The World Flying Disc Federation released its updated WFDF Disc Golf World Rankings, with Finland retaining the number one spot, making it their third time in a row as World #1. Estonia and Canada switched positions from the last edition to take second and third respectively in the rankings, which were released in cooperation with the Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA). The full rankings can be found here.
WFDF Disc Golf rankings are calculated using performance at WFDF team events, including the World Team Disc Golf Championships (WTDGC) and continental and regional events, and the PDGA ratings of the top male and female players. The November 2022 release includes a change in the weighting of WFDF and PDGA competition results to a 40:60 ratio in favor of PDGA ratings. The USA, ranked in fourth place in the World rankings, is ranked first in the PDGA world rankings as it has done for every WFDF world rankings, followed by Finland then Japan, and Estonia and Canada sharing fourth place for PDGA points.
WFDF’s Disc Golf Chair Charlie Mead stated that “the increase in the number of countries included in these rankings, as well as the rise in points earned, is testimony to the work put in by National Disc Golf Associations and Federations across the globe. Individual countries who have nurtured their Women and Junior players have seen a significant improvement in their overall ranking and will continue to do so as WFDF promotes further inclusion in all our events.”
As further evidence of the growth of disc golf since its boost in popularity with the onset of the pandemic, the WFDF Disc Golf World Rankings saw three new entrants – Laos, Somalia, and Chile – with the former two qualifying purely through their women’s PDGA rankings. Women’s participation in disc golf appears to be continuing to rise, evidenced also by higher rankings for women and more countries with women participating.
Ten new countries competed at the World Team Disc Golf Championships and this helped them improve their rankings by between 4 and 12 points. The 2022 WTDGC, held in Varaždin, Croatia in August, attracted a record 25 countries.
“We are pleased to see this expansion of the World Rankings for disc golf,” stated WFDF President Robert “Nob” Rauch. “Our rankings will become an ever increasingly important tool in deciding on the potential inclusion of countries in multi-sports games like the World Games or other Olympic Movement sanctioned events which demand a critical and objective means for selecting athletes for their events.”
The WFDF Disc Golf world rankings were first published in 2018 after the second WTDGC was held in 2017 in Great Britain. The rankings were created as a way to acknowledge performance and participation in disc golf by those countries around the world who are WFDF members who participate in disc golf, both by their members individually competing and by their participation as national teams in international events. The WFDF World Rankings also aid countries seeking funding and sponsorship for disc golf and thus can play a part in the global development of the sport.
WFDF, which is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is the international sports body that governs flying disc sports, and the federation’s Disc Golf Committee, which compiles the rankings, is responsible for overseeing the World Team Disc Golf Championships.
The next update of the WFDF Disc Golf World Rankings will be in December 2023.
The WFDF Disc Golf Committee regularly reviews the World Rankings criteria and continues to be open to feedback from the international disc golf community on how the rankings are calculated. The committee has published a guide to the World Rankings where criteria and calculation methods can be viewed in detail and are available on the WFDF website