Kristin Tattar lines up a shot at the 2023 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA Media

(This story originally appeared in the Winter 2024 issue of DiscGolfer Magazine)

If you are a disc golf fan, now – or in the future – you probably already know how this story ends. It ends with an Estonian phenom claiming one of the rarest feats in all of sports – a calendar year sweep of all four PDGA Majors. A grand slam.

This singular feat may, as history simplifies the narrative, eclipse a season that was already otherwise full of compelling storylines including a string of chase card victories, breakthrough victories, injuries to the reigning MPO and FPO players of the year, and the sudden emergence of an unheralded, soft-spoken superstar from Georgia.

Early Season

After warming things up in Tucson with the DGPT All-Star Weekend, the tour officially got underway with the Las Vegas Challenge.

In MPO, Anthony Barela jumped out to a lead at the halfway point, but it was Calvin Heimburg who surged back, making up 7 strokes in the final two rounds to claim the first Elite series win of the year. It would spark a dominant early season run for Heimburg, who would go on to win two of the first five DGPT Elite stops (LVC and Jonesboro), while still finishing on the podium at the other three. The mind-boggling consistency would continue for Heimburg throughout the season, but the victories would not.

On the women’s side, Catrina Allen got her 2023 season off to a dream start with a wire-to-wire victory, taking a comfortable 8-stroke lead over Ella Hansen into the final. Like Heimburg, Allen would go on to bag one more Elite Series title during the remainder of the season (at the Preserve in June), but she would not be able to claim the sort of consistency that would propel Heimburg into Player of the Year contention.  

Catrina Allen captured a wire-to-wire victory at the season's first Elite Series event (LVC). Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

Texas Swing

Up next was WACO and the start of the Texas swing, where we saw the return to action of the two biggest names in the FPO Field – Paige Pierce and Kristin Tattar.

Tattar, the 2022 PDGA World Champion, announced during the offseason that she was undergoing surgery to repair a pinched nerve in her elbow. While minimally invasive, the procedure limited Tattar’s ability to practice, leading many to wonder what impact it would have on her ability to stay atop the FPO field.

Those questions were quickly quieted as Tattar jumped out to a two-stroke lead with a blistering 1021-rated opening round. She cooled off during Round 2, allowing Ella Hansen, who was pursuing her first Elite Series win, to grab a 1-shot lead. But Hansen felt the weight of the moment, and finished her final round with three consecutive bogies, ceding 5 strokes to Tattar in the process. The Estonian walked away with a 1-shot victory.

Pierce, meanwhile, struggled in her season debut, coming in with a disappointing 16th place finish. It was a concerning sign for the 5-time PDGA World Champ who was on a career-worst eight-month winless streak and who had publicly acknowledged that she was lacking the fierce competitive drive that characterized most of her career.

It was not unreasonable, at this point, to doubt whether Pierce had the ability or the fire to challenge the new World #1. But those doubts would be misplaced, as we were soon to find out.

In Austin, just a few weeks later, we got the Pierce-Tattar battle that many had been hoping for.

The two emerged from the first round tied for the lead, along with Hansen, who showed resilience bouncing back from her heartbreak in WACO. Pierce managed to open up a one-shot lead in Round 2, and then outdueled Tattar in the final to earn her first victory since the 2022 European Open.

On the men’s side, the Texas swing saw jam-packed leaderboards and a pair of chase card victories as Kyle Klein took down WACO to earn his second-career Elite series victory (2021 Idlewild) and Gannon Buhr edged out Simon Lizotte in Austin.

Gannon Buhr captured his first Elite Series win of the year at the DGPT - Austin Open. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

Lizotte and Tattar would bounce back quickly with wins at the Music City Open, with Lizotte notching a chase card victory of his own to make it three Elite Series events in a row in which MPO was won by someone outside the top card. It was a fitting end to the first leg of the season, and an appetizing warmup for the first PDGA Major of the year.

