If you’re not familiar with how the disc golf business scene works (which I’m guessing is the case), I’ll try to fill you in before we get into the Prodigy Discs drama. In the sport of disc golf, there are companies that design and create discs to sell to players. Similarly to other sports, another source of revenue for a company is the ability to sign professional players; this allows the company to grow their brand, create signature discs for pros, and pull in more consumers. The main goals of a brand are to expand their name to more players and make more profit as a result. Some succeed greatly, some are average, and some screw up so badly that they lose as much income as they ever hoped to gain. At the beginning of the 2023 disc golf season, a company called Prodigy Discs was looking at possibly the worst-case-scenario a company could face, caused single-handedly by itself.

Prodigy has a very strong side to their business and a very weak side; they’re unbelievably strong in their ability to sign younger players that end up becoming very talented, but the overall quality of their actual discs is pretty poor. Their professionals – big names like Gannon Buhr and Isaac Robinson — are Prodigy’s main source of income, because frankly, they win a lot of tournaments.  However, most Prodigy Discs are created with a certain level of flashing: a flaw in the injection molding process where the disc is manufactured with a sharp bottom rim that hurts most player’s hands. This flaw has led to backlash from the community, but the criticism is silenced whenever one of Prodigy’s sponsors win a tournament (which is often).

Prodigy was looking at a promising year entering the 2023 season, with young guns Alden Harris, Isaac and Ezra Robinson, Parker Welck, and Kevin Jones showing considerable promise. But the best Prodigy sponsor – by FAR – was 18-year-old wonderkid Gannon Buhr. Considered by most to be in the top 3 players in the world, Gannon Buhr was nothing but good news and high profits for Prodigy. That is, until Gannon spoke out.

Long after the player trading window had closed, Gannon Buhr announced (in a deleted instagram post) that he was leaving Prodigy Discs and playing without a sponsor for the 2023 season. He cited Prodigy’s unwillingness to hold up their side of their contract; Prodigy hadn’t paid Gannon the bonuses they should have for winning the tournaments he did, they hadn’t allowed him to create any signature discs, and they had given him nothing for being the Rookie of the Year (an esteemed title in disc golf). He also bashed the quality of Prodigy’s Discs – specifically the fashing – as a reason to leave.

After this announcement, many expected for Prodigy to own up to their mistakes, correct them, and move on with their season (which would’ve been the correct play). Instead, they chose to do the unexpected: they SUED Gannon for leaving his contract early! When that decision was announced, any thread of support for Prodigy that still existed after Gannon’s post was obliterated and replaced with burning hatred. I was a part of the disc golf buy/sell/trade community at the time, and people were selling every Prodigy disc they owned at unbelievably low prices. Prodigy received backlash from every single disc golf influencer and many professionals, as well as most of the greater community. In a poll taken by discgolfcoursereview, Prodigy discs was the most hated company in the community. Although there was eventually an agreement settled upon out-of-court, nobody forgot Prodigy’s decision to take an 18-year-old that THEY SPONSORED to court.

As the 2023 season started, Prodigy was looking as though it would be lucky to sell more than 100 discs in the next year. They had lost public favor, and although Gannon was back on their team, everyone knew it was because of the lawsuit carried out by Prodigy. Gannon’s original post was deleted and replaced with a Team Prodigy post, but no one was fooled. Prodigy had become the single most hated company in disc golf history. 

In part 2, we’ll dive into the craziest comeback season a disc golf company has ever experienced – that company being — somehow — Prodigy Discs.