American Flying Discs Open: Chantel Budinsky and Ezra Robinson Get First DGPT Wins
The Jim Palmeri's 50th American Flying Discs Open debuted for the first time on the Disc Golf Pro Tour Silver series one week before the 2023 PDGA Pro World Championship, and history was made again at one of disc golf's longest-running events.
Chantel Budinsky and Ezra Robinson both earned their first career DGPT wins in Rochester, New York at Parma Town Park, and Chantel became the first Canadian player to capture a DGPT title.
The weekend started wet, but Chantel was up for the challenge. She posted the hot round on Friday and held onto a slim lead during round 2 before busting it wide open on Sunday with a scorching 1007-rated, 8-under par final to take the W by nine strokes.
The final round was the highest-rated of Chantel's career. For the event, she was ranked fourth or better in every UDisc Live statistical category, and led the division in Strokes Gained Putting, C1X and C2 Putting percentage, and reaching C1 in Regulation.
Chantel Budinsky Disc Golf Collection
For Ezra, the Georgia-native has been close before and had put together an already impressive 2023 with ten top 25 finishes at DGPT events. He opened the tournament playing on the featured card and kept his spot with the lead group for round 2 when he shot the hot round on moving day and set a new course record to take over first place.
Sunday saw Ezra get right back to where he left off, setting another course record with a 1092-rated, 13-under par final round to pull away from the field and win by six strokes. It was Ezra's highest-rated round to date.
Much like Chantel, Ezra dominated the stats by finishing first or second in nine UDisc stats. He was first in both Strokes Gained from Tee-to-Green and C1X Putting, and reaching both Circle 1 and Circle 2 in Regulation.
To celebrate the achievements of Ezra and Chantel, Prodigy will be releasing commemorative discs.
Ezra Robinson Disc Golf Collection
G.T. Hancock and Sandi Hendel finished in fifth place in MPO and FPO, respectively. It is both of their best finishes at a DGPT event.
To complete the divisional symmetry, Nick Newton and Elaina Evinsky finished in eighth place in MPO and FPO, respectively.
Hannah Stefanovich notched a ninth place finish, and the world's highest-rated player, Manabu Kajiyama, was 14th. Justin Rosak finished 17th.
