🔦 Idlewild after dark

Hello and welcome, this is The Players Meeting. The only newsletter that always makes the 30ft comebacker.

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If you missed Idlewild’s preview, then I got you: Redalen’s Story

Let’s get into it.

TOUR COVERAGE
LWS Open at Idlewild

RESULTS - 🏆GANNON BUHR & VALERIE MANDUJANO

The last Elite Event of the season is already over... Time flies when you’re watching pros smack trees. In no particular order, here are the storylines you should remember or you may have missed:

1 - The 1st glow round on Tour.

After Saturday’s 3-hour lightning delay, all FPO rounds finished and MPO got going. But before the lead card even began at 6:15 PM, they were warned that play would be called ~2 hours later due to darkness.

By Hole 16, it was teetering on the edge of a glow round. All players had finished except for the 4 being filmed.

As a group, they opted to continue and avoid finishing their round at 7:30 AM. So they convinced officials to let them play out one of the most unique events to occur on Tour.

As for the course in daylight, its name still holds up for now. Idlewild used to strike the same fear into pros as Northwood Black does now.

But its must-get par 4s and eagle-able par 5s looked easier than they should have. Either way, this track was just as fun to watch as always.

2 - Ready for the comeback story of the year?

It was only a matter of time for the older Mandujano sister to be back in form. With her grade 3 sprain behind her, Valerie gets her 1st win of the season and 4th Tour win.

So how long did it take?

JAN 11 - Announced her sponsor switch from DD to Discraft

JAN 16 - Announced her injury with an estimated 4-6 week recovery

FEB 3 - Tied the knot with Mason Ford

MAR 9 - Went to WACO but dropped out after a practice round

JUN 16 - After 8 months, she made her season debut at DDO and placed 18th

AUG 13 - In her 6th event of the year, she averaged a 991 rating and won $7k

Even though she’s 37th in the DGPT standings, she’s now auto-qualified for the Tour Championship in 8 weeks. And as if it was scripted, her mini-doc came out on YouTube yesterday.

3 - Is the YouTube Generation taking over?

We’ve now seen back-to-back 18-year-olds take home big wins. Beating the #1 player, defending champ, and 2019 champ, Buhr became the 7th unique winner of Idlewild.

Like last week, Heimburg didn’t give up and tried to continue his winning ways. But he couldn’t compete with someone whose putter only goes Buhrrrr.

“The greatest young prospect we’ve ever seen” looked unstoppable. This was Buhr’s 5th win of the season (3 Elites & 2 Silvers), and if he adds a Major then Player of the Year is looking promising.

4 - No, the old guard still has it.

With both fields getting more competitive, seasoned road warriors have had to share their screen time. But as demonstrated here, it has not gone down to zero.

• Finishing 4th, Paul Ulibarri was just 1 stroke off the weekend’s hottest round with a -13 on Sunday. This was his 1st Elite/Major Top-5 since 2020 Waco

• Finishing 6th, Nikko Locastro has had a roller-coaster season but at 34 years old, he knows he can still win

• Finishing 10th, Big Jerm strung together a putter highlight package in Round 2. This was his 1st Top-10 since last Idlewild

• Finishing 4th, Madison Walker proved she still has all the shots with her 1008-rated 1st round

These well-established names only have 2 Silvers, 2 Playoffs, and 1 Major left to move up in the standings or hold their spot for the Tour Championship.

HIGHLIGHT

The weekend was chock-full of throw-ins… On Saturday, Evan Scott saved the 180ft par after an errant throw on Hole 4.

And later that round, Gossage smacked chains from 154ft for another par save. Why risk a putt on these baskets when they’ll catch throw-ins?

POWERED BY POWERGRIP USA
Fresh Plastic

👉 Powergrip’s Highlight: Discmania S-Line MD3 & P2
16 years ago, the P2 was approved and manufactured by Innova. 6 years later, the MD3 got the same treatment.

These 2 molds changed the game and were heavily sought after. Tomorrow (8/16) at 11 AM ET, the “reinvented” versions will be available in Discmania’s in-house S-Line.

This 2023 stock plastic is the same used in the latest releases of the FD, PD, and DD3. It’s reminiscent of the old-school S-Line from Innova-made runs: Glossy, tacky, and fairly stiff.

This run of MD3 (5|5|0|1) is relatively flat like the C-Line run but is a tick more OS. Conversely, this run of P2 (2|3|0|1) is slightly domey and more OS than its D-Line counterparts.

EDGC & FINNISH FACTS
Random Dubs

1️⃣ Starting bright and early tomorrow is the most prestigious European-only event. In Estonia’s capital, the European Disc Golf Championships kicks off for 4 straight days.

With 30 countries represented, nearly every top European is playing. Besides Niklas Anttila, Väinö Mäkelä, & Lauri Lehtinen, the main attraction will be Kristin Tattar.

She skipped Ledgestone, Idlewild, & DGLO to compete in her home country. This is the only thing left for Tattar to win, so she wants it badly.

As for the course, it’s a pop-up layout in the perfectly central Tallinn Song Festival Grounds. Since Spring, Seppo Paju has been hard at work designing this championship course.

Follow the scores on UDisc Live, MDG Media (post), or Disc Golf Stream (live).

2️⃣ Keeping with the European theme… Let me hit you with some cold hard facts about Finland.

• For 6 straight years, it’s been #1 in the World Happiness Report

• Last year, it was #1 in disc golf rounds per capita with 50% of 15-to-24-year-olds having played

Could there be a correlation? Read the full article on UDisc’s Blog.

Tweet of the Week

Thanks for reading today. Get out and pump those numbers up this week!

- Charlie