stamp on it.”
But Bascuñan-Wiley isn’t interested in becoming a professional himself quite yet.
“Maybe down the road. I think, for now, the skill set is not there. I think I’ve gotten a lot better, but not good enough to be winning cash,” Bascuñan-Wiley said.
For Austin, on the other hand, going pro and finding success did take effort, but she was able to manage the stress and pressure.
“Instead of saying, ‘Oh, it’s just for fun,’ now, it’s just for fun but there’s also $200 on the line,” Austin said. “It adds a little more pressure, but I remind myself that I do this for my mental health and for fun as my priority, and secondary is the money.”
Disc golf is a primarily male-dominated sport, according to Austin, but she said demographics are changing, making her excited for the future. In 2020, the PDGA reported that its membership was 93% men in an annual demographic report.
“It’s grown the past couple years, but it’s very skewed,” Austin said. “So it’s nice that they’re holding divisions for women to play against other women.”
Austin is looking for further success on the course as the professional disc golf season gets into full swing in the spring and summer.