When serious disc golf fans think of Andrew Marwede, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t his bomber forehand, lanky build or underrated Tour Series Firebird. Instead, it’s the time he drained a 40-foot putt during the first round of the 2019 Green Mountain Championship.
That might sound somewhat pedestrian, but the part that people remember is him bending down, picking up his mini marker and taking a giant bite out of it. No, the dude’s not got a few screws loose in his dome – he’d marked his lie with a cookie. And apparently, that’s totally legal.
This really happened. And here’s the video evidence to prove it:
But I digress …
In late December, Marwede announced that he’d left Innova – the sponsor he’d been with since 2018 – and would be hucking DGA plastic for the 2022 season “and beyond.” The move wasn’t completely shocking, as a pair of weeks prior, Matt Bell announced that he’d be leaving DGA.
What’s more surprising, however, is what Marwede’s move means for the future of disc golf …
Observe:
You don’t need to be one of the ‘big brands’ to sign talent
Marwede isn’t a household name within professional disc golf – far from it, really. He finished the 2021 National Tour Elite Series with only the 35th-most points. Nothing to shake a stick at, but definitely room for improvement this upcoming season.
Don’t let that deter your opinion of him, though. He took Kyle Klein to a playoff during the 2021 Idlewild Open. He also amassed three top-five Elite Series finishes that same year. All this led to him securing the highest PDGA player rating of his career in April at 1031.
Good? Yes. Great? Not quite.
Which leads me to my point: you don’t need to be a “big brand” to recruit (and retain) quality disc golf talent anymore. Long gone are the days when Innova, Discraft, Prodigy and Trilogy got their pick of the litter. Now, an “underground brand” like DGA can shake up the pecking order.
Remember Matt Bell? Yeah, he’s now with EV-7 and Thought Space … nuff said.
Personal branding (and milquetoast logos) are here to stay
This one’s stupid, but it’s so true: anybody who’s anybody in disc golf now has a logo.
Strangely, though, that’s not the extent of it. The logo must be built solely around the disc golfer’s name or initials. Paul McBeth, Paul Ulibarri, Drew Gibson, Jeremy Koling, etc.
Add Andrew’s name to that list, because he and clip art are all-in on this one.
It’s not as bad as Casey White’s (yet another one), but it’s doing its best to compete.
As they should, professionals value security
I’m not a professional disc golfer. But based on my experience covering it, the early days of sponsorships were based largely on winks and handshakes. As the years wore on, pen would touch paper, but you thanked your lucky stars to be granted an annual “allotment” of plastic …
Entry fees were an added bonus. But an actual salary? Nah, you’re dreaming, dude.
Crediting financial security to Marwede wouldn’t be right. Discraft’s mammoth contract for McBeth back in 2020 was the financial boost the sport needed. The specifics of DGA’s offer aren’t yet public, but Marwede’s clearly enjoying disc golf’s change in contract culture …
He won’t be the last, either – far from it, in fact.
There’s never been a better time to call disc golf a career, and it’s only going to get better.
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