Team Innova has Five New Major Champions!
The 2024 United States Women’s Disc Golf Championship (USWDGC), the first PDGA Major of the year, took place last weekend in Round Rock, Texas. Team Innova had quite the showing, taking home five age-protected Major titles, as well as 2nd place in FPO and FP40. The event set a host of records for women’s disc golf, including the largest overall field at 350 competitors, the largest FPO field at 100 competitors, and a record event purse at $126,000.
Longtime Innova Team member and 5x World Champ, Juliana Korver, went wire-to-wire in FP50, winning the event by 13 strokes. Pam Reineke (FP60) and Sandy Gast (FP65) both won their 5th USWDGC titles. Rebecca Don won in the FJ18 division, taking down the first Major event she has ever played in. And Eva Lutsenko had the comeback story of the week, picking up 4 strokes in the final round to push for a playoff and earn the win. Congratulations to our new Major champions!
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Masters Major Champions
Juliana Korver (FP50)
Team Innova Superstar Juliana Korver took home the 12th Major title of her career at the 2024 USWDGC. She got off to an early lead and held it through the entire tournament. She was the only player in the field to finish under par for the event, shooting -9 through four rounds.
Juliana is FP50 eligible (and quite dominant in that division), but still plays on the DGPT in the FPO division. So far this season, JK has an 11th and 15th place finish on Tour, respectable for any player at any age. Last season, Juliana made the Pro Tour Championships, proving she can still hang with the best in the sport.
JK is firmly in the conversation for the GOAT of women’s disc golf, tied for the most FPO World titles of all time. With each season she is able to keep competing at such a high level, she gets further cemented in the history books as a true legend of our sport.
Pam Reineke (FP60)
Pam Reineke defended her FP60 title last weekend, taking home her 5th USWDGC career win. She went wire-to-wire, shooting the hot round in her division on both of the first two days. Pam won the event by a whopping 17 strokes.
Pam has now won three consecutive USWDGC titles in FP60. In all three cases, she won dominantly by more than 10 strokes. Pam is the FP60 division’s clear front-runner and she will be hard to dethrone.
Sandy Gast (FP65)
Sandy Gast also won her 5th USWDGC last weekend. She took it down by 23 strokes, playing against a competitive field. Sandy shot 15 points above her rating for the weekend, beating out Innova teammate Kathy Hardyman in 2nd place. Sandy widened her lead in the Pro Women’s 65-69 division of the Global Masters Series.
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Junior Major Champions
Rebecca Don (FJ18)
Innova Junior Team member Rebecca Don just won the first PDGA Major she ever entered. Not many players get to say that! Rebecca took home the USWDGC title in the FJ18 division, even though she is only one year out from being FJ15 eligible. Rebecca shot 28 points above her player rating for the event, including the hot round of the weekend in her division, 6 under par. Team Innova is fired up to see our young athletes rise to the occasion at this PDGA Major, one of the most important events of the year. The winners of this level event in FJ18 are often the rising stars about to take the FPO by storm.
Eva Lutsenko (FJ12)
In one of the most exciting finishes in any division of the 2024 USWDGC, Eva Lutsenko mounted a four stroke comeback in the final round to force a playoff against Innova teammate Athena Cuevas. She shot an unbelievable 105 points above her player rating for the event. That includes a 912-rated final round, the best round of Eva’s career so far. To step up and shoot the best round of your life, when you need it most, is the definition of clutch. Let’s go Eva!
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Shoutout to Hailey Huber in the FJ15 division for her 2nd place finish. Hailey shot 60 points above her player rating and should be very proud of her Major podium.
Tight Races in FPO and FP40
In FPO, Eveliina Salonen was in the hunt for the win for the entire tournament. She went into the final round just two strokes behind the winner, Missy Gannon. Eveliina was crushing it off-the-tee, as usual. She led the field in C1 Hits in Regulation, C2 Hits in Regulation, and Strokes Gained Tee to Green. Aside from down the stretch of the final round, Eveliina also had a great tournament on the green. She was 4th in the field in total putting distance at over 1,000 feet. She looked confident and when she missed a putt, she almost always made the comebacker. Eveliina has finished in the top ten of every event this season, including a DGPT win at the Chess.com Invitational.
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Ohn Scoggins got off to a slow start in the first round, but put the pedal to the metal for the final three days. She shot the hot round on the 2nd day at -3. In the final round, Ohn pulled within four strokes of the lead, but did not have enough holes left to get the job done. For the weekend, she led the field in Strokes Gained Putting at 11.09 strokes and was 3rd in Scramble rate.
In FP40, Jennifer Allen took 2nd place and Ellen Widboom took 3rd. Jen got off to an early lead, but the winner, Stephanie Vincent, strung together three solid rounds to pull out in front. Ellen Widboom started in 3rd and stayed there throughout all four rounds. This is Ellen’s first Major podium out of 16 starts.
2024 College Disc Golf National Championships
The next Major on the schedule isn’t the best known, but with the rate the event has been growing, that will soon change. The 2024 College Disc Golf National Championships will take place from April 3-6 in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The top teams from across the nation will compete for college disc golf’s biggest title. Innova sees collegiate disc golf as one of the biggest opportunities to grow the sport and one of the best avenues to help young aspiring disc golfers reach new heights.
