For BYU student Ryan Bain, disc golf hasn’t always been his biggest passion. In fact, disc golf is a sport that he didn’t discover until only a few years ago — during the pandemic.
“I’ve always been competitive,” said Bain. “Soccer, basketball, I played baseball when I was younger, just all the sports. And you know, my biggest passion was always frisbees but there just wasn’t a sport to play that I knew of.”
While studying at BYU, Bain would participate in intramural sports to tap into that competitive spirit. But when COVID-19 hit, the intramural sports went away.
“My intramural basketball season was over and I’m like, ‘Dude no more sports, like, what am I going to do with my life?’” said Bain. “I can’t just stop, I gotta fill that competitive itch somehow.”
While many people struggled with the darkness that followed the international outbreak, Bain found the spark that would change his life. It wasn’t long after COVID had shut down the on-campus activities that Bain came across a video of a pro disc golf event, igniting the disc golf flame.
“Someone threw in, like, a super far shot to push a playoff and it was like this insane event. And I was like, ‘Dude what! This is electric! What sport is this?’”
“We have never heard of it, we didn’t really know what disc golf was,” said Dana Bain, Ryan’s mother. “The first time we watched it on TV with him I didn’t get it.”
After watching the video, Bain began throwing frisbees again. He got a set of discs and didn’t set them down for the next seven months. Then, one fateful day while playing on a Mapleton course, Bain ended up meeting BYU students who were looking to take their group to the next level.
“I ran into this group of like 10 dudes… and I didn’t really have any disc golf friends so I got up to the tee and they were all up there and they’re like, ‘Hey man, if you want you can play through’ and I’m like, ‘Is it cool if I play with you guys?’ I started to get to know these guys and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we’re part of the disc golf club at BYU!’”
The group of students ended up inviting Bain to join them at their club nights. When Bain decided to go see what it was all about, the club was talking about forming an official team.
“I’m like, a team? This is competitive?” said Bain. “I got super excited. That was the catalyst for me to say okay, I really want to get good at this because if you can compete, I want to be able to compete.”
Serving, and throwing, in Mexico
After lots of time practicing, Bain was able to be a part of the first men’s disc golf team at BYU. However, even after finishing three years of school and finding a new love for disc golf, Bain decided to set it all to the side and serve a full-time mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
“I definitely think it was like a lot of different factors,” said Bain. “One of the bigger ones was COVID settling down for sure … and I was in a headspace of like, I don’t think I’m ready to be married. I don’t think I’m ready for like, that part of life. And so it was part of me kind of needing a couple of years personally to do something else. And also, kind of my desire to deepen my relationship with Jesus, just find him. And I thought that going on a mission would be the best way to do that.”
During his two-year service in Mexico, he found creative ways to continue practicing different disc golf techniques in preparation for his return home to the sport. After his normal morning workouts, Bain used his disc to practice putting for 20 to 30 minutes.
“We definitely took advantage of P-days, as much as possible,” said Bain. “Putting doesn’t exist in throwing frisbees so that was a super weak point in my game. So on my mission, I was doing a lot of that … taking some of my exercise time to just figure out how to putt, that was part of my routine on the mission.”
After his normal morning workouts, Bain used his disc to practice putting for 20 to 30 minutes.
“There’s probably eight little houses in Mexico that have marks all over the walls from my disc,” he said.
Once home from his mission, there was no second-guessing the path he wanted to walk. After only two weeks back in the States, he signed up for a tournament.
“The first thing I did … I instantly started playing in professional tournaments," he said. "Even though at the time I wasn’t rated super high, and I was kind of at the bottom of all the tournaments. I was like, I’m just going to throw myself into these tournaments and I’m not going to do well. I know I’m not going to do well, but I think it’s the best way.”
In the first summer back from his mission, Bain played in tournaments on an almost weekly basis. He traveled around California, as well as to some out of state events. At the end of the tournaments he wasn’t at the top of the leaderboard, but the experiences helped him to learn more about the sport and grow around the professionals.
“I thought he was so brave,” said Dana. “I thought he was so brave to enter a tournament not knowing anybody who’d be there and not having any friends doing this sport.”
“I didn’t want to start playing with people that were my level,” said Bain. “I wanted to play people better than me so I could swallow my pride a little bit and realize like, this is what I need to work on. This is the level I want to get to.”
“It’s really fun to watch and I started kind of caddying for him,” said Dana. “So I’ll wear the backpack and I pretend like I give advice, he doesn’t usually take it, it’s usually probably wrong. Sometimes he’s like ‘Oh yeah that’s a good idea’ but usually he’s like ‘No, I’m going to do this instead.’ And he’s always right.”
