Jones Dominates Mid America Open, Mäkelä Does the Same in Finland

Photo courtesy of the Disc Golf Pro Tour and AV Disc Golf/Alyssa Van Lanen

Kevin Jones and Väinö Mäkelä covered each side of the globe with A-Tier wins in impressive fashion. Both had the hot score in two out of their three rounds on the way to winning handily.

Jones played at the Mid America Open in Columbia, Mo., a Disc Golf Pro Tour Silver Series event. In it, he continued to cash in putts from distance, making more than a third of his Circle 2 putts, but it was accuracy that boosted his score. He hit fairways at an 88 percent clip and was in Circle 2 in regulation a whopping 73 percent of the time. He also led the field in Circle 1 in regulation and birdie percentage by wide margins. 

He started hot in the first round by parking 29 percent of his holes and building a four stroke lead out of the gate. The third and final round was cut in half due to severe weather, but he was up by six with only the back nine to play. In predictable fashion, he punctuated the win with a birdie from 38 feet. GT Hancock added a top-20 finish with his tie for 19th.

Mäkelä also won by a considerable amount at the the final Prodigy Disc Pro Tour event in Kuopio, Finland. He did most of his work on the back end of the tournament in winning by seven. After being down two after the first round, he laid down back-to-back hot rounds, with a scorching 15-under par 44 in round three. 

It was a bogey-free 1072-rated effort in which he was perfect from inside the circle. Mäkelä not only claimed the the Kuopio title but also won the overall tour crown as his strong summer continues. Mäkelä has not fallen outside the top-5 at any of his six events since starting back up in June.

Matt Orum led the charge for Team Prodigy at the Pot of Gold 2.0 in Marrero, La., where he defended his title from last year's edition of the event. Orum topped the podium and was followed by a pair of teammates in Logan Weiss and Cameron Colglazier. 

Orum and Colglazier were tied atop the leaderboard after the first round and Orum pulled ahead in the second round to take the title. Weiss shot the hot score of the round to take over second place to Orum by two strokes and Colglazier rounded out the top-3. Nageeb LaBorde finished in seventh.

Lykke Sandvik earned a national championship at the Norgesmesterskap i Diskgolf 2020 (Norwegian Disc Golf Championships) in Trondheim, Norway. She had the hot score in the three rounds leading up to the finals to rack up a 16 stroke margin by the end of the weekend. It's her second consecutive Norwegian Championship win. Tommy Steingrimsen finished third in Open.

Catrina Allen and Chris Dickerson narrowly missed out on titles of their own, each taking second place in Grand Rapids, Mich., at the River City Open, another A-Tier. Allen charged back during the final round, which she started four back. 

She heated up in the back nine with an eagle and four more birdies to tie up a 6-under hot round that left her just one stroke back in the end. Dickerson fought hard himself with a bogey-free 11-under final round but finished four off the pace. 

Cale Leiviska also played in an A-Tier at the Lake Superior Open in Superior, Wisc., where he finished in a tie for third with teammate Luke Humphries.