2024 Beaver State Fling Preview: Milo, Oh My

BSF returns to Elite status for the first time since 2019

June 5, 2024 by Justin Westfall in Preview with 0 comments

The 2024 Beaver State Fling will mark the final stop on the west coast swing. Beginning this Friday, June 7th, the BSF is held at Milo McIver State Park in Estacada, Oregon. After a significant amount of travel to get out west, players only had to drive about 25 miles south of Glendoveer this week after Portland Open, leaving plenty of time to get some practice in on the challenging wooded course. The vast majority of this week’s field will get an off week following this tournament as next week’s DGPT event will be played in Turku, Finland.

The BSF has been on the Elite Series 13 times in its history, but it hasn’t been since 2019 and it’s never been a stop on the Disc Golf Pro Tour. After holding a spot on the DGPT Silver Series for the past two seasons, this historic event has finally been elevated back to Elite status.

Last year, two-time champion Eagle McMahon entered the final round with a one-stroke lead over reigning champion Garrett Gurthie. McMahon proceeded to shoot 11-under par, finishing the tournament bogey-free to claim his third career BSF title. In the FPO division, Jennifer Allen entered the final round with a two-stroke lead over Holyn Handley. Allen started off with a bang by acing the first hole, a throw that would later make its way to #2 on SportsCenter’s Top 10 plays.  Allen would go on to earn her first career tour win by two strokes over Handley.

Past Winners

Four Things We’ll Be Watching

1. Reigning and three-time BSF champion Eagle McMahon is slowly rounding into form during the west coast swing, finishing 13th at the OTB Open and 10th at last week’s Portland Open. McMahon’s tee shots are not quite dialed in yet, resulting in too many missed fairways and OB strokes. However, there were plenty of positive signs in Portland. After hitting the cage from around 400 feet in round 1, McMahon threw in an eagle from 464 feet in round 3. His C2 putt also seems to be clicking again. After going 0-for-8 in round 1 last week, McMahon went 7-for-13 over the final three rounds and was credited with four more makes from outside of C2. If Eagle wants to take home yet another BSF title, he’ll need to clean it up off the tee.  The fairways at Milo are much tighter than Glendoveer, and quite a bit of OB has been added to the course this year.

2. After earning her first win in over a year last week, three-time BSF champion Paige Pierce will not be playing this weekend. With Holyn Handley coming off 4th, 3rd, and 2nd place finishes in her past three events, perhaps this is finally the week that she finds herself hoisting a trophy on Sunday. Handley has three runner-up finishes in her past six events, and six total podium finishes on the season. Holyn was also the runner-up at this event last year and finished 10 strokes clear of 3rd place. Ohn Scoggins logged 13 career Elite/Major podium finishes before finally winning the 2023 Great Lakes Open. After last week, Holyn now sits at 12 career Elite/Major podium finishes.

3. It’s been a relatively slow start for reigning World champion Isaac Robinson, but that could be turning around after a 4th place finish at the Portland Open.  Milo seems like the type of course Robinson could thrive on, though he’s finished 36th and 20th at this event in the past two years. Perhaps we should keep a closer eye on his brother, Ezra Robinson, who will be playing in this event for the first time. Despite being an aggressive power-thrower, Ezra performs well on wooded courses, earning a 7th place finish at WACO, 3rd at Champions Cup, a win at the Masters Cup, and a 2nd place finish at the Cascade Challenge two weeks ago. Ezra lost that event to a red-hot Niklas Anttila, who finished 5th at Milo last year. Don’t forget about Calvin Heimburg and Andrew Presnell, who both finished tied for 2nd in last year’s event. Heimburg has an opportunity to pick up his 3rd win in the last four events, while Prez has a great opportunity at his first Elite series win after becoming a Major champion earlier this year.

4. Fan attendance this year has been disappointing to say the least. Once the tour moved out west, the crowd sizes in Stockton and Portland were significantly better than any other event in the U.S. so far this season. With a second consecutive Elite event in the Portland area, will spectators come out in big numbers once again?  One potential draw this week is local three-time World champion and 2007 BSF champion Nate Doss, who will be playing in his first Elite event since the 2018 BSF. Doss has not played in any PDGA event since finishing one stroke shy of Garrett Gurthie at the 2018 Zoo Town Open.

Course Changes

Currently ranked #60 in the World and #1 in the state of Oregon by UDisc, Milo McIver disc golf course is a favorite among players. Holes from both the East and West course have been combined into this year’s Riverbend Gold layout. The BSF layout tends to change each year, though this year’s track is very similar to what was used for the 2023 event. In total, 16 holes from last year’s layout remain, with two shorter wooded holes from the east course having been added in.

A couple of the FPO holes have been shortened after playing too difficult, while hole 18 on the MPO side has been lengthened after seeing a nearly 50% birdie rate last year. The biggest change to the layout is that lots of OB territory has been added throughout the course and existing OB lines have been tightened up.

2024 MPO: 10,733 Foot Par 65
2023 MPO: 11,344 Foot Par 67

2024 FPO: 9,374 Foot Par 69
2023 FPO: 9,746 Foot Par 69

Extended Forecast

It’s shaping up to be a beautiful weekend at Milo.  Hot temperatures will cool down a bit throughout the weekend, and with low winds in the forecast expect scores to come in low.

Friday: Abundant sunshine with highs in the mid 80s. Winds light and variable.

Saturday: Mostly cloudy with highs in the lower 80s. Winds light and variable.

Sunday: Partly cloudy with highs in the mid 70s. Winds light and variable.