Did Ezra shoot the round of the year?
July 31, 2025 by Josh Mansfield in News, Recap
Gannon Buhr speculated before the World Championships that a six-under par would be the number that the winner would need to shoot at the Monster, the home of rounds 2 & 3 this week at Worlds. Ezra Aderhold, now the tournament leader by four strokes, just walked off the course with a 14-under. While only rated 1094 unofficially, it is a clear favorite to be named the round of the year. Gannon Buhr, in his post-round interview, called it one of the best rounds of all time.
It’s hard not to agree. Bogey-free. 19 out of 21 shots on the fairway, and he scrambled successfully on the other two. C2 in regulation on 16 of 18 holes. 10 of 12 C1X putting. 3 of 3 C2 putting.
And it gives Ezra a commanding lead with three rounds to play. It was clear in the post-round interview how much this round meant to him. “It was really special to have my brother on the bag for my win in Des Moines,” Aderhold said through heavy emotion in his post-round interview. “And it means the world to have my Dad on the bag with me now.”
The importance of this round is perhaps best exemplified by his decision to run the circle 2 putt on hole 18, despite being somewhat out of position, in order to push the round even further.
He isn’t the only name that made some serious moves up the leaderboard. Niklas Anttila jumped 17 spots with a 10-under par to secure himself a spot on the lead card with Discmania teammate Gannon Buhr. “I was out of my rhythm after the [multi-hour] weather delay,” Buhr said about his even-par front nine. “But I knew how well I played here last year and that carried me to my seven-under.”
Sullivan Tipton rounds out the lead card with a six under par to follow up on a great first round. If a few putts went differently, Tipton could have found himself up closer to Ezra, though Tipton did deliver a crowd-pleasing forehand laser putt on the 12th.
In FPO, the lead card struggles that have seemed to plague the division this year reared their head again. Kat Mertsch carded a blowup eight on the par three sixth and never really recovered. Rachel Turton barely cleared 50% in fairway hits and was unable to reach C1 in regulation even when she did. Henna Blomroos’s 50% C1x and 0% C2 putting put a damper on an otherwise excellent throwing round and left her sitting one stroke over par. Silva Saarinen was slightly off all day and struggled to make progress down the fairway, but avoided big numbers and managed to stay at even for the day, four back of the new leader.
That new leader? Ohn Scoggins. Going 12-for-12 from C1, Ohn carded five birdies and no bogies in the back nine. “I had a lucky round with a few breaks going my way,” Ohn said after her round. “I’ve been playing two rounds a day for the past few days for practice. The more you play the course, the more you learn.” Ohn now leads the tournament with a two stroke lead over Iida Lehtomaki. The FP40 world champion looks to become the first player ever to win an age protected world title (she won Masters Worlds in a playoff against Jen Allen earlier this year) and FPO world title in the same year.
Quick Hits
- Finland has players in second place in both divisions.
- MPO suffered another rain delay, nearly four hours long, pushing the lead card to a finish time well after 10 p.m. Thunderstorms are in the forecast for tomorrow as well.
