Home course: Lumberjack Meadows
Favorite course: Oshtemo Township Park
Favorite tournament: Idlewild Open
Favorite disc to throw: DGA Hurricane
Favorite type of shot to throw: Hyzerflip forehand
Go-to pre-game meal: Taco Bell
Best friend in disc golf: Reid Frescura
Biggest inspiration in disc golf: Nate Sexton and the way he plays the game
The highest pressure moment I’ve ever felt at a tournament: Being in a playoff at the 2021 Idlewild Open
Favorite activity outside of disc golf: Golf or Poker
Top three coolest things I’ve seen while on tour: The Great Smoky Mountains, Yellowstone and a monkey at a gas station in Ohio
Favorite movie: Dream Team
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Before you continue, Marwede is a proud member of Team Ledgestone and has his own collection of products on the Shop Ledgestone website. Proceeds from purchases go to support him on tour.
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Alpena is not a large town. It’s tucked in the northeast corner of Michigan’s lower peninsula, hours from any major cities.
This is the town Andrew Marwede calls home, and it brought an advantage when he decided to become a professional disc golfer.
“With the closest B-tier being 2.5 hours away from Alpena, I was already used to driving a lot to play,” he said.
Marwede’s athletic journey began as a high school basketball standout in Alpena. He stayed in town and continued his career in college at Alpena CC. It was in the summers during his basketball offseason that he found disc golf. After a few years of school and tearing up the local Michigan disc golf scene, Marwede began to tour in 2019.
“During my last year of college is when I really broke the barrier of my expectations and knew it was my time to test my skills on the Pro Tour,” the Team Ledgestone star said.
He battled during the 2019 season on tour and secured one Top 10 finish at the Ledgestone Open, ultimately qualifying for the Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship and the United States Disc Golf Championship. However, his largest breakthrough came back home in Michigan at the River City Open, an A-tier, where he secured what he describes as the biggest win of his career.
After entering the final nine holes with the lead, Marwede found himself down by three strokes to Joel Freeman and tied with Kyle Klein. You can watch Central Coast’s coverage of their battle here.
“I had to birdie out to even be in contention and did just that,” Marwede said. “A 60-foot death putt for birdie on hole 17 was the determining factor with a 2-stroke swing to secure the win.”
That confidence boost gave him the confirmation he needed to pursue disc golf moving forward.
One year later he returned to the River City Open once again, this time as the highest-rated player in Michigan history (1027) and was able to defend his title, beating out a strong field headlined by Chris Dickerson, Klein and Jeremy Koling.
In 2021 he almost created a new career moment when he fell in a 2-hole playoff to Klein at the Idlewild Open. But that taste of a DGPT victory just further fueled Marwede. He would continue to rise up the standings, climbing as high as No. 10 on the UDisc World Rankings in August 2021.
He attributes a lot of his disc golf success to his basketball roots.
“The competitive edge and drive I got from basketball really helped me succeed in disc golf,” Marwede said. “I’ve always loved practicing. I think of shooting a free throw. The amount of repetition you need directly correlates to my success on the putting green for disc golf. Forehands always came easy to me and putting was a skill that came quickly with the amount of practice I put in.”
Marwede honed in his putting to become the No. 1-ranked putter on tour in 2022, connecting on 92% of his looks from Circle 1 and 38% of his looks from Circle 2.
Even with his forehand and putting prowess, he has a very blunt opinion of backhand throws.
“Backhands will never make sense to me,” he said.
Blog by Jacob Arvidson