PDGA Champions Cup

In April the tour returned to the International Disc Golf Center in Appling, GA for the second edition of the PDGA Champions Cup.

The Inaugural edition in 2022 saw Chris Dickerson winning his 2nd career Major and Paige Pierce her 17th, but it was the heartbreaking way in which victory slipped through Kristin Tattar’s fingers on the final hole of the tournament that would stick in most fan’s memories.

This year, with Tattar’s season off to a hot start and Pierce nursing an elbow injury, the Estonian looked primed to find redemption, and the feeling of inevitability only grew as she built on her lead round after round, entering the final round with a virtually insurmountable lead of 12-strokes over 2022 USWDGC champ, Hailey King.

After closing out the win, Tattar was asked if the heartbreak from 2022 had been on her mind. She dismissed the notion, and explained her mentality by saying simply, “There is no past and there is no future. There is only the present.”

On the MPO side, there was no such feeling of inevitability for eventual winner, Isaac Robinson, even though it was – technically speaking – a wire-to-wire victory.

Robinson, who hails from Lawrenceville, GA – just two hours from the IDGC – had just one Tour win (2022 Idlewild) and only two A-Tier wins to his name. So when he built up to a seven-shot lead over Niklas Anttila and James Conrad there was still a feeling that the pressure of closing out a Major, along with the stress-inducing wooded fairways of the W.R. Jackson course may be too much for the young Georgian to handle.

This proved not to be the case, as Robinson appeared cool, calm and collected as he piped shot after shot down the tight wooded corridors.

Robinson, mobbed by his Prodigy teammates on 18th green, lifting the Champions Cup trophy, had proven himself on one of the sport’s biggest stages. It would not be the last time.  

Jonesboro and OTB

At the Jonesboro Open, Calvin Heimburg captured what would be his final win of the season, but it was the battle between Kat Mertsch and Hailey King that stole the show.

The pair, who had tied for third place at Champions Cup, came out of the gate firing with King leading the field after a 1024-rated opening round and Mertsch just one shot back.

With Paige Pierce sitting out the event to rest her injured arm, and Kristin Tattar playing uncharacteristically flat, Mertsch and King battled back and forth, and ultimately into a playoff.

On the first hole of the playoff, King pulled her drive right into rough and failed to punch through the trees to the pin for her par. All that was left for Mertsch was a stress-free tap-in for her first Tour win in her 46th start. Mertsch, fists clenched, let out a primal victory roar in a scene that produced some of the most iconic images of the season.

Kat Mertsch let out a primal scream after winning her first career Elite Series event at the Jonesboro Open. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

The OTB Open saw another tour veteran breakthrough for their first Elite Series victory when Emerson Keith surged past Aaron Gossage on the final round Back 9.

In FPO, Paige Pierce shined in her return to action, including a 1034-rated Round 2 that included a stretch of 10-consecutive birdies. Despite the absence of Tattar, who had returned home to Estonia after Jonesboro, Pierce’s stellar performance carried with it the scintillating promise of some epic battles with the World #1 to come during the European swing. Unfortunately, this would not come to pass.

Masters Worlds

Before departing for the European, some of the more “seasoned” pros broke off to Flagstaff for Masters Worlds. It was not the first Masters Major of the year. Just 6 weeks early the Selinske U.S. Masters was held in Eugene, OR, where Ohn Scoggins defended her FP40 title to claim her 4th Masters Major, while in MP40, fan favorites Philo Brathwaite and Cale Leiviska battled their way into a playoff, which Brathwaite won on the first hole for his first PDGA Major title.

In Flagstaff, titles were defended in both FP40 and MP40 as Scoggins claimed her third-straight crown while Colorado’s Joe Rovere won out in another closely contested battle with Leiviska.

