A milestone 41 years in the making
October 3, 2017 by Alex Colucci in Livewire, News with 0 comments
Some 41 years after “Steady” Ed Headrick initially founded the PDGA, and 35 years after Ted Smethers and other pros at the 1982 Disc Golf World Championships spurred the modern PDGA into existence, the organization officially reached 100,000 members yesterday afternoon. Ryan Quinlan of Oxford, Pennsylvania, was the lucky member to get the first six-digit PDGA number.
Until 2005, when membership numbers had yet to reach 30,000, the PDGA was growing at a rate of about 950 new members per year. But in the nearly 12 years since, the rate of increase has been more dramatic. Including the 257 players who have joined the PDGA in the less than 24 hours since the organization cracked 100,000, there have been over 71,500 new members to join since 2005, at a pace of about 6,650 per year.
With members in 65 different countries and the growth of the sport throughout Europe, 200,000 feels like it’s just around the corner.
