The disc golf competition at the 12th International World Games reached its climax on Sunday with the placement and medal matches in what proved to be an epic, MPO/FPO Mixed Doubles formatted, competition.

In the Gold Medal match, the USA team of “Missy Gannon Buhr” jumped out to a 4-hole lead after 4 and cruised to the top of the podium, besting Finland’s Eveliina Salonen and Nestori Tukhanen, 5 and 3.

All the drama was saved for the Bronze medal showdown between Baltic neighbors Estonia and Latvia. Trailing the favored husband-wife duo of Kristin and Silver Lätt by 2 holes with 3 to play, Elizabete Peksena kept Latvia’s chances alive by draining a stunning 90-footer thru hole 16’s giant ring for par. Teammate Rainers Balodis then parked 17 and 18 to send the match into overtime.

Three holes into sudden death it was all over when Peksana calmly hit dead center after Kristin had missed from slightly further, capping off the greatest event and comeback in Latvian disc golf history. Norway won the placement match for 5th and 6th over Czechia, who were the only team to hold the vaunted USA squad to a draw.

All told three PDGA Pro World Champs – including newly crowned Gannon Buhr – competed in the final matches for the hardware. And, as an indicator of the overall depth of the disc golf field, the 32 athletes representing 16 nations at the IWH hold more than 1,350 PDGA Tour victories.

The event was hosted by the megacity of Chengdu in Sichuan province, which dates back to the third century BC, and is renowned for its panda bear breeding and conservation center. The disc golf competition itself took place in the beautiful Guixi Ecological Park on a relatively short but technically challenging layout designed by World Disc Golf Hall of Famer Charlie Mead and event TD Craig Sheather. An enthusiastic horde of 250 Chinese university students were assigned to support the event and host the VIPs in attendance.  

Even before their remarkable comeback versus Estonia, the 13th seed Latvians had proven the event’s Cinderella story, narrowly losing to Finland early on and again in the semis, while knocking off No. 3 seed Canada in the quarterfinals and dispatching Germany and France in the group play preliminaries. Along the way they were serenaded in song by other Latvia IWG athletes after every great throw and hole won. At the other end of the spectrum 6th seed Germany uncannily beat No. 2 Finland during prelims but lost to Latvia, France, Lithuania, and Australia en route to a 15th place finish.

Host China played admirably, but ultimately failed to win a match in front of the throng of local fans cheering them on. Nevertheless, the impact of the IWG on the potential growth of the sport in this massive, young disc golf nation may well prove to be huge, given an estimated 15 million Chinese watched the competition live on national TV.

While the disc golf contest is now complete, the International World Games continue through August 17. All told more than 100 nations and 4,000 athletes are participating in 34 sports and 59 disciplines of which the Flying Disc sports of disc golf and ultimate are but two. The World Games are the second-most important global multi-sport event in the world and the stepping stone to the Olympics. For many athletes, the World Games are the pinnacle of their sporting career.

That said, Chengdu 2025 has incorporated all the hallmarks of the Olympics itself, from a riveting opening ceremony, to the myriad of protocols that athletes and officials are required to follow, to the top-notch professionalism that every aspect of the event exudes.  Simply put, it is an incredible honor and privilege for our sport to be granted a place on this global sporting stage.

In closing, the PDGA would like to acknowledge the incredible work of the IWG organizers and the Chengdu LOC in delivering this hallmark event. But above all we would like to thank and congratulate our partner, the World Flying Disc Federation (WFDF), who are responsible for the return of disc golf to the IWG for the second time in history – the first was 2001 in Akita, Japan, where USA's Barry Schultz and Juliana Korner won gold.

While PDGA is the global governing body of disc golf, WFDF is the international sports federation responsible for world governance of flying disc (frisbee) sports, including Ultimate, Beach Ultimate, Disc Golf, Freestyle, Guts, and Individual Events as a whole. WFDF is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), by the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), and many other International Sports Federations.

While in Chengdu, several discussions were held between WFDF President Nob Rauch, his core staff, and the PDGA's Executive Director Doug Bjerkaas and International Director Brian Hoeniger. These centered on how we can expand the cooperation and coordination between our organizations moving forward, towards our shared core goals of growing disc golf and flying disc sports worldwide into the future, and of ensuring disc golf’s inclusion in the 2029 World Games in Karlsruhe, Germany.

Xie xie hé zaijian (thanks and goodbye) from China.