Hangover and Melancholy after the 2025 PDGA Champions Cup; Paul McBeth’s Missed Opportunities

If you’re a fan of professional disc golf, and you watched this weekend’s 2025 PDGA Champions Cup, you may feel a sense of exhaustion today. Maybe even a touch of sadness. That’s because the MPO competition was such a massive rollercoaster.

After seeing how the tournament unfolded, there’s a bit of a hangover. And obviously much of the post-event talk will be about Paul McBeth.

For starters, though, congratulations to both Missy Gannon and Isaac Robinson for winning their respective FPO and MPO titles. It’s fitting that they emerged as the weekend’s champions. Both are low-key, dependable disc golfers. They calmly and consistently moved along as this Champions Cup unfolded—and ended up winning.

On the MPO side, Robinson had a certain momentum as the tournament proceeded. The course was wracked with heavy, gusting winds for most of the four days. But Robinson seemed completely unfazed by the conditions. He somehow casually, lightly tossed in putt after putt; the blasts of wind inexplicably didn’t affect his putting…not even a wobble.

Going into the final day, it seemed that there were three potential winners: Robinson, Sullivan Tipton, or Paul McBeth. But in the latter part of the afternoon, a surprisingly large contingent of players started jostling for the top spot. At various points, Andrea Marwede, Adam Hammes, Gannon Buhr, and Calvin Heimburg were suddenly within striking distance of the lead.

Most surprising was Anthony Barela. He played the final round with almost reckless abandon. When he missed a big opening drive on the par-five 7th hole, he simply went for a big roller on his second shot. If anything, Barela struggled at times with his forehand throughout the tournament. Too often, there was something a bit casual in his forehand execution. And he paid the price, with errant forehands that simply hooked off in the heavy winds.

In the second half of the final day, though, Barela got focused. He shot -6 on the final nine holes to secure a solo, second-place finish.

Sullivan Tipton also showed a lot of youthful brashness. Heading into the final day, he was in sole possession of the lead. If anything, his third round was a stunner. Tipton and his caddy smiled the whole time, enjoying the easy fun of Tipton shooting -8 despite the roaring winds.

A funny thing about Tipton, too. He possesses an extremely powerful forehand—and drives it very confidently. On several of the course’s exceptionally long par-five holes, he not only teed off with a forehand, but also followed up with long forehand second shots.

What Tipton’s forehand strength demonstrates is the still-evolving nature of the disc golf game. There was a time when—even if players had strong forehands—it was “understood” that long-distance drives generally required a backhand. It was just what players “did.”

But Tipton is young enough to have grown up without the encumbrances of prior disc golf thinking. And so it’s striking that he can so confidently—and powerfully—tee off on a long par-5 with a forehand.

After watching the ease of Tipton’s third round, and his seemingly unfazed enjoyment of his accomplishments up to that point, it seemed possible that he might continue rolling along on the final day—and win the whole thing.

But contrast that with Isaac Robinson, now a veteran—and fairly unflappable. Robinson shot a -7 on the final day (the same as he did on day one) to win the whole thing...

And that brings us to Paul McBeth. Going into the final round, it seemed likely that, if Tipton couldn’t shoot another great round, then the more experienced Robinson would have some pretty good momentum to win the tournament.

But Paul McBeth had shot a course record -14 on opening day. And since he was only three strokes off the lead going into the final round, he was still well-positioned for a potential win.

McBeth’s -14 in the first round was a stunning accomplishment—and catapulted him to a three-shot lead. Commentator Nate Doss suggested at the time that it might be one of the “top ten” rounds of McBeth’s career. (It certainly made many McBeth fans extremely happy and optimistic.)

Through the first half of round two, McBeth continued to soar. After a birdie on the 10th hole, he was -6 for the day—and had reached a very impressive -20 for the tournament.

But then something shifted. McBeth shot +4 in the final seven holes. It was a sudden, worrying turn of events.

In a post-round interview on the second day, McBeth seemed a bit tired. He gave a quick interview explaining that, other than a few shots, he thought he played well.

On the third day, McBeth strung together four straight birdies at one point—and finally got back to -20 for the tournament. But late in the day, he bogeyed three holes, and dropped down to -17 overall.

Going into the final round, McBeth was only three strokes off the lead. Considering his sheer ability and tenacity, it seemed possible that he could still fire off another great round—and win the whole thing. And so, the tournament might come down to McBeth, Robinson, or Tipton.

