It was a somewhat stressful delight to have a full field of 70+ players to take on the Challenge at the final EDGA Tour event of the year. From having only 20 players signed up with a few weeks to go to almost selling out was a wild ride for me, and for event sponsor Deuz’s 3D printer as discs came quite literally hot off the press to make sure everyone had a player pack. Over at ROSE Disc Golf HQ, we were busy painting hazard stakes, plotting course changes, ordering reusable tee signs and working out logistics of how the heck we get all of that, and a tour shop and two baskets to Ripley in one packed-to-the-rafters red EV.
Regardless of all of the pre-event stress, the actual event itself went remarkably smoothly, mostly testament to the hard work behind the scenes by TD Harry and the thorough and exact day-of organisation by assistant TD Noah Smithson who, it must be said, was so selfless to sit on the sidelines and put on an outstanding event for the players rather than compete against the best in the UK himself.
The EDGA Tour points race
The pre-event storylines were dominated by the EDGA MPO points race. A fairly unusual season almost behind us, the best players in the UK had clearly focussed their efforts on playing overseas or playing specific events this year, and with most of England’s best MPO players not having completed the requisite 5 points-awarding events on the tour, the points title race was instead set to be decided between three of the “road warriors”.
Scott McKay, playing his first full season in MPO, was in with a shot, knowing a top-2 finish would guarantee him the title. Masters eligible but playing Open, Jon Tweed was in a similar situation. Although in 3rd place going into the final event, he had by far the weakest “worst event”, so a top-4 finish would have been enough to take the title if Scott was not to finish in the top-2.
At the top of the leaderboard, in a somewhat surprise twist after his second-place finish at the penultimate event took him past Scott, Harry Messenger was waiting. Although unlikely to improve and without a tour win, his consistent play had meant that he knew if neither McKay nor Tweed were able to capitalise on this final event, the points title would be his…
The battle for MPO
Speaking of the best in the UK, Noah aside, we had many of the UK’s strongest MPO and FPO players in attendance at the final tour event of the year, with probably the strongest EDGA MPO field of the year saved for last.
In the MPO division, the story of the event was really the battle for the win. Ben Holding, fresh back from his longest ever US and then European tour, almost didn’t make the trip, but when a late mass sign-up from some of London’s best, including Ultimate phenom and former thousand-rated disc golfer Connor McHale, Holding decided to make the trip after all.
With absolutely perfect weather, the event began, and after the first round, it was McHale who hit the ground running, with his 1017 rated 58 leaving him one shot clear of the UK’s highest rated lefty, Joe O’Brien in second.
Holding, back four, however was not to be denied. Starting round two playing back-to-back after the first round, something he may not have been used to after a season of 3-and-4 day events, he started out blazing hot and didn’t let off the gas.
From the first hole eagle on the (admittedly fairly soft) par 5, he only had pars on holes 4 and 12, and after a second eagle of the round on hole 16 moved him back to a perfect “-16 thru 16”, rumours started to swirl round the course that the best round in English disc golf history was ON.
The routine birdie on 17 completed, Holding threw his Discraft Terminator 500ft down the fairway on 18 and glory and triumph seemed inevitable.
However, smelling the first 1100 rated round in UK history, and with the 350ft water carry looming, he decided to play for eagle, despite no-one else in the field even getting the birdie 4.
Unfortunately, this decision ended up biting him as he clipped the final tree with his turnover, crashing down short of the island.
Thanks to a unique rule served by a PDGA waiver, Holding was not able to progress to the island and instead only able to move up to the edge of the lake and decide whether to take his medicine and play for single bogey, or attempt the hero shot once more.
Unfortunately for Ben, a couple more hero shots later he ultimately scored a quintuple bogey 10, finishing the round at “only -12”, his lead completely gone and in a tie with O’Brien who himself had shot a very solid 1009 rated round 2 to move into a tie for the lead.
Round 3 was another birdie fest amongst the very best players, while the majority of the field struggled with a much windier Sunday.
Ultimately, Holding and O’Brien had an epic battle, separating from the field by over 10 strokes, and while entering hole 18 tied, the TDs were scrambling to recall the playoff holes and gather an audience.
Unfortunately for the drama, but fortunately for Holding, his “redemption birdie” on hole 18 ended up being enough to secure the victory after an OB stroke for Joe ended his chances for the title.
FPO
Over in FPO, a very close battle through the first 2 rounds between touring pro Elva-Kate Preston and EDGA points leader View Georgiou was ultimately won by Preston, who was able to open up a 6-shot lead in the final round and close it out ultimately winning by 3.
It was great to have a competitive field of 5 FPO players attacking the long blue layout at Ripley, and thanks to the players for some excellent feedback we will have some tuned changes for next year’s event. Stay tuned!
Other division winners
Other division winners included Sam Thomas taking down MP40 in his first PDGA event for almost 9 years, Adam Mackrory winning MA1 by 7 strokes, Melodie Zehnder in FA1, Chris Ainsworth in MA40, Nick Georgiou in MA2, Ophelia Byrne in FA2, David Yazici in MA3, Katie Murray in FA3 and Daniel Lichtenfels in the junior division.
Daniel was an absolute warrior playing the full MA3 layout at only age 8 and, when asked, said it was “the best course ever because I got to play SO MUCH disc golf!!”.
Looking ahead to 2027
Thanks to everyone for a great event, and we hope to see you again in 2027.
We will be putting on the ROSE Tour of primarily one-day events across England. For more information sign up to our mailing list at rosediscgolf.co.uk or check back soon to see some more details about what to expect in 2027!
Event results: Challenge at Ripley Castle 2026
Final Tour standings: 2026 EDGA Tour leaderboard
