🎆 Fireworks went off at disc golf's sanctuary

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. Happy 4th of July! Let’s make this quick, so you can get to your holiday round and fireworks.

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If you missed The Preserve’s preview, then I got you: Florida Man Sues

Let’s get into it.

TOUR COVERAGE
The Preserve Championship

RESULTS - 🏆RICKY WYSOCKI & CATRINA ALLEN

There was no better way to celebrate the holiday weekend than with a couple of bear trophy hoists. In no particular order, here are the storylines you should remember or you may have missed:

1 - Is there room on Tour for this Birdie-or-Die event?

With the friendly conditions, players hit the ground in a full-on sprint. It was a true birdie fest and the scores proved it.

The Black Bear course played the easiest to par (-5.2 on average) compared to other Tour stops this season. By Sunday, most everyone had figured out the layout and only 9 MPO players out of 116 weren’t able to score under par.

This sprint style caused traffic jams at the top and any mistake meant you were falling down the leaderboard.

With all that said, the Tour’s current variety isn’t a bad thing. In 4 weeks, This birdie fest will be forgotten as we move into the tortuous trees of Northwood Black.

Then as we finally roll into the last Major, the complaints about the miles of USDGC’s OB ropes will become the latest fad. Thankfully, DGN has been working double duty to give us a taste of Europe’s unique golf every week.

2 - Home state advantage is real.

Whether you want to believe it or not, this season has proved that a home crowd can do wonders. Having grown up in Minnesota, Catrina Allen’s belief was strong this weekend.

Coming off a course record 1st round (1032 rated), she was shocked at her large lead. This course isn’t complicated to Allen, and she was confident proper decision-making would earn her the win.

The only thing in her way was the world’s #1. But even they can have off days… Tattar was a few strokes back, a position she doesn’t typically do well in.

Of her 7 wins this season, only 2 were from behind. Now, Tattar heads home to celebrate her 31st birthday. She has 3 European events on her schedule before coming back for Worlds at the end of August.

3 - What do you get when you cross a bear with a raptor?

A wire-to-wire victory filled with Raptor Legs and ending with a bear hoist. Ricky Wysocki is back in the winner’s circle after a weird season start.

Even with a Silver win in May, he’s been battling his Lyme flare-ups while trying to tack on an Elite win. The Preserve couldn’t have been better timing for him to stretch his Raptor Legs.

Winning it back in 2021 and coming in 2nd last year, Wysocki loves Cale’s Place. On Friday, he came out guns blazing, and well, the reactions speak for themselves.

Then even with his wrist not at 100%, he still made magic happen. Unlike seemingly everyone else, the Prodigy baskets’ inner chains had no impact on the 2x Champ…

4 - It’s a revolving door of injuries in the mid-season stretch.

With 10 out of 15 Elite Events over, the Tour heads into the back half. And with that, some pros are feeling the grind…

The good:

• Finishing 4th, Eagle McMahon is back from his shoulder flare-up a month ago and just in time for the Europe Swing

• Valerie Mandujano is less than a month back from her ankle injury and still not 100%. But having finished in the top 10 for two weeks now shows promise

The bad:

• This is the 2nd event that Kyle Klein has had to DNF from. His lingering back injury wasn’t ready and his visible wincing on coverage made that clear

• On Thursday, Kona Montgomery passed out after the impromptu “press conference”. Come Friday morning, she wasn’t ready to compete and dropped out

• Caroline Henderson was nursing a torn finger all 1st round and decided to DNF afterward

The ugly:

• After battling Tennis Elbow for weeks, Drew Gibson is headed home for the season but surely his hot takes will continue

HIGHLIGHT

Hitting the ground running, Kat Mertsch aced the iconic Hole 9 on Friday. With her Halo Hawkeye, she found the bottom of the basket over the 297ft water carry.

POWERED BY POWERGRIP USA
Fresh Plastic

👉 Powergrip’s Highlight: Independence Day Sale
Powergrip USA wants to wish you a great and safe 4th of July!

To set off fireworks, they’re giving you 20% off with promo code REDWHITEBLUE23. Here are a few gems that I have my eyes on…

• Innova Star Hawkeye (7|5|-1|1) - Recently confirmed the same mold as the Fairway Disc or Dark Rebel, this fairway driver is a tried and true straight flier

• DD Lucid Ice Orbit Escape (9|5|-1|2) - Pushing the envelope of “Halo” style plastic, Trilogy’s latest attempt is combining it with their most OS plastic. This version of the Escape could become one of your farthest flying 9-speeds

EURO TOUR & COURSE STICKERS
Random Dubs

1️⃣ Neither work nor rain could stop the Swedes from coming out to see the elusive McBeast. After 54 holes of the Swedish Open, Paul McBeth pulled off a comeback win with the hottest round all weekend (-11, 1067 rated).

This win continues his rebound after one of his worst performances in a long time. And it’s exactly what everyone is hoping for… A prime McBeth just in time for the European Open in 2 weeks.

2️⃣ There are lots of ways to spot a disc golfer… They wear JomezPro commemorative t-shirts, bring an MVP Glitch everywhere, or have shoes that look like this:

If you also suffer from stickers, then here’s #21 on the list of things you didn’t know existed. BurzOff Removal Tool is a textured piece of recycled glass that resembles pumice.

Supposedly, this works rather well but so does a dog brush or duct tape. Throw any of these into your car or bag to avoid finding beggar’s lice on your couch.

Tweet of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and play with friends this week!

- Charlie