Buhr shot 16-under course record at Fox Run in round two
September 24, 2024 by Kingsley Flett in Recap with 0 comments
Kristin Tattar and Gannon Buhr emerged winners after four days on the Brewster Ridge and Fox Run courses at the Green Mountain Championships this past weekend with both champions coming home strong in the final nine. For Buhr, his 8-under par in the back nine of championship Sunday held off a fast-finishing Ricky Wysocki who was in a dangerous mood.
For Tattar, the win was another chapter in her storied history of amazing comebacks as she overcame an even par front nine that included two OB penalties and two missed circle one putts to shoot 5-under-par in the back nine and close an eight stroke gap in the final six holes to force and then win a playoff against Silva Saarinen. The win, on the first hole of the playoff, was Tattar’s sixth Elite Series win of 2024 to go with her European Open Major title.
The growth of Gannon Buhr
In the middle of what is shaping to be one of the most dominant seasons in pro disc golf, Gannon Buhr’s 7th place in the World Championships sticks out as one of the few times he hasn’t been on a podium. The argument about his dominance this season would probably be over had he become world champion. In his pre-tournament press conference, Buhr spoke of the hard lessons that he learned in Virginia.
“At the Worlds, I maybe wanted it too bad, in that if I had a bit of bad luck or threw a bad shot I overreacted,” Buhr said. “It helped me take a step back and make sure I’m not even acting out on the course.”
Gannon’s newfound ability to control his reactions would come to play in the final round at Smugglers Notch as Wysocki reduced his once commanding lead down to three strokes with three holes to play.
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Buhr started slow in the first round at Brewster Ridge, his 8-under-par first round leaving him in a tie for 9th place and three strokes off Alden Harris’s lead.
“Brewster is all about shooting anywhere from that 5-under to 9-under range to just keep yourself in it for the tournament,” Buhr said. “Then all of your scoring and surviving kind of happens out at Fox Run.”
Score Buhr did in the second round. He dropped the hammer with a course record 16-under-par 47 that took him into a three stroke lead that he would never relinquish. Gannon kept up the pace with a 10-under-par 52 back on Brewster to make the turn for Championship Sunday with a five stroke lead over Joseph Anderson, six over Evan Smith, and seven over Wysocki and Alden Harris.
Smith and Wysocki chipped away at Buhr’s lead on the front nine of the final round and when Buhr threw out of bounds off the tee on his way to his solitary bogey for the round on hole 7, the gap was down to three strokes over Smith and four strokes to Wysocki. Wysocki took a share of second place with a birdie on the next hole, in the middle of a seven birdie streak that had him claiming outright second on hole 9 as Smith faded away.
The key test for Buhr’s resilience and the crux of the tournament was to come on hole 13. Wysocki’s drive caught a tree and was stopped outside the circle. Buhr’s drive threaded though, skipped, hit the cage and rolled out of bounds. Gannon lost his composure for a second. He shook his head and muttered, “That’s a joke.” But, by the time he walked to the green, Buhr’s emotions had settled. He made the putt for par from OB. Wysocki was unable to convert his edge of circle putt and the gap remained at three strokes with three holes to play.
When asked about how he dealt with the pressure of the back nine, especially after the bad break on hole 13, Buhr said, “I just told myself to commit to all my shots and take an extra second to focus.” Buhr birdied the last five holes to pull away from Wysocki. Gannon ended the tournament with an emphatic park job for birdie on the difficult to approach hole 18.
“This is my favorite tournament of the year,” said Buhr. “It’s always one I’ve wanted to take down. I’m so glad I got it done today. It was a little scarier than I wanted it to be. Ricky — it doesn’t matter how much he’s back — he’s always going to be pushing me. He forced me to be pretty much perfect in the last 10 holes.”
Buhr isn’t done with 2024 yet either. “I’m focused on USDGC a lot,” he said. “There’s a couple of things I want to cement this year for me. I want to get as many wins as I can, and player of the year is a big goal of mine. If I can get the second major at the USDGC, I know people are talking about it being one of the greatest seasons of all time, especially in the new era. I know I can win every week; I’ve just got to have a good mental game, and I think that’s what I did this week.”
