And how do fans consume disc golf content?
January 7, 2026 by Jesse Weisz and Josiah Zoodsma in Analysis
This past week, word came out of changes at the Disc Golf Network (DGN), with commentators not being invited back to the DGN booth for the 2026 season. Given this news, we thought it would be timely to release an article focused on the fandom of live and post-produced disc golf coverage, including commentators. If you would like to learn more about the survey and the demographics of the respondents, please read this accompanying article.
How does the disc golf community consume professional disc golf coverage? We asked survey respondents who indicated they followed the professional side of the sport, which of these ways they have consumed the professional side of the game in the last year:
Professional Watching Percentage
- More than 82% of respondents watched some post-produced coverage on YouTube, and over 62% identified that they watched live coverage on DGN.
Few of us have the bandwidth and time to watch every single disc golf event. Outside of when our schedules allow, what influences our decision to watch specific events? For this question, we asked respondents how 12 different factors influenced their decision on which events they watched. The graph below shows how strongly each of these factors influences respondents’ decisions on whether to watch an event.
- Last year, we asked a similar question but in a different format and with a different set of factors. “What other activities are in my life that weekend” was a new factor added this year and proved to be the most influential.
- Only ~9% of respondents indicated that the event’s commentators strongly influenced their decision of which events to watch.
For most of disc golf’s history, following the professional level as a fan was difficult. The primary access points were VHS cassettes, DVDs, magazines, online forums, etc. As we entered the digital age, YouTube channels such as Disc Golf Monthly (beginning in 2006), The Disc Golf Guy (2010), Central Coast Disc Golf (2011), McFlySoHigh (2012), Jomez Pro (2012), Spin TV (2013), Gatekeeper Media (2017), and GK Pro (2018) made coverage of professional disc golf easy to find and free to watch. Live coverage from Disc Golf Planet, Smashboxx, and eventually DGN were also significant forces. The graph below shows the year in which the Fandom Survey respondents started following professional disc golf.
Number of survey respondents beginning to follow professional disc golf each year
- Largely caused by regulations surrounding the COVID pandemic, 2020 saw an unprecedented number of new players and fans, both playing and watching disc golf. Indeed, more than 25% of the 2025 survey respondents started following professional disc golf in 2020 or 2021.
- In the years following this period of unprecedented growth, the influx of new fans has slowed.
- It is important to note that the newest fans may be less likely to encounter or participate in this survey, and therefore the magnitude of decline in new fandom may not be adequately represented in this graph.
Disc Golf Commentating
The 2025 DGPT schedule included 26 events. Over the course of these events, there were 16 different commentators on at least one MPO or FPO round. Each broadcast normally has one play-by-play (PxP) commentator, who is responsible for providing a detailed narration of action on screen to keep the audience engaged and informed. Alongside them are one or two color commentators, typically retired or semi-retired professional disc golfers, who provide live analysis.
The breakdown of commentator appearances is summarized below. For comparison, here is our 2024 appearance chart.
DGN Commentator Appearances in 2025
- Ian Anderson (7 MPO, 8 FPO events) had the most appearances in 2025, but according to Anderson, he has not been asked to return to the DGN booth in 2026.
- Esa-Pekka Tupala (7 MPO, 7 FPO events) had the second most appearances.
- Terry Miller (6 MPO, 6 FPO events) had the third most appearances. Like Anderson, Miller indicated that he too might not be returning to the booth in 2026.
In previous years, we asked respondents to rate commentators on a 0-10 scale. This year, we asked them instead to select 1 to 3 commentators to create their preferred booth for both live and post-produced coverage. This change made the survey quicker to complete and provided a fresh perspective on preferred commentators.
- Brian Earhart is the most preferred live color commentator in the sport. He also had the most appearances for MPO color commentary, which means, in this case, DGN is giving the fans what they want.
- Despite only four booth appearances in 2025, Nate Sexton remains very popular with fans and was the second most chosen commentator for live coverage. His BigSexy partner, Jeremy Koling, was the third most popular commentator. Will Sexton and Koling continue to be given more opportunities to cover live events in 2026? We’ll have to wait and see.
