A sneak preview of the tour opener.
February 15, 2024 by Justin Westfall in Preview with 0 comments
The 2024 disc golf season is upon us! Several changes are coming to the Disc Golf Pro Tour this year, including a more robust European Tour, a Tour Qualifying series, and a new scores and stats platform powered by PDGA Live and Statmando. A completely reworked All-Star event, beginning tomorrow, will showcase the first change of the 2024 season.
Previously held at the El Conquistador Resort in Tucson, Arizona, and originally scheduled to take place in Orlando for 2024, this year’s All-Star event will instead be held at the Olympus Disc Golf Course (formerly known as Gran Canyon, the home of Throw Down The Mountain) in Brooksville, Florida. Olympus — newly acquired by Paul McBeth and Dylan Cease — will also play host to the first tour event of the season next week, the Chess.com Invitational.
While Friday will still feature a skills competition consisting of putting, accuracy, and distance challenges, these events will no longer count towards team points. Instead, players will compete individually in these events, and the All-Stars will be joined by a handful of additional players to fill out the event pools. The All-Stars will then compete in doubles stroke play on Saturday, followed by singles stroke play on Sunday, to earn points for their respective teams. In the event of a tie, there will be a one hole sudden death playoff, with the captains competing first, followed by second seeds, third seeds, etc. if needed.
Putting Challenge Participants
*denotes non-All-Star
Ohn Scoggins
Kat Mertsch
Deann Carey*
Morgan Lynds*
Jordan Lynds*
Catrina Allen
Ricky Wysocki
Gannon Buhr
Matt Orum
Andrew Marwede*
James Proctor
Isaac Robinson
Accuracy Challenge Participants
Missy Gannon
Sarah Hokom
Jessica Weese
Ali Smith
Macie Velediaz
Aaron Gossage
Chris Dickerson
Kyle Klein
Alden Harris*
Ezra Robinson
Distance Challenge Participants
Holyn Handley
Ella Hansen
Eveliina Salonen*
Henna Blomroos
Eliezra Midtlyng*
Hailey King
Calvin Heimburg
Anthony Barela
Cole Redalen
Garrett Gurthie*
Albert Tamm*
Ezra Aderhold*
The All-Star Teams
The All-Star Teams were selected via a draft between the two captains in each division: in MPO, Calvin Heimburg and Isaac Robinson; and in FPO, Missy Gannon and Ohn Scoggins. The drafts were televised on YouTube last week (MPO / FPO). Below, see the teams in their draft orders.
Team Calvin
(1) Calvin Heimburg
(4) Ricky Wysocki
(5) Anthony Barela
(7) Matt Orum
(9) James Proctor
(12) Chris Dickerson
Team Isaac
(2) Isaac Robinson
(3) Gannon Buhr
(6) Kyle Klein
(8) Cole Redalen
(10) Ezra Robinson
(11) Aaron Gossage
Team Missy
(1) Missy Gannon
(3) Holyn Handley
(4) Ella Hansen
(7) Catrina Allen
(8) Sarah Hokom
(11) Ali Smith
Team Ohn
(2) Ohn Scoggins
(5) Kat Mertsch
(6) Hailey King
(9) Macie Velediaz
(10) Jessica Weese
(12) Henna Blomroos
Kristin Tattar, Simon Lizotte, and Eagle McMahon qualified as All-Stars but chose not to participate. They were replaced by Henna Blomroos, Aaron Gossage, and Chris Dickerson, respectively.
Three Things We’ll Be Watching
1. There is plenty to be excited about for the skills competitions on Friday. The FPO distance competition has tremendous throwers from top to bottom, including 16-year-old phenom Eli Midtlyng. The MPO putting competition has the top two C1X putters from last season (Marwede, Proctor) and the top four C2 putters (Buhr, Orum, Wysocki, Proctor): it should be a very close contest that could easily be decided by a single putt.
2. The MPO All-Star matchups might as well be Team Veteran vs. Team Young Guns: the average age of Heimburg’s squad is 29 years old, compared to just an average age of 21.3 for Robinson’s team. Calvin’s team also has 25 more years of PDGA membership than Isaac’s — and 25 more DGPT Elite wins. The question is whether that experience will culminate in a 2nd career All-Star win for Heimburg as a team captain, or if the reigning World Champion and his youthful squad can take down the vets.
3. Ohn Scoggins is the only returning team captain from the 2023 All-Star event, and she’ll be looking for redemption after her team came up short. Unlike the MPO side, both FPO teams have a healthy mix of both younger and veteran players. This week provides a great opportunity to see where each player’s game is after a long offseason, and how well they can score at Olympus. With world #1 Kristin Tattar notably absent and Paige Pierce returning from injury, there is a good chance that next week’s Chess.com Invitational winner will be one of these 12 players.
The Course
The Olympus Disc Golf Course is a favorite among Floridians and was purchased last year by 6-time PDGA World champion Paul McBeth and Chicago White Sox pitcher Dylan Cease. Formerly known as the Gran Canyon, this course plays host to a popular A-Tier, Throw Down the Mountain, each spring. Olympus has undergone a slight redesign since the ownership change, and a modified 9-hole layout will be used for this week’s All-Star Event.
For those who plan to watch the Chess.com Invitational next week, holes 1, 7, 8, 9, 16, 17, and 18 will be utilized for the All-Star event, along with two safari holes. Hole 2 on the All-Star course will play from hole 2’s teepad to hole 6’s basket. The 6th hole will be played from hole 12’s teepad to hole 15’s basket. This 1,000 foot Par 5 is longer than any of the holes on the full layout.
MPO: 5,299 Feet Par 33
FPO: 5,152 Feet Par 35
How to Watch
Coverage of the 2024 DGPT All-Star Weekend will primarily be available to Disc Golf Network subscribers. The Saturday and Sunday coverage is exclusive to DGN, but everyone can watch the Thursday Press Conference and the Friday Skills Competition on the DGPT YouTube. Here’s the full schedule (all times ET):
Thursday, February 15th
5 PM: Press Conference (YouTube)
Friday, February 16th
1 PM: Skills Competition (YouTube)
Saturday, February 17th
9:30 AM: FPO Doubles (DGN)
2:30 PM: MPO Doubles (DGN)
Sunday, February 18th
9:30 AM: FPO Singles (DGN)
2:30 PM: MPO Singles (DGN)
Reminder: if you are wanting to check scores during the event, you’ll need to navigate to PDGALive.com (Doubles / Singles). UDiscLive is no longer providing live scoring for the DGPT.
Extended Forecast
The skills competition on Friday should have terrific weather, but rain is expected to fall during the doubles and singles stroke-play rounds on Saturday and Sunday.
Friday: Cloudy with highs in the mid 70s. Winds 5 to 10 mph.
Saturday: Rain likely with highs in the mid 60s Winds 5 to 10mph. Chance of rain 90%.
Sunday: Rain early with occasional showers in the afternoon, highs in the upper 50s. Winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of rain 70%.
