Missy Gannon looks to repeat her late season success at the 2022 Throw Pink Women's Disc Golf Championship. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA Media

Just call her Missy October.

In 2021, Missy Gannon dominated the late season, capping off her year with wins at the Throw Pink Women’s Disc Golf Championship as well as taking home a record-setting $20k payday with a win at the Pro Tour Championships.

It’s now a year later and Missy Gannon finds herself in familiar territory: back at Winthrop and holding on to a lead after a 1014-rated (unofficial) 7-under opening round.

Steady play was the name of the game for Gannon. She was perfect from C1X and stayed bogey-free through until 16, which she almost saved – hitting the chain support from the nether reaches of C2 after finding the hazard off the tee.

“Just really calm, really chill,” Gannon said about the vibe on the top feature card of the day. “The card was great. Everyone was just pushing each other, doing really cool things on different holes. Thankfully I stayed within myself and I just executed each shot pretty much the way I wanted to.”

Tough Competition

Catrina Allen led the field with 91% fairway hits according to UDisc stats. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA Media

Gannon will take a one-throw lead into the second round over a pair former World Champions in Sarah Hokom and Catrina Allen.

Hokom, who matched Gannon’s flawless performance from C1X, was the only player in the FPO field to finish bogey-free and did so despite having to save par twice after finding the hazard.

Allen, who has said recently that she has been struggling with her mental game, looked to have shrugged off any issues and was especially sharp off the tee with 91% fairways hit according to UDisc.

“The design this year – to me, it’s very apparent what I’m supposed to do,” Allen told DGN’s Brian Earhart after the round. “So, I don’t know if I’m just vibing with the layout and I’m just like, it’s calling for this shot and I have that shot in my bag and I’m just really in groove.”

Gannon, Hokom and Allen will be joined on the round 2 feature card by 5x World Champion, Paige Pierce, who is among three players knotted up at 3-under, four back of the leader.

Reigning World Champion, Kristin Tattar, who was also on the opening day feature card, was solid through most of the round but had a disastrous finish, ceding 7 strokes in the last 3 holes including a quadruple bogey on 18.

Still, no one is counting out the Estonian superstar.

Her 16th place position after round 1 is her second-worst start of the season. Worse still was her 22nd place position after round 1 of the Dynamic Discs Open in May, which, as Stat Mando pointed out Thursday, she went on to win.

Round 2 live coverage kicks off at 9:30am Eastern on the Disc Golf Network.