Joe Rovere defended his MP40 World Title at Masters Worlds in Flagstaff. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA Media

Europe

Then, in Europe, disaster struck. While practicing for the PCS Sula Open in Norway, Paige Pierce, who seemed poised to contend for the biggest remaining titles in 2023, slipped on a wet bridge, shattering her left ankle and effectively ending her season.

The news rocked the disc golf world, which had been expecting to see Pierce battle it out with Tattar at the upcoming European Open, where she was the defending champion.

Instead, the door was left relatively wide open for Tattar, who ran roughshod over the FPO field to seal a 16-shot victory at the year’s 2nd FPO Major.

In MPO, two headlines dominated – a breakthrough victory for 21st-ranked Corey Ellis, and another high-profile injury when Paul McBeth had to DNF from the tournament with shoulder problems. McBeth, who had won the tournament a record 5-times and finished 2nd in 2022, would not play again until Worlds almost 6 weeks later, still impaired with the injury.

Corey Ellis made his breakthrough with a PDGA Major win at the 2023 European Open. Photo: Kevin Huver / DGPT

The Road to Worlds

As the Tour returned to the U.S., Kristin Tattar stayed behind to compete in the European Disc Golf Championships in her home country. The Estonian star made disc golf headlines when she shot a blistering 1055-rated Round 2 – the highest of her career and the fifth-highest-rated FPO round of all-time. She also made headlines in the final round when she came close to blowing a 16-shot lead, carding a paltry 910-rated round.

Speculation emerged that perhaps her elbow injury had resurfaced, but she would later say that her shaky final round was simply the result of nerves – The European Championships was one of the last remaining important titles that Tattar had yet to claim, and this led to an undue amount of self-imposed pressure.

Meanwhile, back in the U.S., the Pro Tour saw three Elite Series events in the final lead up to Worlds: Ledgestone, Idlewild and DGLO, where two more career-defining breakthroughs would take place.

At Ledgestone, it was Cole Redalen, the young Oregonian who had already had a stellar 2023 season with podium finishes at WACO, OTB and The Preserve, who broke through for his first Pro Tour win.

At DGLO, another breakthrough performance to the disc golf world by storm when when Ohn Scoggins got the monkey off her back after an incredible streak of 14-consecutive Elite Series and Major podium finishes.

Pro Worlds - FPO

Scoggins’ breakthrough, along with Kristin Tattar’s long absence from the Pro Tour and her shaky final round at the European Championship fostered speculation that a title defense for the reigning FPO World Champion was not to be.

If Tattar was still the outright favorite, then Scoggins along with Missy Gannon, who had won an Elite Series of her own a few weeks earlier at Ledgestone, were not far behind.

In the leadup to the event, news broke that Ohn Scoggins had injured her throwing elbow during practice – heartbreak for a player who seemed to have a legitimate shot at making history as only the 2nd player (after Beth Tanner) to win an FPO World Championship AFTER winning an FP40 World title.

It was not to be. Despite playing through the injury for two rounds, Scoggins was forced to withdraw from the event, calling it the hardest decision of her career.

In the end, it was Missy Gannon who came closest to unseating Tattar, cutting the lead from eight after Round 2 to just a one-shot lead after Hole 14 in Round 4, but that was as close as anyone would get.

Gannon would give three shots back with a Triple Bogey on the final hole of the round, and Tattar would not look back on her way to a six-shot victory, making her the first FPO World Champion to defend since Valarie Jenkins-Doss (2009).

Moreover, she was now just one win away from claiming the coveted calendar year Grand Slam.

Pro Worlds – MPO

With 6x PDGA World Champion Paul McBeth still nursing an injury, there was no clear favorite in the MPO field heading into Worlds.

Some said it was Calvin Heimburg, the #1 ranked player in the World who was leading the Pro Tour in points and had put together a season of incredible consistency. Some said Ricky Wysocki, who had historically dominated the field at Smugglers’ Notch, winning five times at the Green Mountain Challenge including 2022.

