Evaluating pro player popularity in disc golf.
December 27, 2025 by Josiah Zoodsma and Jesse Weisz in Analysis, News
Note: If possible, please use Google Chrome to view this article. Some browsers, like Firefox, do not always display the charts correctly.
What drives us to root for specific players? In our previous article, we outlined who the favorite MPO and FPO players are in the disc golf community. In this article, we begin to investigate what drives this fandom.
After respondents selected their favorite MPO and FPO players, we asked, “What is the main reason that the selected player is your favorite player?” Respondents could choose 1 of 13 pre-written reasons. Below is the distribution of results for this question:
- Similar to results from 2024, “You like their personality” was the most frequently selected reason for both MPO and FPO players, with over 25% of respondents citing this as the primary factor in selecting their favorite players.
- In general, the main reasons driving respondents to have a specific favorite player are relatively consistent between MPO and FPO players.
- “You are in awe of what they are capable of doing” and “You enjoy their social media content” were selected more often as reasons for why an MPO player is a favorite, compared to FPO players
- On the other hand, “They are a winner” and “You like their looks and/or personal style” were chosen more frequently as the main reason for FPO players being a respondent’s favorite.
We also calculated which touring professional was most frequently selected as the favorite player among respondents who chose a specific reason as the driving factor for their favoritism. You can hover over the bars to view results for MPO and FPO. For example, among respondents who indicated that “You like their personality” was the primary reason for selecting their favorite FPO player, Ohn Scoggins was the most chosen .
The visualization above shows overall trends across all players, but what drives favoritism within the disc golf community for a specific player? In the next figure, you can compare each player to another, or to the division average, to see how fanbases differ. We have included the Top 20 most selected favorite MPO and FPO players.
Searchable MPO/FPO Why Favorite
We encourage you to compare any combination of players in this interactive chart above! To pick out one interesting comparison, we compared the main reason for favoritism of fans of Kristin Lätt and Silva Saarinen. “They are a winner” and “You are in awe of what they are capable of doing” were more commonly selected for Lätt, while “You enjoy their play style” and “They are an underdog” were chosen far more often for Saarinen.
Now that we know a little more about why we root for the players that we root for, how sticky is our fandom? How often do our favorite players change? This year, we explicitly asked if your favorite MPO or FPO player had changed in the past year:
– 17.7% of respondents said their favorite FPO player changed in the past year.
– 9.0% of respondents said their favorite MPO player changed in the past year.
The two authors of this piece have discussed at length how we differ in what makes a player our favorite. Jesse has one clear, definitive favorite player. On the other hand, Josiah could name a favorite if pressed, but generally has a handful of players that he considers favorites. So, which of these views is more common among the rest of disc golf fans?
- A little more than half of respondents indicated that they had a single favorite player in both MPO and FPO (Team Jesse!).
- To dig a little deeper, we looked at which players have the highest percentage of their fans indicating, “definitely, this is my favorite player.” For this analysis, we focused on players with more than 100 selections for “this is my favorite player”, which is roughly the Top 12 in each division.
- In FPO, Kristin Lätt leads the way with 64.6% of respondents who said Kristin was their favorite FPO player indicated that she was a “definite #1 favorite FPO player.” On the other end, Ella Hansen and Holyn Handley ranked the lowest in this metric at 40.6% and 42.7%, respectively.
- In MPO, Paul McBeth leads the field with 64.9% of respondents who indicated that Paul was their favorite MPO player, also indicated he was a “definite #1 favorite.” Aaron Gossage sits at the bottom of this group at only 32.7%.
What about fandom outside of your favorite player? Do the same factors that make someone your favorite also influence who we root for overall? To find out, we asked survey respondents, on a scale of 1 to 5, how important each of these factors was to whom they rooted for.
- Overall, the reasons for choosing a favorite player closely match the reasons for general fandom.
- Personality matters! 95% of respondents indicated that personality was a contributing factor to their fandom, with 72% of respondents indicating it contributes greatly.
- For many of these answers, there are split opinions on how much it affects their fandom. For example, “You think their values and views align with your own” contributes greatly to the fandom of 23% of respondents, but has little to no effect for 24% of respondents.
Let’s dig a little deeper. Do certain personal attributes shape what drives our fandom? In the next section, we’ll explore two possible attributes: our age and when we started following professional disc golf.
- We grouped respondents by age and averaged their ratings for each factor. A larger number indicates that the factor contributes more to a player’s fandom.
- Surprisingly, most factors are consistent across age groups, suggesting that age is not a driving factor of the aspects that drive player fandom.
- The one standout? “You enjoy their social media content” matters less the older the respondent.
- Similar to age, fans who started watching this year and those who’ve followed professional disc golf for over a decade ago show similar patterns, but with some interesting differences.
- Newer fans were more in awe of what players were capable of, along with their social media content, than older fans.
- On the other hand, long time fans cared more about interactions and having a connection with a player where they live.
In last year’s article, we explored how Fandom Scores vary across specific subgroups of respondents. For example, we looked at breakdowns for European respondents, or respondents who identify as women.
This year, we’re taking a similar approach, but focusing exclusively on the newest fans to the sport. Specifically, we’ll examine respondents who began following professional disc golf within the past two years (starting in 2024 or 2025). These fans represent approximately 11% of our survey respondents (1,074 responses). So who are these newcomers rooting for? Below, you’ll find the Top 20 players ranked by average Fandom Score for this group.
- Silva Saarinen is #1 in average Fandom Score among the newest fans, eclipsing Simon Lizotte.
- Barela, Koling, and Aderhold jumped into the Top 5 among newcomers.
But how do these Fandom Scores compare to the rest of the respondents? The next graph highlights the biggest shifts; positive values indicate that the player is more popular among new fans and negative values indicate the opposite.
- Gannon Buhr has the largest increase in average Fandom Score among new fans relative to long-time fans, gaining nearly a full point in average Fandom Score.
- Matt Orum, who took down his first and only Elite Series win at the end of 2023, headlines those with lower scores among newcomers. It is likely that a decrease in lead card coverage for Orum over the past year led to this swing, while for other players, a decrease in coverage may have contributed to their increase in average Fandom Score among newest fans (e.g., Ryan, Freeman). Are there other variables that you would like us to explore? Let us know in the links below! We will try to feature the interesting suggestions in our mailbag article at the end of the series.
Next Time
The next article in this series will be about the manufacturers of all of our favorite discs! Which are your favorites? Which manufacturer’s discs do you have in your bag right now? Stay tuned to find out how you compare to the rest of the disc golf community.
- If you are interested in learning more about the team and research goals at First Available Research, click here!
- If you want to read articles from last year’s Fandom Survey, click here!
- If you want to be notified of the publication of future articles in this series and/or want to take future disc golf surveys from our group, click here!
- If you have any questions, comments or mailbag topics for future articles, submit them here!
Special thanks to the Fandom Survey’s editor, Karl Lamothe.
Throughout the offseason, we will be publishing more articles showcasing the results of the 2025 Fandom Survey. Here are the articles that have been published so far:
- The Survey Itself & Who Took It
- Which Pros Do We Root For and Against
- What Drives Fans to Root for Certain Players?
- How Fans Feel about Disc Manufacturers
- How Fans Feel about Disc Golf Media (Part 1)
- How Fans Feel about Disc Golf Media (Part 2)
- The Most Popular Discs
- Disc Golf Purchasing Trends
- Last Questions and Final Thoughts
Links for the 2024, 2023, and 2022 Fandom Series articles can be found here.