Another classic Kristin comeback
After the first two rounds of the FPO tournament, it seemed that we were in for a 2023-style Kristin Tattar victory parade in the final rounds. Playing on a property where she has won multiple times in the past, including last year’s World Championships, Kristin took a two stroke lead over Ohn Scoggins in round one, then stretched that to a four stroke lead over Silva Saarinen by the end of the second round.
Returning to Brewster Ridge for round three, however, Tattar lost her radar, both off the tee and on the putting green. Compared to round one, where she hit the fairway 89% of the time, Tattar’s percentage dropped to 68%. Tattar also missed three circle one putts and, more crucially, she was forced to put from circle two five times, where she came up empty. Tattar’s 2-under-par 60 dropped her to a tie for third with Missy Gannon, who had shot a course record 16-under-par 52 to climb from fifth place to be one off the lead. Sharing that lead, at 17-under-par, were Saarinen and Scoggins, the latter of whome had shot 9-under-par to climb from third place.
With one stroke separating the lead card and a six stroke gap back to fifth place, the win was anyone’s in the top four to claim. Early in the round, it looked like it might be Scoggins’ day, as she got away early on the strength of two bold circle two putts. Scoggins had made 160 feet of putts in the first 4 holes as she hit from 52 feet and 55 feet for birdies on holes 1 and 3 and then 49 feet to save par on hole 4. Scoggins first circle one putt in regulation didn’t come until hole 7, where she missed. From there, Ohn dropped off the pace, carding 3 over par for the rest of the round as Saarinen’s consistency started to show through. With six holes to play, Silva had a three stroke lead over Ohn and a five throw margin over Tattar, who had shot even par in the front nine and was only just starting to connect with three birdies in the previous four holes.
Saarinen then scored the only birdie of the card on hole 13 and her first pro tour win in the USA was starting to loom large. It was about then, though, that the script was torn up. Tattar took a stroke on the next hole, then three on the next two holes when Silva missed the wooded fairways and was forced to scramble. A nerve-steadying par on hole 17 seemed to be enough: Saarinen took a two stroke lead into hole 18 and, under the timeless adage for that hole which says “if you are going to miss, miss left,” allowed her drive to skip onto the road, which still gave her a good chance of saving par. She couldn’t, though, and when Tattar landed her drive in the center of the fairway and then used her weapon of a forehand to park the hole, the two stroke swing meant we were headed for a playoff.
The two Europeans rode together in a golf cart back up to the tee of 18 to repeat the hole. This time, Saarinen landed in bounds to the right with a straight shot at the basket. Tattar repeated her drive from the last hole, then left her upshot a little short and was looking at a circle’s edge putt. Saarinen’s approach clipped a branch as it flew the gap and landed short, towards the edge of circle two. Silva’s birdie attempt was brave: the disc skipped off the cage on the right side but then rolled out of bounds. Silva’s stoic façade cracked as she watched Kristin lay-up and drop in for the least likely of her unlikely wins. The Finn crouched and put her face in her hands. Kristin had made up eight strokes on Silva in six holes.
Tattar spared a thought for her rival after her win. “Defeat, or failure, is an important part of the process,” she said. “Going through that process builds character and confidence so that next to you are in this situation you will be more brave. I’m sure she will learn from this and keep going. She played excellent over the weekend, and I am happy to have played by her side.”
Of her own win, Tattar was still slightly disbelieving. “This is the perfect example of not giving up,” she said, “even if things don’t go your way and it seems like the win is just slipping away. But somehow, I just kept going and to come out of this tournament as the winner it is almost unbelievable, but it happened. I tried to keep all the bad thoughts away and just execute my game plan. Early in the round, I felt like nothing was working. Even though I was trying, I just felt so sad inside because my putts didn’t feel good, and my drives were not good. I was thinking to myself I’m here, and I’m playing, and all these people came out to watch us I’m just going to give my best, whatever it is. “
It seems that both Tattar and Buhr are determined to finish this year strong. While 2024 won’t be the year that either player wins the world title, there is still plenty of competition left for them to prove that this has been their year regardless.
