The last stop before the World Championships.

August 18, 2022 by Justin Westfall in Preview with comments

After 6 months, 11 Elite Series events and a trip around the country, the Disc Golf Pro Tour regular season will come to a conclusion this weekend in Indianola, Iowa. The Des Moines Challenge was a late addition to the 2021 pro tour after the European swing was canceled, and it was picked back up for the 2022 season. Last year, thunderstorms caused delays and prevented the FPO division from playing their 2nd round on Saturday. Luckily the players were able to go on Sunday, and Missy Gannon won her first career ES event by one stroke over Jessica Weese. The MPO division was able to play all three rounds, and Paul McBeth took home his only pro tour win of the season in a two stroke victory over Calvin Heimburg.

Any MPO player outside of the top 100 and FPO player outside of the top 50 has two chances left to accumulate a substantial amount of points. Des Moines will be scored the same as any other ES event, and the world championship of course will offer 150% of the points typically awarded. Some of those fringe players are Europeans who have not played a full schedule, and many of them have returned to Des Moines this week. In total, 22 international players are registered between the two divisions as they look to get in one more ES event prior to the world championships.

2021 Winners

MPO: Paul McBeth, by two strokes over Calvin Heimburg
FPO: Missy Gannon, by one stroke over Jessica Weese¹

Three Things We’ll Be Watching

1. Coming off a huge win at the Ledgestone Open, can Missy Gannon come to Des Moines and defend her title? Missy earned her first ES win here last July, and then went on to win the Throw Pink Women’s Disc Golf Championship and Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship before being named the Elaine King Player of the Year by the DGPT. If Gannon can get hot again late in the season, she’s a threat to win every tournament from now until the end of the postseason.

2. For players currently sitting on the bubble, who can make a push to earn a playoff invite and who can hold off potential spoilers and retain their current spot? Finnish player Heidi Laine currently sits in 56th place, having only played the European Open earlier this year. Heidi not only has a great chance to move into the top 50, but even the top 32 by the end of Worlds, and earn an…