Estonia's first Major championship.
July 15, 2025 by Justin Westfall in Preview
The European swing will kick into high gear this weekend with the first of two consecutive major championships. The European Disc Golf Festival begins this Thursday, July 17th, in Tallinn, Estonia. The EDGF debuted on the Disc Golf Pro Tour last season and has now replaced the European Open as the “European major” with Finland instead hosting the World Championships following this event. In April, the PDGA announced a multi-year deal with Team Disc Golf Estonia to host PDGA majors in 2026, 2028, and the World Championships in 2029. Due to a construction project making the long term future of the European Open in Finland uncertain, Tallinn will be the center for major disc golf in Europe for at least the next several years.
The Tallinn Song Festival Grounds — the venue for the EDGF — host the Estonian Song Festival, a massive cultural event held every five years in the capital of Estonia. This festival is one of the largest amateur choral events in the world, bringing together tens of thousands of singers from across the country and roughly 100,000 spectators. The event features performances of traditional Estonian songs and is a powerful symbol of national identity and unity. An in-person Song Festival took place for the first time since 2015 earlier this month, after the 2020 edition was impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Last year, Ricky Wysocki came out screaming with a clean 16-under par opening round rated 1117. It stands as the third highest rated round of all-time and the highest-ever rated round outside of the United States. Despite coming into the final day with a five shot lead on Kyle Klein, Wysocki’s longtime rival Paul McBeth provided an exhilarating finish. McBeth began the day six shots back of Wysocki but was able to pull within one stroke with three holes to play. Both players failed to make birdie on 16, then did birdie 17. Wysocki and McBeth teed off on hole 18, landing their drives about 30 feet from the basket. With McBeth up first, he was unable to connect for birdie, allowing Wysocki to lay up for a one-stroke win.
In FPO, Heidi Laine came into the final round with a three shot lead on Missy Gannon and Estonian Kaidi Allsalu. While Laine and Allsalu struggled to card birdies, Gannon was able to score early and often to take the lead. Meanwhile, on the chase card, Eveliina Salonen flew up the leaderboard, carding six birdies in a row down the stretch. With Gannon shooting one over par in the final four holes, she was forced into a playoff with Salonen. Luckily for Gannon, the playoff was short-lived, as she carded a birdie on the first hole to defeat Salonen and win the event.
Past Winners
| Year | PDGA Tier | Open | Open Women |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | DGPT | Ricky Wysocki | Missy Gannon |
Five Things We’ll Be Watching
1. The focus this weekend will of course be Kristin Lätt, a player whose success has helped make disc golf marketable to an entire nation. Lätt is a seven-time major champion and could move into solo 3rd all-time for FPO major wins this weekend. The question is whether the Estonian is up to the task. After a stretch of 12 consecutive tournaments finishing 1st or 2nd, Kristin finished 6th at last month’s USWDGC and 5th last week at Krokhol, plagued by perhaps the worst putting performance of her career. With many obligations this week as the primary representative of professional disc golf in Estonia, it’s easy to see how the pressure could be overwhelming. Recently, she dropped out of the exhibition event held today, and she posted on Instagram that she has been diagnosed with a broken toe. Surely no other player in the field will have as much support as Lätt this weekend, and the crowd will be elated if she walks down the 18th fairway with a lead on Sunday. She’ll have to overcome some adversity to make it happen.
2. After failing to pull off a comeback effort at Krokhol last weekend, Ricky Wysocki’s winless streak continues to march toward the one year mark. His last win came in Tallinn, where he shot arguably the greatest round of his storied career. A win for Wysocki would tie him with David Feldberg for the third most major wins all-time at seven. Ricky has taken much criticism for failing to win a major since the 2017 World Championships. With the sport’s biggest event just two weeks away, perhaps Wysocki will have the benefit of feeling a bit less pressure to perform this weekend. We know that his game is well suited for this course. Now it’s just a matter of putting together four good rounds.
3. So far, Holyn Handley is batting 1.000 in Europe, taking down her first ever Euro event at Krokhol last weekend. Handley looked very steady in that win, even after losing a share of the lead early in the final round. Holyn’s only struggle was leaving herself too many birdie looks from C2. Accuracy is paramount on the Rockstar course, with OB lurking on all 18 holes. Handley currently ranks 2nd in both fairways hits and OB rate in the FPO division. If she can make some very small adjustments from last week, Holyn may well be hoisting her first career major championship trophy come Sunday.
4. Despite the winner shooting an 1117-rated opening round, Paul McBeth nearly found a way to steal this event last season. In a clean 12-under par final round, McBeth missed birdie putts on holes 16 and 18 that would have at least put him in a playoff to decide the winner. The 17-time major champion is still searching for his first win since the 2023 PCS Open, and his first major win since the 2022 World Championships. A win this week would tie McBeth with Ken Climo for the most majors in PDGA history. After a fantastic start to the season, McBeth found himself with a three-stroke lead following the opening round of the PDGA Champions Cup. From that point on, his season has gone sideways: he finished that event in 20th place and failed to make the top 10 in five of his past six tournaments. Everyone knows that winning majors are McBeth’s focus at this point in his career. But with the World Championships looming, Paul may already be looking ahead to Finland.
5. No player is as hot as Eveliina Salonen, who’s coming off three consecutive wins. Salonen’s win streak began at the USWDGC, where she earned her fourth career major win and third since the start of last season. Eveliina nearly won this event last year, losing in a playoff to Missy Gannon. It’s important not to look past Gannon either, who won the first major of this season. Gannon has not played since a 23rd place finish at the USWDGC, but prior to that was on a heater. Of course, Silva Saarinen and Cadence Burge will be candidates to earn their first career major this weekend. Both players finished tied for second in Krokhol, and should perform well on this track.
The Course
The Rockstar course plays around the Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, starting with an opening tee shot from the large amphitheater that seats 15,000. The park-style course offers a strong mix of open shots as well as tight gaps that players must execute through the more wooded holes on the perimeter of the festival grounds. The round concludes with a big downhill tee shot playing back towards the amphitheater. Accuracy is the key to scoring low on this course, every hole is lined with OB which can make a tree kick on the wooded holes even more punishing.
Almost every hole has been modified for this year’s event, with a couple of new holes added in as well. Three alternate basket positions will be used for rounds 3 and 4, each of which plays longer than the positions used in rounds 1 and 2. Perhaps the biggest change is to hole 7, a par 4 that plays to an island green. The green will no longer feature a drop zone, meaning players will need to re-throw from their previous lie or from where the disc last crossed in bounds if they do not land safely on the island.
2025 MPO Rd 1-2: 9,419 Feet/2,871 Meters Par 63
2025 MPO Rd 3-4: 9,528 Feet/2,904 Meters Par 63
2024 MPO: 8,819 Feet/2,688 Meters Par 60
2025 FPO Rd 1-2: 8,520 Feet/2,597 Meters Par 65
2025 FPO Rd 3-4: 8,635 Feet/2,632 Meters Par 65
2024 FPO: 8,353 Feet/2,546 Meters Par 64
Extended Forecast
The weather is looking nearly perfect this weekend with comfortable temperatures and some occasional winds to keep things interesting.
Thursday: Sunny with highs in the upper 70s. Winds 10 to 15 mph.
Friday: Sunny with highs in the lower 70s. Winds 10 to 20 mph.
Saturday: Partly cloudy with highs in the lower 70s. Winds 10 to 20 mph.
Sunday: Mostly cloudy with highs in the lower 70s. Winds 10 to 15 mph.
