Where it Started

Personal Background

First and foremost, hello. My name is Dylan, and I discovered disc golf about 3 years ago (yes, I'm one of the COVID disc golfers). I'm 24 and currently reside in Salt Lake City, though I'm originally from Kansas City, MO. My first disc was a Franklin driver, and I remember wondering if all frisbees did barrel rolls in the air. After a quick search I learned that they did not, and got my first real disc golf disc (champ Mako3) from an online retailer. For the next six months I played pretty casually, filling the course up with bogeys, doubles, and beyond whenever I decided to go. At the time I was getting my engineering degree in Oklahoma, and after six months I decided to try my hand at a tournament. I started with the Oklahoma State Championships, and ended up finishing 3rd in MA3 (Nov. 2020). I played my next tournament 4 months later at another B-Tier in Oklahoma and got my first win in MA3 (Mar 2021). I started to take it a bit more seriously in 2021 and continued to improve, and eventually convinced myself to make the jump to MPO at the start of 2022 as a 930 rated disc golfer. I continued improving my game in 2022, got a couple of wins in MPO, and currently sit as a 980 rated disc golfer (hopefully still moving up). It was during the 2022 season that I came up with the initial idea for Throw with the Pros. 

​

The Problem

Early in my start in MPO I noticed that I had a couple of issues: 

1. I was playing much worse in tournaments than I was during my casual rounds.

2. With only a couple of local courses to choose from most days (unless I wanted to drive a bit) I was getting a bit bored during my casual rounds and found it hard to consistenly improve.

​

I enjoyed playing in tournaments but struggled to deal with the pressure of them and keeping it from affecting my performance. So I thought, "It would be cool if I could find a way to make my casual solo rounds more interesting and also find a way to recreate tournament pressure." From this thought, Throw with the Pros was born. 

​

Starting to Code

For reference, I have a degree in mechanical engineering, work in construction management, and really just have no coding experience whatsoever. So for about 3 months, I just sat on the idea thinking that I didn't really have the tools needed to bring it to life. I also have a full-time job and far too many other hobbies that I'm actively pursuing (more on that on my personal website firstavailable.site), and although none of them are quite like disc golf for me they still help spread my free time out pretty thinly. In October of 2022, I decided that I wanted to give this coding thing a shot, so I started messing around with SwiftUI (one of the main programming languages for iOS apps). I'm not much for tutorials, so I learned mostly from trial and error. After a couple of months I had achieved a couple of views with buttons to move between them, and then decided that I was going to go all in. 

​

My intentions for Throw with the Pros were not the simplest to start with when learning coding, but I didn't want to waste time creating anything else. By January of this year, I had finished the base structure for what I had originally envisioned for the app but had also come up with twice as many things that I wanted to add. Fast forward to the time of writing (April 2023) and the app with most of the features I had ever wanted is nearly finished. For having no background in coding, having a number of other hobbies, and working a full time job, I'd say 6 months to build out a decently complex app was pretty good. 

​

The app is currently being beta tested by quite a few disc golfers (along with some friends and family) and I'm planning for a public release sometime this summer. More details on this can be found on the "Where it's Going" page, but for now I'll just explain what the app currently does. 

​

What is Throw with the Pros?

The base idea for Throw with the Pros was to create an app that could simulate disc golf tournaments. This had a couple of important implications to function the way I wanted it to: 

​

1. The opponents needed to be simulated. You don't need an app to compete against your friends; that's existed since disc golf became a sport. The point of this app is to make solo rounds more exciting and competitive, and this meant that I needed to accurately simulate the performance of opponents at a wide variety of skill levels. 

2. Everyone needs to be able to use the app at their local course. This means the performance of the simulated opponents needs to line up with what would be expected at any course at a variety of skill levels. This was probably the hardest part of the development process. 

​

These were two concepts that I hadn't fully thought out when I started coding the app, but these two elements took the most time to get right. As I was determining my plan for these functions and implementing the code to bring them to life, I had another idea: Wouldn't it be fun if I took the original idea and made it like a video game that you had to progress through? 

​

I became set pretty quickly on making this a part of the app, and immediately added to my to-do list were coming up with some kind of progression system and then determining how to implement it with what I had already coded. The original name of the app was pretty stupid, but somewhere along coming up with this progress system I came up with "Throw with the Pros". Fast forward to the present and I've nearly got a finished V1.0 of the app. 

