Queen City Classic debut exceeds expectations in Charlotte

James Conrad’s ace on Hole 16 in the second round turned Hornets Nest Disc Golf Course into the loudest place on the property, and it set the tone for a Queen City Classic that kept producing moments worth replaying. The Disc Golf Pro Tour’s own recap said the inaugural stop in Charlotte “exceeded the hype,” and the scoreboards backed that up with elite fields, late pressure, and a finish that stayed tight in both divisions.

The event ran March 27-29 at Hornets Nest Disc Golf Course, 6301 Beatties Ford Rd in Charlotte, with a Monday qualifier on March 23 and practice tee times scheduled for March 24-26. Charlotte’s Got A Lot said the tournament challenged more than 150 of the world’s best players, and the title sponsorship from Another Round, along with support from the Charlotte Disc Golf Club, gave the debut a strong local framework before the first tee shot was even thrown.

In MPO, Gannon Buhr separated himself early enough to survive a Sunday push from Raven Newsom. Buhr won at 23 under par and collected $10,000 and 150 points, while Newsom finished second at 19 under, earning $5,000 and 120 points. Newsom posted a 55 in the final round, one stroke better than Buhr’s 56, but Buhr’s cushion from the first two rounds, 54 and 53, held through the finish. The duel gave Charlotte the kind of late-round scoreboard tension a new DGPT stop needs if it wants to matter beyond its first year.

The FPO finish was even more dramatic. Jessica Gurthie erased a four-stroke final-round deficit to win the inaugural Queen City Classic and claim her first Elite Series title since 2018. The closing stretch turned on the kind of pressure that changes a tournament in real time, with the crowd reacting to a late out-of-bounds swing before Gurthie finished the job. That swing, paired with Conrad’s ace and the men’s leaderboard chase, made the debut feel less like an experiment and more like a venue that already knows how to stage a big weekend.

Charlotte now has a result to point to, not just a date on the calendar. Between the field strength, the practice and qualifier week around the main event, and a final card that held real consequence, the Queen City Classic gave the DGPT a stop that can already be described in past tense as a success.