2025 MVP’s Open at Austin Preview: The First DGPT+ of 2025

From a Silver to a DGPT to a DGPT+.

March 19, 2025 by Justin Westfall in Preview

The Disc Golf Pro Tour heads just 100 miles south of Waco this week for the Open at Austin. The Open Disc Golf Championship was established in 2015, and from 2021-2022 was run as The Open at Belton on the DGPT Silver Series. In 2023 the event was elevated to the Elite Series, and moved to America’s 10th largest city: Austin, Texas. This year the event has been elevated once again to a DGPT+, and will now consist of four rounds played on two separate courses.

With the updated points scale for 2025, DGPT+ events are now worth 200 points for the winner, a 33% bump over a standard DGPT event which is now worth 150 points. Last year’s event was plagued by rain delays, and while the FPO division was able to play all three rounds in full, the MPO division cut the final round to 15 holes. Niklas Anttila came into the final day with a two-stroke lead over reigning champion Gannon Buhr, but his biggest opposition came from all the way back on the third card. Kyle Klein managed to shoot 12-under par in just 15 holes, and Anttila trailed by one-stroke going into the final two holes. The Finn clutched up with a 46 foot putt on hole 17 to take a share of the lead, and in near darkness found himself just outside of the circle on hole 18 with a putt for the win. Anttila would go on to make the putt, and claim the first ever DGPT MPO win for his home country.

In the FPO division, Ohn Scoggins sat four-strokes off the lead after the opening round. What followed was two of the greatest rounds in disc golf history, as Scoggins would shoot a 13-under par second round. At 1055-rated, it tied the 5th highest rated round in PDGA FPO history. With a two-stroke lead going into the final day, Scoggins refused to let off the gas. She followed up her historic performance with a 1042-rated 10-under par final round to win the event by 11-strokes. At 42 years old, Scoggins managed to average a 1029 event rating, the highest ever recorded in PDGA FPO history.

Past Winners

Four Things We’ll Be Watching

1. Coming off the Waco Annual Charity Open, it appears we could be in store for another dominant season from Kristin Lätt. The Estonian phenom won the tournament for a third consecutive year, joining Paige Pierce as the only players to ever win a DGPT event three years in a row. Not only did Lätt win the tournament, she averaged the highest event rating of her storied career at 1016. While she struggled to throw backhand tee shots for a few holes in the middle of the final round, Kristin still managed to shoot her best round of the weekend. On Sunday she went 12-for-12 putting from C1X and her forehand looked as polished as ever. After setting an incredibly high standard in the 2023 season, the FPO field as a whole took a big leap forward in 2024 and was able to challenge and defeat Kristin several times. It appears the advancement of the field has only motivated Kristin to elevate her game even further.

2. This weekend could be very important for both Gannon Buhr and Anthony Barela. Buhr has gotten off to a bit of a slow start this season, averaging below his player rating in all six rounds he’s played to open up the year. Outside of a poor opening round at the Supreme Flight Open, Buhr has played decent but is yet to display the incredibly high ceiling that made him world number one. Barela on the other hand put himself in position to win both the SFO and WACO, but failed to close out either tournament. Having squandered leads at a pair of A-tiers prior to the start of the season, this is quickly becoming a concerning trend for Barela. In his last four rounds, AB has made just 3-of-14 putts from outside the circle.

3. Despite a pair of top-10 finishes to start the year, Ohn Scoggins has been relatively quiet. The three-time DGPT champion has made a habit of finishing on the podium more often than not over the last two seasons. Expectations will be sky-high this week as Scoggins returns to the course that she practically set on fire last year en route to a dominant victory. With a solid performance at Sprinkle Valley the following week, there’s every reason to believe Ohn has a great opportunity to take home the trophy this weekend. Keep your eyes on Missy Gannon as well, who earned her first career Major at Sprinkle Valley last season. Coming off her best career finish at WACO, Missy could be primed for another stellar weekend in Austin.

4. Perhaps the most important storyline for the DGPT this weekend will be in-person attendance of the event. Austin is America’s 10th largest city and the reason this event has been elevated to DGPT+ status. Spectating was relatively thin last year and there’s no doubt the pro tour is hoping to turn that around and make this a profitable stop early in the season. Hopefully scaling back the Texas swing to just two events will incentivize more fans to spectate in Austin. However several hundred tickets are still available for each round, likely indicating that the tournament will not be filled out nearly as much as the tour was hoping.

The Courses

The Open Course at Harvey Penick is a temporary course that sits on a traditional golf course, located just 7 miles from downtown Austin. After a huge redesign following the 2023 event, this year’s layout is more or less the same as 2024, but with small tweaks to nearly every hole. Tee pads, basket locations, and OB lines have been adjusted throughout the course.

Designed by Austin local Mike Olse, Sprinkle Valley was installed in late 2023 at Austin Beerworks as part of a joint project with Mint Discs, who also operate a retail store on-site. Sprinkle Valley made its professional debut hosting the 2024 United States Women’s Disc Golf Championship. This course is mostly wooded and requires a variety of technical shots. OB does come into play when players get into more open space on the back-9.

Harvey Penick
2025 MPO: 9,280 Feet Par 65
2024 MPO: 9,075 Feet Par 64
2025 FPO: 8,145 Feet Par 66
2024 FPO: 8,285 Feet Par 66

Sprinkle Valley
2025 MPO: 9,166 Feet Par 66
2025 FPO: 8,378 Feet Par 65
2024 FPO (USWDGC): 8,315 Feet Par 65

Extended Forecast

Another beautiful weekend for disc golf with warm temperatures and moderate winds expected throughout the weekend.

Thursday: Mostly sunny with highs in the mid 70s. Winds 5 to 10 mph.
Friday: Sunny with highs in the low 80s. Winds 10 to 20 mph.
Saturday: Partly cloudy with highs in the mid 80s. Winds 10 to 20 mph.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy with highs in the upper 80s. Winds 10 to 15 mph.