​

I guess that was still some background, but I promise I'll explain how the app actually functions now: 

​

How Does it Work?

Throw with the Pros gives users the ability to simulate tournaments at any course at all skill levels and divisions which currently exist. This includes MA4 through MPO (F divisions coming very soon) and tiers from XC-tiers all the way up to Pro Tours and Majors. As long as the course information provided is accurate, the performance of simulated opponents should closely resemble the scores to be expected at that course for the selected skill level and tier. 

​

That's pretty much the quick sum up of the base function of the app, so now let's talk about what makes it fun: the progression system. 

​

Progression System

When you first open the app, the only tournaments available are the XC-tiers for MA4 through MA1. The rest of the tiers for those divisions as well as the open division have to be unlocked through a combination of buying items in-game (with virtual in-game currencies) and performance in tournaments. And how are these in-game currencies earned? Through payouts!

​

Payouts in this game function similar to how they work in the MPO division at actual sanctioned events. The amounts are not at all similar (though they were determined with the progression system in mind), but you can expect to earn higher payouts for better performances at higher tier tournaments and in higher divisions. 

​

With these in-game currencies (currently called "AM Credits" and "Disc Bux"), there are a variety of items to buy. First and foremost, there are discs. Purchasing discs allows the user to unlock the Silver events for every division. Pro Tours for each division are unlocked by placing high enough in the silver event for that division. The same is true for Majors based on the placement in the corresponding Pro Tour. 

​

Placing well enough in all of the elite events (Silver, Pro Tour, Major) for a division unlocks sponsors. Sponsors help increase your payouts and may be used for other benefits in the future. Sponsors require in-game currency to unlock, and very elite event requires an entry fee to play (also bought using in-game currency). 

​

In addition to purchasing discs, there are bags and bag upgrades. Purchasing bags and their corresponding upgrades is how you unlock the C, B, and A-Tier tournaments for every division. These tournaments may require multiple rounds to be played but will come with much higher payouts as a reward. 

​

This pretty much sums up the base progression system for Throw with the Pros. In addition to this system, there are collector's discs which provide a variety of additional benefits but come at a high cost, as well as some higher tournaments (i.e., Pro Tour Championships) which may be coming in the future. 

​

I can't think of any other information related to the progression system at the moment, but I'm always looking for things to add and am open to suggestions!

​

Adding Courses

The one thing that's left to be described here is how courses are added. Within the app, there are a couple of different options for getting your local tracks into the game, and I've tried to make these as quick and easy as possible: 

​

1. With PDGA statistics

​

If a sanctioned tournament has been held recently on your course, there should be statistics available (must be for a C-tier in the MPO division since this seemed like the most common combination for tournaments). These statistics will include the hole average for every hole/pin position played during the tournament. All you need to do is take these statistics and enter them into the app when prompted.

 

2. With manual course input

​

If course stats aren't available, there is a custom form to input the course manually. I've set this up to go about as quick as the previous method. This asks for all the same information as the statistics method with the only difference being that instead of asking for the hole averages from the PDGA website, it asks for a difficulty of the hole relative to the course. This is on a scale of 1-10. For example, if the hole is one of the easier holes on the course, it may receive a rating of 3, whereas a harder hole on the course may be closer to an 8 or 9. 

​

Both of these processes are already set up in the app and are completely self-guided, so anyone should be able to go through, follow the prompts, and get their course into the app!

​

As an added feature, after a course is submitted you are presented with the option to share that course with others. If you are submitting the main layout for one of your local courses, this is probably a good idea. Choosing this option will open up an email that you can send to me with the course information formatted properly. Once I get this email, I'll add it to a global list in the next update (this global list is already accessible within the app), and other people in your local disc golf community can go add the course to their own app without having to input all of the info. Pretty cool, right? I was at least pretty proud of getting it to work. 

​

Thank you!!!

I think that about sums up Throw with the Pros. At the time of writing, it's currently in beta testing, but I've got a Kickstarter coming up (link here!) to help fund a public release which I'm hoping will be this summer 2023!

​

Get involved there for early access (maybe?!) and to start using Throw with the Pros during your summer and fall casual round!

​

If you're curious about the current timeline for Throw with the Pros and what's coming in the future, go check out the "Where it's Going" page!

​

Thanks for being a part of this, and I hope Throw with the Pros is as fun for you to use as it is for me!

​