Tour Storylines – Music City Open
Subscribe to TPM newsletter for this and more delivered directly to your inbox.
RESULTS – 🏆SIMON LIZOTTE & KRISTIN TATTAR
With the close of MCO, the season completes its 7th event out of 28, and Nashville brought the heat. In no particular order, here are the storylines you should remember or may have missed:
1 – MCO almost checked all the boxes: ✅ Trophy, ✅ Commentators, ❌ Course.
The TN disc golf scene is steeped in history with dedicated clubs and wooded courses. But when the Tour comes to town, a Mini-Jonesboro gets put up with elevation and air space.
The Mill Ridge course is notoriously one of the least liked on Tour, and that hasn’t changed. Complaints included impossible birdies even by FPO power players, older baskets that couldn’t catch, and specifically hole 11 hatred.
But looking past the fact that only 2 FPO finished under par, there was a lot to love this weekend. The best trophy on Tour was in the form of a Les Paul, and the commentary teams won fans over.
Many social posts wanted Charlie Eisenhood, Juliana Korver, Brian Earhart, and the one and only Zach Melton to be weekly mainstays. That won’t happen, but it’s safe to say Melton stole the show and has a future in this.
2 – A first and hopefully last for the DGPT.
“Today someone called in a threat of violence against myself and potentially the other players, staff, and spectators. Play was suspended today because of this person.” – Natalie Ryan (IG on Saturday)
As of now, the specific threat has not been made public. But here’s what transpired from Charlie Eisenhood’s perspective:
- Ryan received a threat to herself or others if she played
- It was brought to the DGPT which immediately tried to get more police presence
- That didn’t happen quickly enough, so play was suspended before Ryan teed off
- Police arrived, evaluated the situation, and play was resumed 90 minutes later with an officer following Ryan’s card
Also on the ground, the boys from The Disc Golf World shared that bags were being checked as part of the new protocols. There’s not much more to say about this hopefully one-off incident.
3 – Early season Did Not Start’s and Did Not Finish’s.
For some reason, numerous DNFs happen around MCO timing. This year there was more than a handful dropping out due to injury, scheduling, and unforeseen circumstances.
- Eagle McMahon didn’t play due to tweaking his back. His return was always planned for Champions Cup, so he didn’t “want to come back and it be a flop.”
- Both Valerie Mandujano & Mason Ford dropped due to trigger finger and a hamstring injury respectively
- To recover before the Major, Corey Ellis dropped due to a newly discovered anterior shoulder impingement that’s causing pinching pain
- Cynthia Ricciotti DNF’d after the 2nd round and Kyle Klein after one round. It’s been speculated that the couple decided to skip out early after she posted this:
4 – “It was fun while we had it.” – Juliana Korver
MCO has run for 10 years, and up until now, there have always been unique FPO winners. The unflappable Tattar is back to her winning ways after a slow March.
She became the back-to-back MCO Champ, got her 3rd win in 3 weekends, and officially started a guitar collection. And while the final scorecard showed Tattar’s dominance, it was more entertaining than met the eye.
There was legitimate hope that the two-horse race between her & Handley was going to be close. But after too many missed putts and opportunities, Handley must wait longer for her 1st Elite win (even if it comes when Tattar goes back to Estonia).
5 – Simon “Belly Ache” Lizotte.
Hours after Tattar raised her 2nd guitar, Lizotte completed his wire-to-wire weekend and the 1st double-title defense since Pierce & McBeth did it at the 2020 MVP Open.
While fighting all his ailments, he put up his best event rating ever thanks to his smart plays and effortless putts. His encore performance might prove that 1 child gives you dad strength and a 2nd makes you dad smart.
Lizotte now gets a well-deserved and uncommon spring at home as his family grows in 2 days. He plans to return at the end of May for the Portland Open.
6 – “It’s not a course for old people.” – Zach Melton
The veteran-filled leaderboard proved him wrong. With bad shoulders, bad hips, and beautiful dad bods, the leaders of years passed stayed relevant.
It was the 1st time since 2017 that Lizotte, McBack, & Wysocki all shared the podium. And for the big man himself, it was Jeremy Koling’s 1st Top-5 finish since 2019 USDGC.
