On the first card out to kick off the beloved stop in Minnesota, Gannon fired off a 1037-rated opening round — unofficially the highest of her career — to kick start what looks to be a sprint to the finish through the entire event.
With a blistering 10-under-par second round a new player surged to the top of the FPO leaderboard at the DGPT Elite+ 2024 Portland Open presented by Latitude 64. Sofia Donnecke (-13) of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, is playing in just her 25th PDGA sanctioned event of her career, which includes 8 victories at various levels. Two weeks ago, Donnecke made her DGPT debut at the OTB Open, placing 14th. She now co-leads a DGPT Elite+ event at the halfway mark with Ohn Scoggins (-13), who followed up an opening-round minus-7 with a 6-under-par second round.
The only problem with battling your best friend for what would be – for either of you – the biggest win of your career, is that somebody has to lose.
On Sunday it was Holyn Handley that was on wrong end of this equation, coming up short of the title and watching her friend Ella Hansen receive her first Elite Series trophy.
Both Hansen and Handley, who won what is probably the most prestigious non-Elite or Major title last year when she took down the 2023 Throw Pink Women’s Championship, got off to an ideal start.
As the FPO lead card prepared to round the corner of hole 18 on Saturday, it looked to all the world like a three-woman race heading into championship Sunday.
Instead, Kat Mertsch hit an early tree -- one of the large majestic oaks that pepper the Swenson Park golf course -- and sent her next shot out of bounds on the way to a deflating triple bogey.
It was an unfortunate turn for a play who had, until that point, produced at such a high level including highlights like an obstructed C2 putt on hole 7 that was off-the-charts in terms of difficulty.
After a busy news week in the disc golf world including Kristin Tattar reaching the historic 1000-rated milestone, and the announcement that a 2025 Major – the PDGA Champions Cup -- would be held in place of the OTB Open at Swenson Park in Stockton, CA, the 2024 edition of the OTB Open kicked off on Friday, providing an unexpected preview of next year’s Major season.
Heading in the final FPO round of the DGPT Europe Elite Copenhagen Open. Eveliina Salonen is closing the gap on Kaidi Allsalu and is now only 4 strokes behind: this sounds promising!
Hole 1: A very precise Kaidi gets the birdie, and Eveliina's approach touches a branch and ends in OB. Easy approach, we are still cold... and OB again! She misses the putt, triple-bogeys, and is 8 strokes off the lead in one hole... The excitement is over.
As the weather got better throughout the morning at DGPT Europe Elite Series Copenhagen Open, both the scores and the excitement around the course were reflected in the improving conditions.
What happens when a scene has so many excellent players? The premiere of the Disc Golf Pro Tour Elite in Europe under the DGPT Europe brand at the Copenhagen Open (Denmark) had an entry with many recent winners among which to look for favorites:
Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste (Estonia), Rachel Turton (Great Britain), Anniken Steen (Norway), Eveliina Salonen (Finland)... but the one who most strongly claimed her options was Estonia's Kaidi Allsalu, who with a -8 made clear why she won on this same course at the 2023 European Pro Tour: a flying start with 4 birdies in a row and only one bogey with a really solid game in all aspects.
In the lead up to the event, chatter among some speculators was that this year’s edition of the DGPT – Dynamic Discs Open would be primed for an “upstart” to emerge victorious. In the FPO field, multiple top European players have ventured home, including Kristin Tattar (three 2024 tour victories), Eveliina Salonen (two 2024 victories including one Major) and Anniken Steen (one 2024 tour victory). Henna Blomroos and Heidi Laine – two players seemingly in weekly contention in 2024 – are also home in Europe. Thus, opportunity presents itself for the rest of the FPO field.
