From the desk of Owl P. Jackson, Esq.
September 21, 2022 by Owl P. Jackson, Esq. in Opinion with 0 comments
The first-ever DGPT playoffs are here! Could you tell? Probably not. However, while post-season gravitas may have been lacking, there are still plenty of storylines to consider from a truly bizarre final day at Smugglers’ Notch Resort. So, grab your umbrella (and your favorite canned beverage)! In my opinion, these are the top 10 storylines of the 2022 Green Mountain Championship.
1. Kristin Tattar’s continued dominance
“Don’t everyone thank me at once.”
It is getting hard to write about Kristin Tattar week after week after week after week. What more can be said? She was absolutely dominant again this past weekend, once again posting a 1000+ event rating. Believe it or not, after three rounds, Kristin was tied with Henna for the lead. It looked like we might actually be in for an exciting finish from our European women. Alas, Kristin pulled away and ended up winning by seven strokes. MVP Open, Throw Pink, and the Tour Championship remain…if you’re picking anyone but Kristin, you’re crazy.
2. 6 strokes with 6 to go
“Let’s keep a little optimism here.”
It looked like it was over, but we were treated to one of the strangest endings of the season. Here is the situation: with six holes to go, Ricky was up by six strokes over Chris Dickerson. I wouldn’t blame you if you turned DGN off and left your couch for the first time in four days. Chris birdied hole 13 to cut the lead to five. On hole 14, Ricky skipped and hit an umbrella to stay in bounds. The umbrella was standing next to a can! In the fairway! What are we doing, people? Chris birdied the hole, but you could feel #umbrellagate brewing. It’s not fair! But Ricky missed the birdie putt…and then missed the comeback putt O.B. He ended up taking a double bogey, cutting his own lead to just 2 strokes. So, the scandalous umbrella…didn’t matter at all?
3. Dickerson ties it up
“It’s better to wait for the right time than risk everything.”
All of a sudden, we had a match. Hole 15, Chris birdies…lead is down to one stroke! Hole 16, Ricky gets caught up in the trees and takes a bogey…it’s all tied up. On hole 17, Ricky laid up to take a par. Chris is staring down a putt to take a one-stroke lead into the final hole. According to the announcers, it was 41 feet. According to Chris, it was more like 48. Either way, he laid up, taking it to the final hole and giving everyone on disc golf Twitter the impression that their opinion was needed. It is easy to say when you know the final result, but Chris should have run the putt (Paul would have). You can’t overestimate the power of momentum in sports, and Chris had it all. Oh well…off to the final hole.
4. Ricky Wysocki, 5X GMC Champion
“Listen, you can drop me off at the next corner.”
The drama deflated even quicker than it built, with Chris throwing O.B. off the tee on 18. Ricky took a textbook par to win the tournament. But, if you were watching Ricky, it looked anything but “textbook.” Rick celebrated with every shot, raptor-legging down the fairway. To me, it looked like he was trying to make it an epic moment for the season-long highlight reel. To be fair, Ricky does care more about regular season consistency than Majors — or so he claims. It doesn’t look great raising this opinion right after losing Worlds. If he had won Worlds, these words would never have been spoken. But….back to GMC. Ricky has established himself as the best player in the event’s history. He has won here 5 times now!
5. So…what are the playoffs?
“But the like o’ us maun to our wark again, if our hearts were beating as hard as my hammer.”
When the DGPT released the playoff format announcement, I was excited. My head was filled with visions of players fighting to make it to the next rounds with drama aplenty. Turns out, pretty much everyone we care about is in. Turns out, anyone who has a chance to win an event is in. So, what is the point? Where is the drama? It didn’t seem like the commentators knew. The only mention of the playoffs was to mention that it was the playoffs. But what does that mean, really? I’ve settled here: this is a long play for the future of the pro tour. For now, we just need to view GMC and MVP as some sort of mini-Majors. After all, it is interesting that points for these events count for everyone, with no dropped scores. It is interesting that they are worth 1.25X tour points. It is interesting that these two events are the last chance to try to earn byes in the finals. But…they didn’t mention any of that. And we don’t care about the people that aren’t making it to MVP. So, let’s talk about a few people who benefited from these playoff events…
6. Henna has another strong performance
“New car, new coat…it’s why we get up in the morning, huh?”
Once again, it was Henna who was giving Kristin a run for her money. Once again, it was Henna who fell away late. But still, Henna was incredible off the tee. It is much the same story as Worlds…if Henna can learn to putt at an acceptable level, she will compete for wins week-in and week-out. Her solid playoff performance earned her over 100 points and moved her up 9 spots into a play-in spot for the finals.
7. Ohn
“Sorry, sweetheart. I haven’t got time for anything else.”
If Kristin Tattar didn’t exist, we would all be talking about Ohn Scoggins. Ohn earned another podium finish at GMC, even after a disastrous first round. If Kristin has an off tournament coming up, I hope Ohn is the one to swing in for the scraps. She has had the best season of her career and is now sitting in 4th place in the DGPT standings. That means she currently has a bye all the way to the semifinals. Let’s go!
8. Matty O. and Isaac Robinson climb up the standings
“Great, kid. Don’t get cocky.”
Matty O. and Isaac Robinson tied Chris Dickerson for second place at GMC, but it meant a lot more for their standings than it did for Chris’. Orum is still searching for that first elite series win but has now hopped into 8th place, which earns him a bye to the semifinals. Isaac Robinson has only been on the road for a couple of months, but he is making sure his presence is felt. His T-2 finish moves him up almost 100 points to 16th place, earning him a bye to the quarterfinals.
9. FPO Cutline
“You think they ever met a pirate who didn’t tell them that joke?”
The most exciting part of the FPO tournament came in round 3, as the cutline loomed large for superstars Paige Pierce and Catrina Allen. Cat ended up not making the cut, which is the first time in a bajillion years. Paige ended up carding birdie on the final hole to make the last spot above the cutline. What is happening with these two? I hope they can figure it out soon. There’s not much time left this season.
10. Looking ahead to Maple Hill
“And make no mistake, my lady, the dead are coming.”
Here is what I want. I want to see someone have a great tournament at MVP Open to earn a spot in the tour championship play-ins at the eleventh hour. Here is who is on the outside looking in for FPO: big contract Kona Panis, Macie Velediaz, 5X Juliana Korver, Rebecca Cox, and Madison Walker. For the MPO: Canadian champion Thomas Gilbert, Gavin Babcock, Luke Humphries (how the mighty have fallen!), Linus Carlsson, and Chandler Fry. It’ll be fun to keep our eyes on them, as well as all the people positioned on the bye lines next weekend!
Thanks for reading, everyone! Let me know the storylines you think I missed. See you at the MVP Open!
