Who is the GOAT?
April 15, 2026 by Josiah Zoodsma and Jesse Weisz in Analysis
In our last Fandom Survey article, we shared data related to the discs, bags, carts, and shoes that survey respondents purchase and use out on the course. In our final article of the year, we publish some data we haven’t released yet and look forward to the year to come!
One question that we are excited to publish for the first time since 2022 is who respondents thought the Greatest of All Time (GOAT) of the sport was. Note: This survey was completed in the summer of 2025.
- Nearly two-thirds of all respondents indicated that 17x Major winner and 6x World Champion Paul McBeth was the MPO GOAT. The bulk of the remaining respondents were for 18x Major winner and 12x World Champion Ken Climo.
- Buhr, with 2025 marking his fifth year on tour, is already at 4.3%, and that number will continue to climb if he can stay anywhere close to his current pace of dominance.
- In 2022, we asked this question a little differently, giving respondents the option of responding, “You can’t compare players across eras.” 29% of respondents chose that answer. This year, survey respondents were forced to make a choice, but we note that the above sentiment is certainly still prevalent among disc golf fans.
- A little over half of respondents indicated that Kristin Lätt, 7x Major winner and the player who completed the single-season Grand Slam in 2023, was the FPO GOAT. Paige Pierce and Julianna Korver finished in 2nd and 3rd, respectively.
Just like the Michael Jordan vs Lebron James GOAT debates in the NBA, the era in which a player competed and the time period that a fan started following the sport likely has the greatest impact on who they think the GOAT is. Here, we break down this question by the time period a respondent started following the sport.
- Respondents who started following professional disc golf before 2000 strongly believe that Ken Climo is the GOAT.
- Respondents who started following between 2000 and 2010 are almost exactly split down the middle, while respondents who began following after 2010 are increasingly favoring McBeth in the debate.
- Among the newest followers of the sport (last 3 years), almost 10% of them have Gannon Buhr as the GOAT.
- Similar to MPO, the more recently a respondent began following professional disc golf, the more likely they were to indicate that Kristin Lätt is the FPO GOAT.
- Interestingly, none of the age groups have 17x Major Champion Paige Pierce selected at a higher frequency than Lätt. Will this perspective change in the future if Lätt’s professional competing days are over?
Answering the question of who is the Greatest of All Time requires respondents to look back and evaluate a player’s career. Now we ask them to look ahead! For the third year in a row, we asked survey respondents: “Which MPO/FPO player do you think will win the most PDGA Majors in the next 5 years?”.
- Gannon Buhr retains a dominant lead, with over three-quarters of respondents selecting the reigning World Champion and DGPT Player of the Year. This is his 3rd straight year getting over 50% of the vote.
- Anthony Barela (8.7%; 2nd) and Niklas Anttila (2.6%; 4th) reach career highs for this answer, increasing in position each of the last three years.
- Calvin Heimburg and Eagle McMahon saw the largest decreases over the past few years.
- Silva Saarinen soars into the top slot in this year’s survey! This is likely a combination of (1) her coming off her first PDGA Major victory in 2025 and (2) Kristin Lätt, at the time of the survey, having uncertainty around her future touring plans.
- Cadence Burge elevated into fourth, with over 10% of the vote.
- Valerie Mandujano and Hailey King saw the largest decreases over the past few years, besides Kristin Lätt (who held over 70% of the vote the past two years).
In the table below, we show who WOULD have been the correct answer to this question if you asked at the start of each of the last 25 seasons. The number in parentheses indicates how many FPO or MPO Majors that player won in the ensuing five-year stretch of time.
- It’s important to note that we never really know when a new era is about to begin in the sport. If asked at the start of 2020, the correct answer for MPO would have been Isaac Robinson and Gannon Buhr. In 2020, Gannon Buhr had only competed in C-tiers in MPO and Isaac Robinson’s best finish at a Major or Elite Series event was outside of the Top 20. Is there a young talent about to make their first start who we will say similar things about in five years?
- Similarly in FPO, Paige Pierce would have been the correct answer at the start of 2010, but at that point she had yet to even start in a Major or Elite Series event!
The core goal for many of us who love disc golf is to grow the sport. To get to the heart of how to do that, we asked our respondents how they discovered disc golf. They were given 16 options, or could choose “Other” and fill in a custom response.
