Natalie Ryan sues the PDGA and DGPT

Good afternoon. You’re In The Circle, the newsletter helping you satisfy those disc golf cravings.

📝 On today’s card:

• Natalie Ryan’s taking the PDGA and DGPT to court

• Las Vegas Challenge Recap *SPOILER*

• Circle’s edge

Read time: 4 minutes and 34 seconds

NATALIE RYAN PURSUING LEGAL ACTION

If you missed the snippet in the last newsletter, Natalie Ryan has officially filed a court case against the PDGA, the DGPT, and 1000 Rated Productions in the U.S. District Court Eastern District of California.

Natalie made an Instagram post about the court case being filed and the start of the 2023 DGPT.

This all started in November when the PDGA updated its policy prohibiting transgender athletes from competing in top-tier sanctioned events within the FPO division. The DGPT adopted the same requirements for the FPO division in its events. 1000 Rated Productions is involved because it is based out of California and organizes the OTB Open, a DGPT Elite Series event held in California.

Natalie’s main allegations:

• The policy the PDGA and DGPT adopted is “arbitrary and capricious” and violates Natalie’s right to be free from gender discrimination

• The PDGA and DGPT adopted this policy to target Natalie as a “direct response to [Natalie’s] success on the DGPT.”

The allegations claim that the PDGA and DGPT “acted intentionally to discriminate as a business establishment” which therefore violates the Unruh Civil Rights Ace, Cal. Civ. Code § 51

What does Natalie want?

The complaint requests a number of claims for relief including a permanent injunction barring the PDGA and DGPT from doing business in California while they continue to violate California law, restitution, damages, and interest.

Currently, Natalie is limited to competing within the FPO division for A-Tier tournaments or below.

TOURNAMENT RECAP

Calvin Heimburg and Catrina Allen won the first DGPT event of the 2023 season. This makes Calvin a two-time winner of LVC (2019 and 2023) and Catrina a five-time winner (2013, 2014, 2020, 2022, and 2023).

MPO

After a solid first two rounds, Anthony Barela had all the momentum heading into round three with a 3-stroke lead over Kevin Jones. Anthony struggled to maintain his lead through round three and after an incident on hole 10 in the final round, he lost all hope of winning the tournament. Anthony’s drive appeared to hit a volunteer and ultimately rolled O.B.

A.B. still salvaged par, but any momentum he did have was gone. After the incident, he had no birdies and three bogies. In round two, he managed four birdies and no bogies through the same stretch of holes.

Tied at -31, Calvin Heimburg and Kevin Jones went into hole 18 looking to win the first Elite Series of the season. Calvin landed his drive mere feet from the O.B. line. Keven threw a similar line as Calvin, however, his throw was too low and the disc was pounded down by the wind landing O.B.

After laying up, Kevin was left with a throw-in attempt to put the pressure back on Calvin. His throw hit the top of the basket and went O.B., securing the win for Calvin.

FPO

Catrina Allen led by eight strokes going into the final round of the tournament. She struggled to put together a solid final round, finishing at even. Catrina had given herself enough buffer to keep her lead even with Missy Gannon and Holyn Handley closing the gap in the final round.

Like Anthony, Catrina had her own trouble with obstructions on hole 10 at the Innova Course. She hit a cart with her approach shot to the green.

Holyn Handley threw the highest-rated round (1016) for FPO players in the final round of the tournament. She put together a stretch of seven birdies in a row and secured herself a top-3 finish at the event.

WEEKLY PRO RANKINGS - TOP 10

CIRCLE’S EDGE

• Gannon Buhr placed tied for 38th at the LVC this past weekend. There are no major updates about his lawsuit with Prodigy. There is a follow-up hearing scheduled for Friday, March 3rd.

• Caroline Henderson placed 9th at LVC in what was her first-ever FPO Elite/Major event.

• Digital Journal released an analysis of the Disc Golf Market Size.

RULE OF THE DAY