The Mustachio’s Guy
People that know me through disc golf likely know me as the “guy that works at Mustachio’s.” I have been delivering pizza there for the past two and a half years because of the flexible working hours and the solid hourly wage making it possible to work 15- 20 hours per week and afford to pay my living expenses. I began working here to free up time to hone my disc golf skills in my pursuit to becoming a pro disc golfer. If you haven’t checked out my last post, The Disc Golf Experiment, I would recommend doing so as it will give you a little insight as to why I decided to pursue my dream of making money playing disc golf.
While my experience there was nothing short of amazing, I am sad to say that my time delivering pizza has come to an end. I have other financial goals I want to work toward but want to keep my evenings and weekends free for disc golf so I went back to my old job.
My intention over the last two and a half years was to find what it is I am passionate about and work on how to become a professional both in disc golf and in life. In this time I was able to travel to North Carolina and play a hole in a skins match with some of the best pros in the world (which you can see on Gatekeeper Media’s coverage of the skins match here), travel to Indiana to play in the Amateur World Championships, learn how to run tournaments and leagues, and had countless other unforgettable experiences. For anyone that doesn’t know who Brian Schweberger is, he currently holds the PDGA record for most wins (348 at the time I wrote this) and I had the pleasure of meeting him in North Carolina. I had asked him what he does for a living and he was doing the exact same thing as me! We both worked 15 hours per week delivering pizza and playing as much disc golf as possible, he just happens to be way way better at it :).
There’s a lot I learned but there’s a few things that stand out that seemed to have improved my game the most. The first, and what I would consider the most important thing, is that very little progress comes from only playing casual rounds. In my first 5 years playing I probably had less than a dozen field work sessions. I hit a plateau in my third season just barely breaking the 900 mark and stayed there until this year. All I ever did was play casual rounds and as the years went on I played less and less. This season I took a completely different approach and spent way more time in the field working on different shots, mainly focusing on my short game within 300 feet. This paid dividends and I immediately saw a huge improvement in the few tournaments I did play in this season. My current rating is 939 which is the highest it's been. So field work and a ton of putting practice would be the first thing I recommend to see a vast improvement!
The second thing I would recommend working on is a routine. I can’t stress enough how much this improved my game. There is something about the routine that seems to allow you to clear your mind of all of the unnecessary thoughts that come up when you approach a lie. This is what makes people like Paul McBeth or Ricky Wysocki “automatic.” The important thing to remember is to keep it short and simple. Once you get through the routine, the next step is to allow “feel” to take over. This is where experience comes in. There seems to be a period of time after the routine that is the ideal time to execute the shot and that comes with being in a lot of different situations. It may change from shot to shot. A 15 foot putt should always be easy when you’re playing at a high level, but different situations make 15 foot putts more difficult than others. It takes being in those situations to truly understand when you may need to take more or less time after your routine before firing away!
I’ve also found that breathing is crucial for consistency. When I approach my lie I like to take a deep breath in, and exhale. This is the beginning of my routine. It has also become my cadence in my putting stroke. I like to inhale when I bring my putter into my body, and exhale when I drive forward to release my putt into the basket. You see breathing like this in just about every athletic practice from yoga, to weight lifting, or even when throwing darts. Breathing is so important to me that I plan on writing a post dedicated to it!
I want to give a huge heartfelt thank you to everyone that has made the last few years possible. Thank you to my wife Laura for supporting my crazy obsession and allowing me to pursue my dreams while bringing in our stable income. Thank you to Billy at Mustachio’s for being so flexible and allowing me to work the hours that worked best for me and of course for sponsoring me for the last few years! I couldn’t be happier that you are continuing to sponsor me for the 2023 season! Thank you to my brother, dad, and uncle for being just as passionate about disc golf as I am and giving me someone to compete with every week. Thank you to Dyeing 2 Disc golf and Truly Unique Disc Golf for seeing something in me and sponsoring my 2021 season and thank you Jimmy, Sam, and Jeremy of the the Western New York Disc Golf Club for taking me under your wings and teaching me everything it takes to run tournaments and leagues, and allowing me to be a part of the team that ran the first Western New York Points Series! The support I received from everyone means the world to me and I am eternally grateful to have had the opportunity to live out this experience. This is not the end of my disc golf career, it has only just begun and I can’t wait to see what the 2023 season has lined up!