Very few people said Isaac Robinson, who, despite winning his first Major earlier in the year was not quite viewed in the upper echelon of the MPO field.

But the soft-spoken Georgian showed that when you are seemingly impervious to pressure, great things will happen.

Several players grabbed the lead during the first three rounds, including Chris Clemmons, Grady Shue and Cole Redalen, but it was Robinson, aided by a blistering 1080-rated fourth round, who jumped into the lead and would not look back.

Entering the final round with a three-shot lead, Robinson birdied the first four holes of the round to extend his lead. When he did finally find trouble with a bogey on Hole 5, he bounced right back with a birdie on Hole 6 and would not card another bogey until his intentional layup for the win on Hole 18.

At 133 days, Robinson became the fastest player to win a second Major after winning their first, and only the 7th MPO player to win multiple Majors in the same year.

If it was not clear after his win at Champions Cup, it was certainly clear now: a new disc golf star had been born.

United States Women’s Disc Golf Championship

With the most prestigious event of the year behind them, players still had one more Major along with the DGPT Tour Championship ahead of them.

For the FPO field, the final Major of the year would come at the U.S. Women’s Disc Golf Championship in Raleigh, NC.

If Tattar was feeling the nerves that come with trying to complete a historic accomplishment, she didn’t show it. Despite a – by her sttandards – a pedestrian 977-rated opening round that put her in a 7-way tie for 7th place, 3 behind the leader Henna Blomroos.

Tattar would find her footing, chipping away at the lead until a blistering 1018-rated Round 3 put her in the lead for good. In the end, Tattar sealed her place in history with a 992-rated 5-under par round, finishing 3-shots ahead of Ohn Scoggins.

MVP Open

As the tour wound ever closer to its grand finale, it was time for the MVP Open at famed Maple Hill where both divisions produced incredible drama.

On the FPO side, Hailey King took advantage of some uncharacteristic late missteps by Tattar to grab the title by one stroke over Tattar and Ohn Scoggins, who both held leads during the final round.

But it was the battle in MPO that will be most remembered – if for nothing else than the fact that this was where one of the most beloved players finally broke through. After 137 starts at Majors or Elites, including 60 top-10’s and 12 podium finishes, Matt Orum became an Elite Series champion.

United States Disc Golf Championship

Next it was MPO’s turn to battle for the U.S. Title at the 25th edition of the United States Disc Golf Championships. Last year at the event Gannon Buhr won his maiden Major. This year proved to be youthful phenom Kyle Klein’s turn.

Klein had come so close to this very title in 2021, narrowly losing to Paul McBeth in a playoff. This year, Klein didn’t seem to want to take any chances.

Entering the final round with a three-shot lead over Bradley Williams, Klein had built that lead up to a seemingly-insurmountable nine-shots with eight holes to play. The Michigan native would need every single one of those strokes as pressure and mistakes mounted over the final stretch. In the end, Klein tapped in for a triple bogey on hole 18 to claim a one-shot victory.

DGPT Tour Championship

With an incredible season behind them, there was only one Tour event remaining – the DGPT Tour Championship, boasting the largest purse in the history of the sport.

With a limited field of 52 players who qualified throughout the season, and thousands of dollars at stake with every change of position, it is no surprise that “Big Money” Missy Gannon stepped up, shooting a 1009-rated final round to pass Ohn Scoggins and Kat Mertsch and win her 2nd Tour Championship in the last three years.

Also adding to his collection of Tour Championship titles was Ricky Wysocki, who held off a charging Kyle Klein to notch his 3rd win.

A Look Back and Forward

The 2023 season will undoubtedly be remembered for the “Kristin Slam”, but there were so many other great stories to follow including a slew of break through victories from some of the most beloved players in the game.

2024 promises to bring even more excitement and continue to add to disc golf history – especially if a pair of the sport’s all-time winningest players manage to overcome injuries to challenge this new crop of champions.