- For FPO, Juliana Korver was easily the most preferred color commentator. However, Korver has announced she will be stepping away from the booth in 2026.
- Next year, Kristin Lätt will be included in the survey as DGN recently announced that she will be color-commentating in 2026, specifically for events during the tour’s European swing.
- DGN has Play-by-Play commentators covering both MPO and FPO, with Finland’s Esa-Pekka Tupala as the most preferred. Of note, Tupala was only assigned to European events in 2025.
- We also looked at which commentators were most likely to be chosen to be in the booth together by each respondent. Across all respondents, the three most requested pairings in their dream booth were:
- Brian Earhart and Nate Sexton (16.2% of responses)
- Jeremy Koling and Nate Sexton (15.6% of responses)
- Esa-Pekka Tupala and Brian Earhart (10.2% of responses)
- Brian Earhart and Nate Sexton (16.2% of responses)
- We can also look at individual pairings in a different way. “Over 50% of respondents who selected [Commentator 1] also selected [Commentator 2] for their dream booth.” This statement was true for four pairings, three of which included Earhart!:
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- Charlie Eisenhood -> Brian Earhart (63.7%)
- Grant Zellner -> Brian Earhart (57.9%)
- Jaani Länsiö -> Esa-Pekka Tupala (52.0%)
- Nate Perkins -> Brian Earhart (51.8%)
- Charlie Eisenhood -> Brian Earhart (63.7%)
It’s important to note that these commentators each had different numbers of opportunities to commentate in 2025, and this may influence how often they were selected. Commentators who appeared infrequently on DGN may be less likely to be chosen by respondents for this question because of a lack of recognition. Here, we plot the number of appearances for each commentator against how often they were selected by respondents.
- Nate Sexton and Jeremy Koling were both selected by more than 30% of the respondents, despite having four or fewer live commentary appearances. Their extensive work as commentators for JomezPro post-produced coverage likely increases their familiarity with respondents and contributes to their strong showing.
- Nate Perkins and Ken Climo each received more than 10% of selections despite having little to no booth presence in 2025. Will their support increase if they see more commentary opportunities in 2026? While there is no indication that Climo will return to the booth, the Ultiworld article referenced earlier indicates that Perkins is likely to see a significant increase in booth appearances for the 2026 season.
- Brian Earhart stands out as well, having been selected more than twice as often as any other commentator with an equal or greater number of commentary appearances in 2025.
What other things may impact who is chosen as the preferred live commentators? We next investigated the relationship between the number of events a respondent watched and who they would choose as their preferred commentators. We plotted this for all respondents who indicated they predominantly watched live coverage, which can be found here. Three main takeaways:
- For most commentators, there was no relationship between the frequency of inclusion in respondents’ most preferred booth and the number of events a respondent watches.
- The Top 5 commentators remain the same among respondents who watched all the events, as compared to all respondents; however, both Philo Brathwaite and Esa Pekka Tupala surpass Jeremy Koling among fans that watched at least 10 events.
- Selection rates for Tupala and Earhart increased with greater coverage consumption, whereas Koling’s selection rate decreased.
What is the relationship between a respondent’s age and their dream commentary booth?
- Brian Earhart is the most preferred Live commentator for all age groups.
- Nate Sexton and Philo Brathwaite make for an interesting comparison. While Sexton is much more popular with younger respondents, Brathwaite is more popular with respondents aged 51 or older.
Respondents were also asked to indicate which commentators they would prefer for post-produced coverage (JomezPro, Go Throw, etc.).
- Sexton is the most preferred post-produced commentator, followed by Koling and Ulibarri. In fact, 31.8% of respondents chose all three to fill their booth.
Next Time
The next article in this series will further explore disc golf media. You’ll learn which YouTube channels, Instagram accounts, and podcasts fans like the most. There will also be some ancillary data such as opinions on the central institutions of the sport. 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.
