Can You Guess The Average Age Of A PDGA World Champion? [2023 Update]

Determining
if
there
is
a “peak”
age
for
world
champions

August
24,
2023
by


Jesse
Weisz
in

Analysis,

Preview
with
comments

A
version
of
this
article
was
initially
published
in
2021
and
has
been
updated
and
expanded
for
2023.

As
we
prepare
for
the
41st
PDGA
Professional
Disc
Golf
World
Championship
next
week,
many
storylines
revolve
around
who
will
win.
Will
it
all
be
knotted
up
after
the
90th
hole,
like
last
year’s
battle
between
Paul
McBeth
and
Aaron
Gossage?
Will
Kristin
Tattar
rout
the
field
again?
Will
a
new
generation
of
players
take
it
down?
Will
McBeth
win
his
seventh
World
Championship
—
or
at
least
finish
top
two
for
the
11th
straight
year?
Will
a
veteran
without
a
Major
title
pull
a
Gregg
Barsby
and
shock
us
all?

This
article
will
examine
the
ages
at
which
past
champions
took
down
the
most
prestigious
Major
in
our
sport.
Before
reading
any
further,
try
to
guess
the
average
age
of
a
world
champion.
How
about
their
age
when
they

first
won
a
world
championship?

Player
ages
in
these
graphs
represent
the
age
they
turned
at
some
point
in
the
calendar
year
they
won
Worlds,
before
or
after
the
tournament.

The
first
graph
shows
the
MPO
winner
in
each
year,
including
multiple-year
winners:

The
second
graph
shows
the
FPO
winner
in
each
year,
including
multiple-year
winners:

The
third
graph
shows
only
first-time
MPO
winners:

The
fourth
graph
shows
only
first-time
FPO
winners:

A
few
statistics:

• The
  oldest
  MPO
  winner
  was
  Ken
  Climo
  (38)
  in
  2006.
• The
  oldest
  FPO
  winner
  was
  Beth
  Tanner
  (40)
  in
  1996.
• The
  youngest
  MPO
  winner
  was
  Sam
  Ferrans
  (16)
  in
  1984,
  but
  he
  turned
  17
  that
  same
  year,
  which
  is
  how
  age
  is
  tracked
  in
  this
  article
  due
  to
  not
  having
  exact
  birth
  dates
  for
  most
  of
  the
  pros.
• The
  youngest
  FPO
  winner
  was
  Paige
  Pierce
  (20)
  in
  2011.
  Marie
  Jackson
  Elsner
  was
  also
  20
  when
  she
  won
  her
  first
  Worlds,
  but
  she
  was
  two
  months
  older
  than
  Pierce
  at
  the
  time
  of
  her
  victory.
• The
  average
  age
  for
  an
  MPO
  winner
  is
  27.5
  years.¹
• The
  average
  age
  for
  an
  FPO
  winner
  is
  27.9
  years.²
• The
  average
  age
  for
  a
  first-time
  MPO
  winner
  is
  27.3
  years.³
• The
  average
  age
  for
  a
  first-time
  FPO
  winner
  is
  27.1
  years.⁴

The
average
age
for
winners
in
both
divisions
—
along
with
first-time
MPO
and
FPO
winners
—
is
between
27
and
28.
Those
ages
seems
to
be
in
the
heart
of
the
prime
for
disc
golfers.
Players
that
will
turn
27
in
2023
include
Calvin
Heimburg,
Kevin
Jones,
Drew
Gibson,
Ella
Hansen,
Anniken
Steen,
Rebecca
Cox,
Sai
Ananda,
and
2018
World
Champion
Paige
Shue.
Players
that
turn
28
in
2023
include
James
Proctor,
Jessica
Weese,
and
Natalie
Ryan.