But McBeth had a very rough final round. He certainly had some bad luck. His excellent approach shot on the par-4 second hole somehow hit a hard patch of ground and skipped so far that it ended up out of bounds. (He would end up saving par with a 20-foot putt into a strong headwind.)

Similarly, his tee shot on hole six hit a tree. But he saved par.

On the par-5, 1,000-foot seventh hole, McBeth almost threw in his third shot; the disc nicked off the basket. He eked out a birdie that finally got him back to -20.

After that, however, McBeth missed a birdie putt on hole eight that would have given him a share of the lead. And then he missed a birdie putt on nine. And then he missed a birdie putt on 10.

At that point, things started to go downhill. On the 11th hole, McBeth’s drive landed out of bounds. He then missed his par putt, with his disc again landing out of bounds. He ended up with a double-bogey. Commentator Nate Doss wondered aloud, “How do you recover from this?”

The indignities continued when McBeth slipped in thick grass while throwing his second shot on the par-5 12th hole. His shot landed in the water, out of bounds. He then missed a long putt to save par.

On the par-3 13th hole, McBeth threw a seemingly perfect forehand. But it stopped on the edge of the green and fell back into the water for another out of bounds—though he saved par from the drop zone.

By that point, the momentum was gone. McBeth was able to birdie the 14th hole. But he double-bogeyed 17, and bogeyed 18. He finished the tournament at -15, for 20th place overall.

Tipton, Hammes, and Ricky Wysocki ended up in a three-way tie for 5th place, at -21. They finished one stroke ahead of Calvin Heimburg (who shot a huge final day round of -12).

With McBeth, what hurt were the unexpected errors. In particular, his putting during the final day was erratic. The missed birdies on eight, nine, and 10 were particularly unfortunate since they were all relatively short putts.

Watching McBeth, it seemed as if frustration or nerves got to him at various times. The most emblematic may have come on hole 18 during Friday’s round two. After a -6 start to the day, things progressively fell apart late in the afternoon. And on the par-4 18th hole, his tee shot floated high, hit a tree, and landed out of bounds.

McBeth faced an extremely long second shot to the green. And not only did he need to cover a lot of distance—nearly 350 feet—but he faced tricky crosswinds to reach the semi-island green. Watching the action, commentator Nate Sexton observed, “I really don’t think he can rationalize attacking the green.”

What’s strange is what McBeth chose to do, however. Despite the risks, he casually walked up and threw a high, hyzer backhand that blew far afield; it ended up out of bounds. Sexton astutely noted: “I feel like he threw surprisingly quickly, for such a critical and difficult and out of position shot into an island green effectively.”

Sexton was right. McBeth seemed to just grab a disc and make the throw—as if he wanted to get the shot—or the round—over with. He ended up double-bogeying the hole.

Something in that second shot on hole 18 of round two captures whatever it was that went wrong at times with McBeth’s game as the 2025 Champions Cup proceeded. He came out strong in each round. But somewhere along the line, he had missed throws that cost him dearly.

All of this was doubly unfortunate, considering the flashes of brilliance. On the final day’s par-3 opening hole, McBeth threw a smooth, absolutely perfect forehand that finished underneath the basket for an easy birdie. That initial forehand had to give McBeth some comfort at the start of the round, considering that he’d struggled a bit with his forehand the previous day. And on hole 13, he nailed a long putt to save par from the drop zone; he’d missed shorter putts for birdie, earlier in the round.

Overall, it’s hard to process the incongruity of McBeth’s staggering opening round—his course record -14—alongside him playing the entire rest of the tournament in -1.

Disc golfers can make poor shots for various reasons. They may rush, because they’re not fully concentrating. Or they may tighten up from nerves, and throw awkwardly. Or, they may just get tired.

With McBeth, it was a see-saw. A great first round followed by much frustration.

Since this was a major tournament, and widely watched, McBeth is probably chewing on all of it right now, just as much as his fans. But here’s a prediction: Because McBeth is such an intense competitor, he may now be even more likely to win an upcoming major. The sting of this year’s Champions Cup will likely push him even harder.

Here are some of his finishes so far this year:

• 3rd place at the Discraft Supreme Flight Open

• 4th place at the Waco Annual Charity Open

• 4th place at the Music City Open

• 3rd place at the Kansas City Wide Open

And then there's the -12 that McBeth shot in the third round at Waco in March. He's been playing well. He could win another major.