Saarinen leads tight FPO race at Northwest Championship after round 1

Silva Saarinen had the lead after one round at the Northwest Championship, but the better question is whether she was truly taking control or simply living inside a pack that has not given anybody room to breathe. Her 24-under start in a 44-player FPO field left Holyn Handley two strokes back, with Eliezra Midtlyng at 19-under and Missy Gannon at 18-under, a margin that says more about how tight the top is than about any runaway.

That is exactly the kind of leaderboard the Disc Golf Pro Tour seemed to expect in Portland. The Northwest Championship is a four-day DGPT+ stop, June 4-7, across Riverbend Gold at Milo McIver State Park and Glendoveer East, two venues built to test complete players rather than reward one hot skill in isolation. With a projected FPO purse of $32,630 and championship rounds scheduled for Thursday through Sunday mornings Pacific time, every stroke mattered from the first tee shot.

Handley’s chase has been the obvious pressure point. She arrived as the defending Northwest Championship winner and the current DGPT Powerball World Standings leader, carrying a 24.34-point cushion over Ohn Scoggins after her OTB Open win. The opener also reinforced why her presence near the top felt inevitable. Handley was on the feature-card watch list alongside Anniken Steen, Saarinen and Paige Pierce, while the second featured group included Gannon, Rebecca Cox, Scoggins and Valerie Mandujano. The tour built the weekend around players who could move the board fast, and Round 1 delivered that tension immediately.

The gaps behind Saarinen make the rest of the weekend look like a test of nerves as much as execution. Midtlyng sat just five back, Gannon six back, and Handley remained close enough to keep the reigning champion in striking distance without needing help from the leaders. The field was first introduced in 2025 as a combined DGPT+ event, merging the Portland Open and Beaver State Fling into one showcase, and the 2027 PDGA Pro World Championships are slated for the same venues. That gives this stop extra weight, but the immediate story is simpler: Saarinen led, yet nobody was letting her breathe.

If the first round was any indication, Championship Sunday was going to belong to whoever handled both courses best. Saarinen had the edge on the board, but with Handley, Midtlyng and Gannon all within six strokes, Portland was already shaping up as a race of missed chances, not a march to the finish.