There isn’t much left for Ricky Wysocki to accomplish on the disc golf course. He’s a 2-time World Champion and four-time PDGA Player of the Year. He has 25 National Tour and DGPT Elite Series titles amongst his 125 total titles. He’s got over $600k in tournament winnings and owns a career highlight reel that could last for hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With all the awards and accolades in his eleven seasons on the pro tour, it’s hard to believe that Wysocki is only 29 years old. The young guns are rising the ranks, but Ricky is still in the prime of his career. If last season is any indication, he’s not going anywhere. Here are some interesting facts about the current #1 player in the world according to PDGA rankings<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Like fellow top player Eagle McMahon<\/a>, Ricky was homeschooled. He discovered disc golf in his teens, and his unique schedule allowed for a lot of practice time on his home course: Roscoe Ewing Park<\/a> in Medina, Ohio. He would finish his studies early and spend the rest of the day learning to throw a disc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Wysocki drew on his athletic background as a baseball player but had to teach himself to play disc golf. Designed by the so-called “Father of Disc Golf,” Ed Hendrick, Roscoe Ewing is the oldest course in Ohio. It offered a little bit of everything and helped Ricky build an all-around skill set. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After he graduated high school, Ricky hit the road and went all-in on his disc golf dreams. In 2011 he completed his first season on tour, playing in 47 events and winning 15 of them. He also won his first Major, the 2011 PDGA Championship. He easily won the PDGA Rookie of the Year award. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The following season he continued his meteoric rise, winning 15 of the 42 events he played, including second-place finishes at the two biggest events of the season: the World Championships and the United States Disc Golf Championships. <\/p>\n\n\n\n His consistent excellence earned him the 2012 PDGA Player of the Year award, making him the first player before or since to with Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in consecutive seasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Wysocki may have won Player of the Year in 2012, but his second-place finish at Worlds was to a young Paul McBeth<\/a>. That was McBeth’s first of four consecutive World Championships. During this dominant stretch, Ricky was runner-up in 2012, 2014, and 2015.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Some consider their showdown at 2014 Worlds in Portland, Oregon, the greatest one-on-one battle in disc golf history. Played out on the classic Blue Lake Disc Golf Course in Fairview, OR, Wysocki entered the final nine with a two-stroke lead over his rival. It would take five dramatic sudden-death playoff holes for McBeth to prevail. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Do yourself a favor and watch the two best players of their generation in an epic showdown: <\/p>\n\n\n\nHe Went to School on a Disc Golf Course<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
He Won PDGA Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year Back-to-Back<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
He Was a Perennial Runner-Up<\/h2>\n\n\n\n