Bain started getting increasingly comfortable in the sport. Eventually he was able to perform well enough to have the opportunity to cash out. That opportunity gave him the chance to decide how much the sport meant to him, because in disc golf once you cash out at a tournament, you can no longer participate in amateur tournaments.
“It was, like, $70, but I was like, ‘I cashed!’ So it was, do I want to accept cash and only play in pro?” he said.
Bain made the choice to take his prize and didn’t look back. Now, he’s committed to the collegiate and pro divisions. Once school rolled back around in the fall, he was right back to practicing and competing with the team at BYU.
“I was excited for him to have that confidence that he knew he could be good enough to play at that level so quickly,” said Dana. “It was fun to watch him from the very beginning just know that he could do it.”
“It’s been great, we were excited for him to get back from his mission,” said team coach John Stoddard. “He came back with, not to say he didn’t leave with this, but came back with a fantastic work ethic and he is just absolutely dedicated to being the best player he can be.”
'Everything started going wrong'
That work ethic, as well as the hard work of his teammates, propelled the team through the 2024-2025 season. After winning multiple tournaments that season, the team started to gain national attention.
That momentum kept rolling all the way to the national championship tournament earlier this year. Things started like any other round for the men’s disc golf team at BYU. After walking the beautiful South Carolina course and discussing strategies with the team, Bain was ready to compete for a national championship title.
With a birdie on the first hole and a second birdie on the third hole, on paper it looked like Bain was in the zone, but something wasn’t right.
“I just, I felt like something went wrong,” said Bain. “Like, I was playing totally fine. And it was just, like, once something went wrong, everything started going wrong.”
In the biggest moment on the biggest stage, Bain went on to have one of the worst performances of his disc golf career. But at the end of the day, the experience was only fuel for the unquenchable fire of his competitive spirit.
Since the loss at the national championship, and with the start of a new season, there has been a second wind for Bain in his disc golf journey. With his new teammates, and a burning desire to get back to the national championship tournament, Bain has been on a rampage in the disc golf scene. Since the national tournament loss, he has competed in numerous tournaments with the team, as well as on his own.
“He plays in more tournaments than anyone else, and that’s saying something because we’ve got a lot of very dedicated players,” said Stoddard. “He is just a fantastic teammate. He’s always encouraging, always looking to call out the successes of others. He plays at a very high level but being able to recognize the successes that are happening for other people at their own level … he’s absolutely fantastic.”
The sour taste of national defeat had lingered with Bain for so long, but it was finally erased when the team made the trip in October to Fort Morgan, Colo.
For Bain and his teammates, this tournament was an opportunity to secure one of this season’s two division one bids to the Division I national championship tournament. If the team couldn’t find secure the win, it would be stuck competing for a bid to the Division II tournament.
Things started well for Bain and his teammates, shooting 12 down as a team. However, both Colorado and Colorado State shot better with 15 and 16 down respectively. At the end of the first round, BYU was tied for third when only the top two teams get a bid. With two more rounds to go and sitting three strokes back of second place, Bain needed to make something happen.
“We weren’t panicking but we were like, we gotta lock in man,” said Bain.
After the second round, Colorado State had built a comfortable lead, but BYU gained five strokes on Colorado and now held second place going into the final round by two.
“At that point … Colorado State had kind of secured their bid. And then the second bid was between us, Colorado, and Boise State,” said Bain.
During the final round Colorado was able to gain ground and put pressure on BYU. But Bain started to build momentum and take control of the course.
“We started to get hot and put a nice little string of birdies together and really get going,” said Bain. “By hole 14, we kind of knew we had it in the bag.”
BYU finished the tournament in second place and secured its bid to the Division I national championship tournament in the spring of 2026.
“We’re going back to the same course in April, a national championship, and I’m going to play way better,” said Bain. “The whole team’s going to play way better I’m sure of that.”
“These are college athletes. These are people who put in a ton of work, are very dedicated to improving, and especially our top players are extremely competitive with the best that’s out there,” Stoddard said. “I’d put them next to some of the professionals that play on the pro tour.”
Even though the national championship tournament is months away, Bain has not slowed down one bit in preparing for that second chance. For Bain, it’s not just about winning, it’s about representing BYU.
“I would just want people to know that, like, we’re working hard,” said Bain. “All of the values that BYU embodies in terms of like, putting Christ first … we just want to be able to represent Christ in all we do.”
For many people, COVID seems to be a whole lifetime ago. But for Ryan Bain, it was an entirely different lifetime ago. Since finding disc golf, nothing has been the same. There have been many memories made, and even more lessons learned. On the days when he hasn’t played up to par, he has grown from those experiences. Disc golf gives him purpose.
“Without it, I don’t know what I would do,” said Bain. “It’s my sanity, honestly, disc golf is filling that need I have for competition. Having an outlet to where I’m consistently getting better … that’s what disc golf means to me.”