Recap of the Waco Annual Charity Open

The Waco Annual Charity Open presented by Prodigy concluded this past Sunday in spectacular fashion for the MPO and a runaway victory in the FPO

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The first two days in Waco were unlike the most recent DGPT tournaments, in that the leaders weren’t what we consider the best players in the world, either by rating or name recognition. The wind was blowing Friday and Saturday and it allowed for less known disc golfers to be climb the leaderboards. Gavin Rathbun shot -11 on the first day setting the stage for the remainder of the weekend.

Going into the final round, Nikko Locastro was shooting -18 and Cale Leiviska was the 4th member of the final lead card with a -14. We saw some noise being made in the chase cards with players like Ricky Wysocki and Calvin Heimburg attempt to jump into contention. However, as the final round progressed it became a two man show with Nikko and Cale. Nikko was struggling to maintain his 4 stroke lead with a few errant putts, while Cale was hitting long putts for birdie every chance he had. Nikko turned it around on hole 17 where he hit a 77ft throw-in for birdie and solidified his lead and ended up winning the tournament. I would recommend watching the next day coverage on Jomez Productions to see how it all played out.

On the other hand, the FPO tournament played out much differently. Kona Star Panis absolutely dominated the field from start to finish with a blistering -16, finishing 12 strokes above second place. Kona playing like this bodes well for the FPO as they have struggled in the past with having competitive tournaments. The more firepower there is in the FPO the more entertaining the DGPT tournaments will become for viewers and in turn will help bring in more sponsors.

Prediction recap

• Kevin Jones & Ricky Wysocki will be on the final lead card

Well this one was a flop, no getting around that. Kevin unfortunately struggled remaining consistent through this tournament. Ricky on the other hand was only one spot away from the lead card heading into the final round and finished the weekend tied for 11th. Either way, this prediction was a bust.

• Brodie Smith will finish in the top 15

Another unfortunate outcome for us. Brodie ended up tied for 47th at the conclusion of Waco, tied with recognizable names like Eagle McMahon and Jordan Castro. Even though Brodie didn’t finish in the top 15, he is continuing to grow as a player and sooner or later he is going to win a major event.

• Adam Hammes will finish in the top 5

Adam Hammes ended in 34th. Our third and final prediction turned to be wrong. Adam had a tough tournament as well but was still able to finish only 9 strokes behind 5th place. This was a tough weekend for most of the field and the wind proved to be extremely difficult for our highlighted players this week.

Come back Wednesday for predictions of The Open at Belton presented by Discraft.

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