The 2024 Disc Golf Pro Tour Season kicked off with the first Elite Series event in Brooksville, Florida! Here are all the top Team GRIPeq highlights from the Chess.com event.
Team GRIPeq: FPO
The Queen of Olympus and your 2024 FPO Chess.com champion is Team GRIPeq pro Eveliina Salonen! Eveliina played consistently over this three-day event, shooting -16 in total. This is her best-ever-rated event at an unofficial 1012 rating, and this win marks her 4th Elite Series or Major win on tour. Eveliina took this tournament down with five strokes and sealed the deal with her magnificent play on the challenging hole 18. Unlike anyone else in her field, Eveliina made it up to the green on the tricky par five in just two shots during each round of competition!
Another notable Team GRIPeq FPO competitor this weekend was Missy Gannon, who was closely chasing Evelina’s lead on championship Sunday. Missy also showed us how moving day Saturday works and went from chase to lead card with a -7 round, shooting a clean card with no bogeys, unofficially rated 1018. Missy ended up T2 for the tournament with -10. Henna Blomroos kept up with the pace of the lead card on the final day and always stayed near the top. She was also the first FPO to snag a birdie on hole 11.
We were thrilled to see Paige Pierce back out there playing disc golf with the tour. This was her first Disc Golf Pro Tour event since her ankle injury in July last year. Paige started on the top feature card, showing the world that she’s back to compete. She ended up with a top-ten finish, tying for 10th place. What a great start to the 2024 season for our Team GRIPeq ladies!
Team GRIPeq: MPO
Earning his first Elite Series or Major win, your King of the 2024 Chess.com event is Anthony Barela! AB went into championship Sunday with a one-stroke lead over Ricky Wysocki and didn’t back down. This was AB’s 88th appearance and a well-deserved victory. Anthony won the event with an -18 total score, unofficially rated at 1052, 17 points higher than his overall rating. We know this is the first of many wins for AB, but to earn it on the first event of the entire season is extremely special.
Team GRIPeq pro Kyle Klein also had a great showing at this event, going into the final day on lead card and finishing the tournament with -13 total and solo 5th place.
We were also excited to see Paul McBeth attack the course, coming off of his injury from last season. Paul helped design this mountainous Florida property to become the championship-level course it was this weekend. The competition in MPO was close, and we can’t wait to see how the season unfolds for our team!
That’s a CHECKMATE for Team GRIPeq at the 2024 Chess.com Invitational! See all the Team GRIPeq standings below or at the PDGA Live event link here.
FPO:
2024 Chess.com Champion Eveliinna Salonen
T3 Missy Gannon
5 Henna Blomroos
T7 Ohn Scoggins
T10 Paige Pierce
T14 Alexis Mandujano
T19 Holly Finley
T19 Ali Smith
28 Jessica Weese
35 Cynthia Ricciotti
MPO:
2024 Chess.com Champion Anthony Barela
5 Kyle Klein
T17 Simon Lizotte
T17 Adam Hammes
T28 Evan Scott
T44 Silas Schultz
T52 Chris Clemons
T52 Ben Callaway
T52 Austin Turner
T52 Paul McBeth
69 Andrew Fish
