What’s up degenerates—it’s The Disc Golf World. I’m Jefferson and alongside me, the one with all the holes in his game, Swiss Cheese. We’re recapping everything you need to know from the Preserve Championship.
Let’s get it out of the way now: yes, the world’s largest rubber duck was in attendance. And I’ll say it—seeing it in person, that thing was big. For those who missed it, it was already in the area, so why not throw it in the big open field? It was looking down at players putting on hole 18, which made for some pretty cool shots if you ask me.
If you want my true feelings on the duck, check out Saturday’s video. Honestly, I don’t know why people are complaining. I saw a few social media posts from upset fans calling this the reason disc golf will never be taken seriously. News flash: we’ve never looked cool. Go back to any “best highlights” on ESPN and check the comments—they’re filled with people clowning us. So I don’t care about that approval.
Plus, if you think those optics were bad, one of the event sponsors was literally called Morning Would. Professionalism left the building a long time ago.
In other news: Ali Smith went on social media to share her perspective on getting a courtesy violation warning before dropping out of the event. Hole five—they tee off, her cardmates are short of her lie, they walk to theirs and have to wait for the card in front. Ali wants to separate and be alone, so she goes back to the teepad where she can still see the shots. One of the other players throws and immediately calls a courtesy violation on her for not watching all throws. Ali says she was taken aback and it skyrocketed her emotions in a bad way.
Kona Montgomery then went to Instagram to share her side. Here’s the short version: like Ali explained, she walked away. During that time, Kona thought there was a foot fault. But to make a call, you need confirmation from another player—and with only three on the card, and Ali out of sight, no call could be made. An uncomfortable situation that probably won’t happen again, but unfortunate it happened at all.
If anyone is mad at Kona for making those calls, ask yourself: wasn’t this exactly what people wanted? A culture of accountability? Kona even doubled down and handed out back-to-back warnings to her cardmates. Very impressive.
Another complaint I’ve been hearing: Birdie-or-die courses are boring. That’s dumb. And suggesting it makes disc golf look bad is even dumber. Spoiler: Gannon won by a healthy margin. If you thought it was boring, you don’t appreciate disc golf. Sure, there wasn’t an intense back-and-forth battle. But the sport is about one player doing everything they can to beat the course week in and week out. And this course required perfection. Call me crazy, but I love the drama of chasing perfection. It’s like watching a no-hitter. Rare, but thrilling when it happens.
How often does the tour play courses like this? Once or twice a year, max. It’s not like someone is shooting 18-under every weekend.
Other prominent voices weighed in. Luke Humphries said: “When par matters, golf is the most compelling.” Which might be true… if I didn’t think golf was boring as hell.
Chuck Kennedy, famous course designer, added: “They didn’t make bowling alleys longer the first time someone rolled 300.” This matches Simon Lizotte’s point last week on Tour Life: sometimes disc golf IS a game of perfection. And it’s not like we’re seeing everyone shoot near 18. The top 10 required 24-under—that’s an 18-stroke difference from first place.
Dave McCormack, the Eagles Crossing designer, also weighed in. He says the property has potential to average seven-under with a winning score around 20-down, without adding distance. Just tighten fairways, tuck pins into the woods, create more obstructed greens. Mint Discs summed it up as a philosophy of major course design: reward birdies, allow better scoring, instead of making par hard. Drop in the comments if you think PAR should be elite. (Although, should Mint really be the one suggesting ideas? Just saying.)
Swiss—give the people an FPO recap.
The FPO action at the Preserve Championship saw the closest thing to a full field since Champions Cup, as European players returned to the States to warm up for USWDGC. Cadence Burge’s tournament-leading six-under on day one reminded everyone it was her first Elite Series start since the last major—and oh yeah, she just graduated high school.
Cadence’s breakout season didn’t slow down. She stayed near the top all weekend but had to share the lead with Missy Gannon after day one. Yes, there will be tons of attention on that courtesy warning from Kona and Ali Smith’s DNF. I get it—it continues the conversation around new rules proposals and the divide among pros about calling violations. But luckily, the on-course action was even better.
As conditions improved, so did the scoring. Kristin Latt—bruised pinky toe and all—set a new course record with a bogey-free nine-under. Right after her on lead card, Silva Saarinen put up an eight-under, thanks to seven birdies on the front nine. She shared the lead with Burge, with Kristin just one stroke back heading into Championship Sunday.
Silva quickly grabbed a two-stroke lead with a birdie on hole three and never looked back. Her final day nine-under bogey-free round was all business. She was in control, hitting fairways and circle-one putts all day (her only “miss” was celebrating on 18). That’s back-to-back Elite Series wins for Silva in the States, and she’s now firmly in the top-tier FPO conversation—currently fourth in DGPT points, just one win behind Holyn Handley and Kristin Latt on the season. And while one of her wins isn’t a major like Missy’s, she has more podium finishes this year.
Kristin maintained her season podium streak with an eight-under final day for second place. Cadence Burge now has two podiums this season, both in her last three Elite events. There was also tons of final day movement worth mentioning.
Handley needed every bit of her seven-under to keep her top-five streak alive, finishing four-under on the final three holes to edge out Haley King—who, in just her third event this year, notched another top 10. Valerie Mandujano smashed Kristin’s course record from the day before by three strokes to vault seven spots into fourth place, riding a 12-under round—one of her best since last year’s injury. And continuing the theme of teenage talents, Canada’s Rebecca Don scored her first top 10 at an Elite Series with a clean seven-under final day.
Now back to Jefferson to wrap it up.
Honestly, there’s no real point recapping every MPO round. It’d just be: “Gannon birdied this hole. Oh look, another birdie from Gannon. Surprise—another birdie.” You get it. So let’s just talk about how insane that win was. Buhr took it down by 11 strokes—just shy of the all-time Pro Tour margin set by McBeth at Ledgestone in 2016.
Add that to the reasons you can’t call him the GOAT yet. Also, don’t be that guy. He hasn’t won Worlds. It’s not far-fetched to think he will. He’s building a historic legacy. But I’m not calling a 19-year-old in year four the modern-era GOAT. There’s plenty of time to let him build that résumé. Not to be that guy, but we’ve said similar things about others and been wrong. Buhr has the best chance to approach McBeast greatness—but I’m not handing him the crown yet.
Also, let’s stop with Ian calling him “the modern-era GOAT.” I’ll start a petition to ban that phrase. But careful—that might cause a chain reaction of banning other classics. As long as Philo keeps “50/50 grind,” maybe it’s worth it.
For the record, Gannon unofficially broke Ricky Wysocki’s Pro Tour highest-rated event with a 1088. And it’s about time the Iceman heats up—wouldn’t be surprised to see back-to-back wins heading to his home state.
That’s everything you need to know from the Preserve Championship. Or should I say, the Gannon Buhr Show. I feel bad not recapping more players, but when you have a win that dominant—and when I didn’t get back from Hutchville until 3 a.m. to write this—it’s going to be short and sweet.
Big thanks to the entire Preserve team for another successful year, battling through the challenges to put on a great tournament. Hutch—thanks for making my life easy. Cosmic Davw—thanks for making the weekend a blast. One last shoutout to everyone in Hutchville who capped the weekend off in style. KP Leagues, Minnesota Frisbee Association, that dude who dislocated his knee, and everyone who said what’s up—you made us feel like we belonged again.
Now if only I was allowed to bring the camera in… oh well. Maybe one day. Probably not. But a boy can dream.
