So,
I had planned on discussing the two putters we used in The Iron Man in more detail but managed to forget to do it in the original post.
Putt how could you forget something like that?
Are you going to start some Super Troopers "meow" thing putt using the word "putt" instead?
I thought I would grab the numbers on the discs and compare them to a couple of other discs. All the numbers below come from the Infinite Discs website. In the tournament, we got to use a couple of Prodigy putters, a PA-1 and a PA-3. I usually putt with a Latitude 64 Sarek so I'm using that for comparison and since most people probably aren't familiar with the Sarek, I included the Gateway Wizard in the comparison.
| Model | PA-1 | PA-3 | Sarek | Wizard |
| Brand | Prodigy | Prodigy | Latitude 64 | Gateway |
| Speed | 3 | 3 | 2 | 3 |
| Glide | 3 | 4 | 4 | 5 |
| Turn | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Fade | 2 | 1 | 1.5 | 2 |
| Diameter | 21.0 cm | 21.1 cm | 21.2 cm | 21.0 cm |
| Height | 1.9 cm | 1.9 cm | 2.2 cm | 2.1 cm |
| Rim Depth | 1.4 cm | 1.4 cm * | 1.5 cm | 1.8 cm |
| Rim Width | 1.0 cm | 1.0 cm * | 1.1 cm | 1.0 cm |
| Bead | Hellz Yes | Yes | No | Yes |
* These numbers look like they were reversed on the website so I have put in my assumptive correction
The tournament was, for the most part, about putting (aren't they all but this one more so) which meant it was very likely that one disc out of the two putters was going to be the one that was predominantly used. For me, that turned out to be the PA-3. The glide matches the Sarek and the fade is probably even closer than the numbers suggest (at least at the beginning of the tournament - soft plastic) since my Sareks have seen a bit of use. On top of that, the bead on the PA-3 is smaller and rounded compared to the razor blade bead on the PA-1. The razor blade bead on the PA-1 is twice as high as the bead on the PA-3 and has been sharpened using ancient samurai sword-making techniques. The purpose of a bead, for those who don't know, is to extend the life of the stability of the disc. The disc slides on the bead sparing the rim from much of the damage that it would otherwise take. The purpose of a razor sharp bead is...
To be a complete putt hole to disc golfers?
To give disc review puttzes like you something to whine about?
A guy in the first group that I played with and I were talking about the discs before the tournament started. We talked about the plastic, the feel, etc. He said he was going to use the PA-3 for every shot because he hated the feel of the PA-3. He didn't like the bead. Amen, brother! I used the PA-3 for 18 out of 20 of the holes. There were 2 holes where I didn't want the extra glide and I wanted to make sure the disc would hold a hyzer. For those 2 holes, the PA-1 worked just like I wanted it to. If the PA-1 is one of the tournament discs next year, I'm going to spend part of my warm-up time skipping the disc down the parking lot.
Dude, were you traumatized?
Seriously.
Well, I might be exaggerating a little bit. The bead might have been sharpened using current, conventional means. On top of that, it's a dramatic change for someone who usually plays beadless.
Is that a euphemism for ball-less?
Some players have big beads, others don't.
The PA-3 did what I was hoping it would do and worked really well for my "ninja putt" (a topic for another post - people who have seen me do it know what I'm talking about). It flew straight for flat putts fading at the very end of its flight and worked great for soft anhyzer putts, flattening out and flexing where needed for some of the trickier shots.
That's my take on Prodigy's PA-1 and PA-3. Have you thrown either of these discs? What did you think? You can let me know what you think of the Sarek or Wizard too. Or any other putter, for that matter. Although this is a post about the PA-1 and PA-3 so I'm most curious about your experience with those two.