Madness: Paul McBeth (really) needs to compete in Portland

By: Taylor Larsen

This article’s not a shot at Paul McBeth in the slightest …

Quite the opposite, in fact.

Ricky Wysocki, Chris Dickerson, Calvin Heimburg, Eagle McMahon – take your pick: Any other disc golfer on the planet could turn in a few consecutive mediocre performances at Pro Tour events, and nobody would bat an eyelash – that’s HARDLY the case for Mr. McBeth.

Paul saw plenty of early-season success, taking down his first two tournaments: the Memorial Championship and Waco Annual Charity Open, with the latter being an Elite Series event.

DGPT: Paul McBeth

From there, more strong performances, really: second at The Open at Belton, first at Throw Down the Mountain and second at yet another Elite Series event – the Jonesboro Open.

That last one was a bit of a double-edged sword, though …

And in more ways than one.

As you might recall, tied at 26 under par, McBeth took Heimburg to a single playoff hole at Disc Side of Heaven. Bummer alert: Teeing off on the first sudden-death hole, this happened …

It feels like Paul’s yet to recover.

Immediately following Jonesboro, McBeth traveled to Emporia for the Dynamic Discs Open. Heavy winds and plenty of artificial OB made for a brutal tournament: Only nine golfers out of an MPO field of 116 finished under par – this was the worst performance of McBeth’s career:

Next up was the Santa Cruz Masters Cup – eight strokes back of Gannon Buhr, Paul was never in the running. A stellar result by anybody else’s standards, it was a second-consecutive letdown for McBeth. Before this year’s event, the dude had won the Masters Cup five times. He’d also only finished outside of the top two three times – seventh-place just isn’t gonna cut it for the guy.

And finally, the OTB Open …

Paul’s last tournament and third following his playoff loss to Calvin in Jonesboro: 13 strokes back of Simon Lizotte – good enough for a four-way tie for 19th place. There was nothing noteworthy. There was nothing controversial – just another sizable serving of “meh.”

So how important is the 2022 Portland Open for McBeth, exactly?

Warranted or not, a fourth lukewarm result will get people talking – and more than they already are. I mean, yeah – the MPO field is deeper than it’s ever been. But Eagle’s out for the year with a bum elbow. And Rick just had a liter of knee gravy drained from one of his raptor legs …

That’s two of the top-five disc golfers in the world …

Now’s NOT the time to lose to guys like Justin Rosak (?), Dylan Horst (?) and Caleb Bruce (?).

With all that in mind, in the years I’ve followed professional disc golf, I’ve learned something: One of the best ways to look dumb is to bet against Paul McBeth. I’ve mistakenly done it before. Knowing what I know about McBeast’s game, I’m not about to switch things up …

I’ll be watching his play more closely than usual, though – that’s for certain.

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Taylor Larsen

Taylor Larsen is a staff writer for Green Splatter. He uses disc golf to self-reflect, pondering questions like, "Where the heck did I throw that?" and "What happens if the disc lands on top of the basket?" He resides in Utah with his dog, Banks, who loves to chase frisbees of all sorts.

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