Missy Gannon started her title defense strong at the Ledgestone Open. Photo: Gage Hamilton / DGPT

Missy Gannon started her title defense at the 2023 Disc Golf Pro Tour — Discraft Ledgestone Open with a throw that no other FPO player has done in the history of Northwood Black. Meanwhile, a calm day at Lake Eureka opened the floodgates for birdies in MPO.

One day down, three to go at the second DGPT Elite+ event of the year.

Gannon parked the narrow, downhill 455-foot opening hole at Northwood Black and then, like the rest of the FPO field, battled the tight woods for a one-stroke lead, her first lead since she won in the Peoria, Illinois area a year ago, according to StatMando.

The double-digit pace was set early in MPO at Lake Eureka with Adam Hammes and Cole Redalen posting 10-under rounds. The later cards upped that mark with Calvin Heimburg and Ezra Robinson posted 12-under scores and James Proctor and Chris Dickerson following with 11-under opening rounds. Also in the afternoon, Garrett Everson tacked on the seventh double-digit round at 10-under.

Overall, there are 15 players in MPO with four strokes of the lead and 16 players within four strokes of Gannon in FPO.

Gannon started 2-for-2 and bounced back with one of five birdies on the day on hole 6. After a bogey at the eighth, she birdied 9, 10 and 11, the only player in the field to get the turkey at the turn.

Stephanie Vincent is tied for second as the FPO field heads to Sunset Hills. Photo: Gage Hamilton / DGPT

Stephanie Vincent, who finished fourth at the 2023 PDGA Masters World Championships three weeks ago, is one stroke back, tied with Ella Hansen for second. Ellen Widboom will round out the lead card at even par, where she’s joined by Maria Oliva and Sarah Gilpin.

Vincent was even par through 13 and added a birdie on 17 for a clean finish. Hansen only had two holes over par — a double on 5 and a single bogey on 8 — and was the only player with a bogey-free back nine. Widboom rallied from three-straight bogies to start and worked back to even.

Hansen led in strokes gained tee-to-green at 6.56, a full stroke ahead of Gannon, according to UDisc. Vincent and Gannon were second in fairway hits at 81%, behind Erika Stinchcomb (T13) at 86%.

Calvin Heimburg once again is on the lead card. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

In MPO, Heimburg and Robinson were joined by Simon Lizotte (T8, -9) as the only three players to turn in clean sheets at Lake Eureka. Heimburg recovered from two OB strokes to save par, and Robinson avoided the tight OB altogether. He was boosted by a 4-of-5 mark from Circle 2 on the green. His only miss came on 18 after he birdied eight-straight on the back nine.

Ezra Robinson kept it clean and is tied for the lead after one in Peoria. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

Proctor continued his stellar play this season with a field-high 13 birdies and had three OB strokes, two of which led to bogies.

Dickerson matched Heimburg and Everson at 7-under through the first 11 holes and rallied from his only bogey of the day on 12 with five-straight birdies.

The script flips on Day 2 with the FPO field heading to Sunset Hills, highly regarded as the best one of the top FPO tracks on tour where scoring opportunities are ample, while the MPO field heads to the woods of Northwood Black.

Live coverage of FPO begins at 9 a.m. CT on the Disc Golf Network. MPO coverage begins at 2:30 p.m. CT.