- The takeaway for anyone looking to grow the sport is clear: disc golf’s most powerful marketing tool is a friend with a bag of discs and a free afternoon. Nearly half of all respondents (45.8%) said they were introduced to disc golf by a friend who played, dwarfing every other discovery method by a large margin.
- Additionally, other word-of-mouth discoveries from siblings (4.8%), other family members (5.1%), coworkers (4.5%), parents (4.4%), partners (2.6%), and even children (2.5%) add another 24% together to this total. This totals to nearly 70% of all respondents having some form of word-of-mouth disc golf discovery.
- The second most common pathway — stumbling upon a course or basket in the wild — came in at 15%. This suggests that the placement and visibility of courses is important for the growth of the sport, and is likely a worthwhile investment for the PDGA as well as the broader disc golf industry.
- Digital media, despite its cultural prominence, plays a surprisingly modest role. YouTube channels like Jomez and CCDG accounted for just 3.6% of respondents. Other non-YouTube media registered a negligible 0.6%. For a sport with a passionate and growing online presence, this suggests that video content may be better at deepening engagement than sparking initial discovery.
- The pathway through ultimate frisbee (3.8%) hints at a natural crossover audience, while community institutions like schools (1.8%), churches (1.3%), and workplaces (4.5%) collectively show that organized group settings can also serve as meaningful on-ramps.
Nearly 2% of respondents chose “Other” and shared with us other paths taken to finding the sport:
- Many respondents started by throwing discs at trees and lamp posts.
- Some people were personally introduced to disc golf by some of the biggest names in the sport. Name drops included players such as Kristin and Silver Lätt, Kyle Klein, and founding fathers such as Jim Palmeri, Tom Monroe, and Ed Headrick.
- Many people mentioned receiving a disc golf starter pack as a gift.
- Several people mentioned finding a disc golf disc as their gateway.
- A few people were told about disc golf by a medical professional to help them with physical or mental wellness.
- A few people took up disc golf as a less expensive alternative to ball golf (but then ended up spending thousands on discs anyway…).
- And then there is this response: “I got stranded in Michigan when the ferry wasn’t running to Wisconsin because the waves were too high. A buddy and I went to Dicks sporting goods, saw 2 starter sets and said F-it. Fell in love since.”
- And this response: “Some friends and I decided to mod regular “dog” frisbees, attaching screws and bolts at the edges of them to make them heavier and go farther. Neither of us knew about disc golf being an official sport at that point.”
When designing the survey, we wanted to provide useful data to all of the stakeholders in professional disc golf, and that includes the players themselves. In a previous article, we shared data on the qualities that make fans root for their favorite player. On the other end of the popularity spectrum, we also asked respondents, “Think about your least favorite player in either MPO or FPO. What could they do to change your opinion about them?”
- More than a third of respondents (37.5%) said their least favorite player could win them over by becoming less negative on the course – the single most-selected answer by a wide margin. Sportsmanship matters more than almost anything else.
- Nearly a third of us are committed haters. “Nothing, I enjoy rooting against them” came in second at 29.5%, suggesting that villain narratives aren’t just tolerated in disc golf fandom, they’re actively embraced.
- Values alignment carries real weight. Nearly one in four fans (24%) said discovering that a player shares their values on religion, politics, or other personal issues could change their opinion.
- Excuses are a turn-off. Making excuses for poor play bothered enough fans (23.1%) to make it the fourth-most-cited factor.
- Only 16.4% cited a positive personal interaction as a potential opinion-changer.
- On-course pace has been a critique that fans have aired online of notable players. This includes Nikko Locastro, the least rooted for MPO player according to Fandom Score in 2025, and Gannon Buhr, the #1 player in the world according to most metrics. Some may be surprised it was only chosen by 13.6% of respondents.
- A habit players will definitely not be willing to break is winning too much. One wonders if 100% of the 7% of respondents who chose this answer were picturing a LEGO-loving, long-levered individual when checking this box.
- Sponsor and style are essentially irrelevant. Changing manufacturer sponsors (4.3%) and dressing better (2.1%) ranked at the very bottom; fans aren’t particularly swayed by corporate affiliations or aesthetics.
Before we wrap up for the year, we want to once again thank all of you who took time out of your busy lives to take the Fandom Survey. We are excited for what’s to come in the 2026 iteration and look forward to diving into new topics! Is there a question that you want to see included in the 2026 Fandom Survey? Reach out to us and let us know!
- 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.
Here are links to the full series of articles documenting the results of the 2025 Disc Golf Fandom Survey:
- 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.
