Buhr overcomes six shot deficit to Wysocki in final round; Gannon out-duels both Scoggins and Tattar
October 22, 2024 by Kingsley Flett in Recap with 0 comments
The long and winding 2024 Disc Golf Pro Tour finished this weekend at the DGPT Championships, hosted for the last time in Charlotte, NC, at Nevin Park. Sometimes, the Pro Tour has ended with a whimper, but this year it went out with a bang in both divisions. Gannon Buhr overcame a DGPT record-equaling six stroke deficit to chase down Ricky Wysocki, and, in FPO, Missy Gannon overcame some putting issues in the early rounds to erase a four stroke deficit at the end of round two before surviving a tight top three tussle with Ohn Scoggins and Kristin Tattar to pull away late in the final round for a two stroke victory. Missy’s back to back DGPT championships also made her the first three-time winner of the event.
Gannon Bides His Time
For his whole career, Ricky Wysocki has played his best while surfing a wave of emotion, whipping the gallery into a frenzy that he can feed off. Some of the biggest wins of his career have been cheered home as Ricky fist pumped, raptor legged, and clapped his way through birdie streaks and monster putts. Wysocki admitted as much after dominating round three of the DGPT finals, turning what had been a two horse race between he and Gannon Buhr after the first two rounds into a 6 stroke lead heading into championship Sunday. Nobody had ever come back more than two shots on Ricky in a final round.
“As everyone knows, I thrive off the crowd more than anyone on the pro tour,” Wysocki said after round three. “I love being able to pump up the crowd and hit that big drive or the big putt and just get that momentum on my side.”
Ricky’s style certainly has more to do with impacting his own confidence and momentum that it does affecting other players, but there’s clearly some of what a zoologist would call ‘territorial dominance behavior’ woven into the act. As DGN commentator Brian Earhart said after round three, “Ricky likes to game people. He was staring at Gannon a lot during that round. Gannon needs to get in the game and start doing the same thing back to Rick. I want to see some fireworks tomorrow.”
Whatever Ricky’s behavior was the day before, in the front nine of the final round, Gannon Buhr was having none of it. The woods at Nevin Park rang with the loud cracking sound of Gannon and Ricky clapping for their good shots. Buhr got to clap more than Ricky, though, as four birdies to Ricky’s one in the first four holes cut the lead down to three. Then Ricky’s first bogey of the entire tournament came with a lapse of judgement going for a low ceiling putt on hole 7, bringing the gap down to two.
Wysocki drained a 70 foot birdie putt on the next hole to gain a stroke back and seemingly some momentum. But he gave it away on the very next hole by turning his drive over and having it kick into the creek and out of bounds. Buhr parked the hole to close the deficit to one. After Ricky threw a poor upshot on the next hole, Buhr was called for a time violation as he sized his upshot up. Ricky supported the marshall’s call, saying, “That was more than a minute.” Gannon left the upshot short but hit the 50 foot putt downhill putt from the other side of the log, ran to collect the disc from the basket, and kept running to the next tee. Wysocki’s six stroke lead had been erased in the front nine.
Wysocki missed a circle one putt on the next hole to give Buhr a one stroke lead, which was how the tournament had started. There were two two-stroke swings in the next three holes. Wysocki claimed the lead back after Buhr three putted on hole 11 and shouted, “C’mon baby!” as his own long range birdie putt dropped. Then on hole 13, Buhr took the lead back after both he and Wysocki had hit early trees, by threading a seemingly impossible shot that missed everything as the disc wove its way to circle two, where Gannon hit the putt from one knee. Wysocki’s upshot kicked right, and he took a bogey.
Buhr rode his luck again on the next hole as he missed his drive but managed to thread the disc through the right side rough before it got caught by a fence from where he was able to get up and down for par. Wysocki parked the hole to draw level. Then Buhr went one stroke ahead on hole 13 with a birdie. Then the pair matched each other for blows over the last three holes of what seemed more like a prize fight than disc golf. But Buhr left no room for Wysocki to get back in. Gannon’s one stroke win equalled the biggest comeback in DGPT history and he became disc golf’s biggest single year prize money winner at $211,432.
“Honestly, coming in to today, I felt OK because I know a lot of people didn’t think I could come back from that deficit,” said Buhr after the win. “To prove myself on a very tightly wooded course like this means the world to me. I know I’m more known for open and placement type golf, but here in the super dense woods, it felt good to hit my lines and make some really clutch putts this final round. To win by one stroke — obviously in the time you don’t want it to be that close — but we gave the fans a great show. So many holes that made for such a fantastic battle.”
Ricky would probably not make a great poker player. He wears his heart on his sleeve and his emotions on his face. His expression after the round showed he was more than a little frustrated. He hid none of that from the crowd when he spoke.