However,
the
last
time
a
27
year-old
won
Worlds
in
MPO
was
Cam
Todd
in
2001,
the
last
28
year-old
winner
was
Ken
Climo
in
1996,
the
last
27
year-old
FPO
winner
was
Juliana
Korver
in
1998,
and
the
last
28
year-old
winner
was
Paige
Pierce
in
2019.

The
median
first-time
winner
for
MPO
players
is
28,
and
the
median
first-time
FPO
player
is
27.
This
shows
that
you
are
just
as
likely
to
win
before
the
ages
of
27/28
as
after
them.

Another
way
to
think
about
it:
one-time
winners
tended
to
win
their
Worlds
later
than
multi-time
winners’
captured
their
first
title.
That
makes
sense
if
you
figure
that
multi-time
winners
like
Ken
Climo,
Nate
Doss,
Paul
McBeth,
Ricky
Wysocki,
Val
Jenkins,
and
Paige
Pierce
may
have
more
natural
talent,
so
they
don’t
have
to
wait
until
their
peak
(late
20s
–
early
30s)
to
win,
whereas
a
one-time
winner
might.
Other
players
would
have
likely
won
earlier
in
their
careers
had
they
started
playing
earlier,
such
as
Barry
Schultz,
Juliana
Korver,
Des
Reading,
Catrina
Allen,
and
Kristin
Tattar.

There
have
been
40
MPO
PDGA
World
Championships,
and
Ken
Climo
has
won
12
of
them.
That
could
have
distorted
the
average
age,
but
even
if
we
remove
Climo
from
the
data
set,
the
average
age
from
MPO
World
Champions
is
27.21.

If
we
look
at
Elite
and
Major
winners
thus
far
in
2023,
the
average
age
for
an
MPO
winner
is
25,
whereas
the
average
age
for
an
FPO
winner
is
31.3.
This
MPO
season
has
felt
like
a
changing
of
the
guards,
and
with
Gannon
Buhr
and
Isaac
Robinson
recently
taking
down
their
first
Majors,
this
could
be
a
year
where
a
young
generational
talent
wins
Worlds.
For
FPO,
it
has
been
a
different
story,
with
tricenerians
Tattar,
Pierce,
Gannon,
and
Allen
winning
12
of
the
15
events.

What
is
the
prime
age
in
other
sports?:

• 
  As
  of
  July
  2018,
  the
  average
  age
  for
  a
  Major
  winner
  in
  men’s
  golf
  is
  32
  years
  and
  143
  days.
  In
  fact,
  the
  winners
  for
  each
  of
  the
  four
  majors
  have
  an
  average
  age
  of
  32.
• 
  As
  of
  May
  2018,
  the
  average
  age
  for
  a
  men’s
  tennis
  Grand
  Slam
  winner
  is
  24
  years
  and
  350
  days.
  (The
  average
  age
  must
  have
  gone
  up
  since
  then
  with
  the
  dominance
  of
  Djokovic
  and
  Nadal,
  winning
  17
  of
  the
  21
  grand
  slam
  titles
  since
  May
  2018
  while
  in
  their
  30s).
• On
  average,
  NASCAR
  drivers
  perform
  the
  best
  when
  they
  are
  39
  years
  old.^{<a href="https://discgolf.ultiworld.com/2023/08/24/can-you-guess-the-average-age-of-a-pdga-world-champion-2023-update/#fn5-30786" title="Source is behind a paywall, but quoted here” rel=”footnote”>5}
• 
  As
  of
  November
  2021,
  the
  average
  age
  of
  an
  NBA
  All-Star
  player
  and
  an
  MVP
  is
  26.5
  and
  27.9,
  respectively.
• Similar
  statistics
  for
  women’s
  sports
  are
  unfortunately
  not
  readily
  available
  without
  primary
  data
  analysis.

My
thanks
to
StatMando
for
their
input
on
this
piece.
If
you
would
like
to
learn
more
about
the
age
trajectories
of
the
top
players
in
the
history
of
disc
golf,
please
check
out

this
article
I
wrote
a
few
years
ago.

Original source