After winning the USDGC on Saturday and completing disc golf’s Grand Slam, it’s safe to say that 2015 was Paul McBeth’s best season ever. And maybe the best season ever by anyone. Looking at his tournament results for the year, it’s amazing, all you see in the ‘place’ column are a bunch of 1’s and only a few 2’s and 3’s.
Of his 22 events he played this year, he won 16 of them. The worst he did all year was third place, which happened only twice (The Aussie Open Warm Up and the Maple Hill Open). “Just to have third place as my worst event was a huge success for the year,” said McBeth after the USDGC.
And when it came to winning major events, no one does it like McBeth. This year McBeth took down one major tournament after the other and often having to come from behind to do it. Following McBeth during the Pro World Championships this year was mind blowing for many disc golf fans. Trailing Will Schusterick by eight strokes after Round 3, McBeth flipped the switch to beast mode and eventually left everyone in the dust to where the Final 9 was basically a victory lap. “The Worlds was just a never say never event,” said McBeth, later adding “…It was a never say never moment because you don’t know what can happen in one round.”
When it came time for the season’s final major, the USDGC, some wondered if McBeth could live up to all of the hype and capture the event that has remained elusive to him. However, McBeth definitely came through. He shot (-26) for the Championship and submitted eight birdies and only made two bogeys on a soggy final day that made the challenging Winthrop Gold Course even harder. McBeth and Ricky Wysocki, who had a similar battle at the European Open, gave the sizable USDGC crowd something to cheer about even in the rain.
The show that Ricky and I put on for the European Open as well as the USDGC was an experience in itself. The pressure that we had, the lead swings, just the entertainment value that we had in those two events was incredible. Those are moments that I will relive probably for the rest of my life.
–Paul McBeth
McBeth says his route to success has been fairly straight forward. “It’s all dedication and hard work … And that’s mainly what I think I’ve done more than anyone else in the sport right now is that I’ve made it my life basically to get better as a player …,” said McBeth, adding that there’s still room for improvement for him.
So what’s next for McBeth as disc golf’s first Grand Slam Champion? We’ll see, he’s certainly proved he can fulfill even the toughest expectations.