“I don’t really have much to say besides very frustrated and all the emotion is still hitting me right now,” Wysocki said. “It’s very frustrating to end like that. Gannon played really well but being in a situation like that — all that matters is holding a lead and I didn’t do it, that’s disc golf sometimes. Thanks y’all.”
In the battle for third, 11 strokes adrift of the lead, Ezra Robinson held off brother Isaac and Calvin Heimburg who tied for fourth place, four strokes further back, after Niklas Anttila dropped from fourth place to sixth.
Missy Seizes Her Moment
On the back of her dominant performance the week before in the Throw Pink Women’s Disc Golf Championships, Kristin Tattar gave the impression in the first two rounds that she was going to pull away from the rest of the FPO field and finish her year with another big win. Heading into moving day, Kristin had a three stroke lead over Ohn Scoggins and Holyn Handley, with Missy Gannon and Eveliina Salonen another stroke back, sharing fourth place.
Gannon had a slow start to the tournament, hitting only 40% of circle one putts in round one and 67% in round two. “In the first two rounds, I just couldn’t put the putter in the basket and then in the last two rounds I felt like myself again,” she said. Missy indeed found her rhythm in round three, hitting 83% of her circle one putts on her way to sharing the hot round of the day with Scoggins to climb into a share of second place with Tattar, both one stroke back from Ohn.
Heading into Championship Sunday, the top three had cleared away from the rest of the field, with Silva Saarinen and Eveliina Salonen six and seven strokes off the lead, respectively. The final round was an enthralling battle between the leading three. Setting the stage for what was to come, Scoggins, Tattar, and Gannon were all square after hole 3.
One measure of a champion in sport is not how much they are scored against, but how often they can reply. Missy gave a hint of the fight that was in her after drawing level with Scoggins in the first couple of holes, then immediately losing that lead on the next hole. Gannon’s double bogey to Tattar’s birdie and Ohn’s par meant the trio were all tied up. Gannon bounced back immediately, though, splitting the fairway of hole four with her drive and then hitting a 30 foot birdie putt for a two stroke swing and to reclaim the lead.
Gannon’s OB penalty and a missed downhill putt for par on hole eight gave the lead back to Scoggins, but by the end of the front nine, there was still only two strokes separating the top three. Scoggins stretched her lead to a pair over Gannon and three over Tattar after parking the difficult down-sloping hole 11’s fast green.
It was on hole 12 that Gannon started to make her move. Missy’s surge to victory started with some luck, though. After overcooking an upshot that skipped hard in the bullseye and looked like going long, the disc hit a tree just beyond the circle square-on and was punted back towards the basket for an easy tap-in birdie. Gannon then caught Ohn on hole 14 after hitting a circle’s edge birdie putt when Ohn missed from similar range.
The key moment in the three way battle came on hole 15 when Missy’s drive was a little offline but threaded its way through the trees on the right side of the fairway before getting a helpful kick towards the basket. Scoggins hit an early tree while Tattar laced a pure line to the basket. The two stroke swing gave Gannon a two stroke lead over Ohn with Kristin one stroke back.
As in MPO, the last three holes, as difficult as they could be, didn’t provide the opportunities for the chasers to catch the leader. Missy went to the final tee with a three stroke lead and, despite dropping three strokes to Tattar and Scoggins with a triple bogey the day before, didn’t make the same mistake and was able to play conservatively before laying up for a two stroke win. The last bit of absurd luck for the day went to Scoggins, who turned her approach shot over and in to the out of bounds area before the disc glanced off a light tower, which kicked it back in bounds and into the bullseye. It was a $4000 deflection. Scoggins was able to hold on to a share of second place and split the 2nd and 3rd place prize money with Tattar.
For Missy, winning back to back titles at the DGPT Championship was sweet.
“It’s an amazing way to cap of the year and a great season,” said Gannon after her win. “I feel so comfortable out here at Nevin. I’m just really feeling thrilled right now. It was such a battle back and forth down the stretch. Nothing was ever certain. Two stroke swings were happening. It was hard to keep track of what the scores were. I knew it was super close, but I was behind for a while there, and I knew I needed make up some strokes down the stretch. Nothing is ever certain on Nevin, and you just never know what’s going to happen. My heart was racing all the way down to that last throw because nothing is ever guaranteed.”
So it was a passionate and thrilling end to the 2024 Pro Tour and a fitting way to cap off what has been another epic season of professional disc golf. The postseason talk has already turned to the notion that, in MPO, we have now seen a changing of the guard and the cast of top contenders from four years ago might have passed the torch to the new young brigade. Ricky Wysocki might have something to say about that next season, though, as it’s clear that his fire still burns strong.
