Salonen, Buhr crowned as European Open makes historic Tallinn debut

Tallinn’s Song Festival Grounds gave the European Open a new identity, and the champions rose with it. Eveliina Salonen delivered when the pressure was highest, winning the FPO title at 21-under, four strokes ahead of Julia Fors, while Gannon Buhr closed out the MPO crown at 36-under, four clear of Richard Wysocki.

The larger story was bigger than the scorecards. For the first time, the European Open was held outside Finland, and Estonia hosted a PDGA Major for the first time as the event began a new life as a rotating major across Europe. Under a five-year licensing agreement with Discmania and House of Discs, the tournament is set to move around the continent, a shift that recasts one of disc golf’s signature events as a European showcase rather than a single-country tradition.

That mattered in Tallinn, where the June 18-21 event unfolded at a venue with rare symbolic force. The Song Festival Grounds are tied to Estonia’s national song festival tradition, where more than 100,000 people have gathered, and the disc golf weekend leaned into that scale with packed crowds and a festival atmosphere. On the Rockstar course, with open fairways, wooded sections, elevation changes and scoring windows that still demanded discipline, the championship setting matched the occasion. Tarmo Laiksoo was listed as tournament director.

The final standings underlined how sharply the majors are now being shaped by young stars and by a broader international stage. Buhr’s MPO win came in a 112-player division that paid out $86,500 total, while Salonen’s FPO victory came in a 45-player field with a $34,755 purse. Those numbers reflected the reach of the event, but the symbolism ran deeper: marquee disc golf is no longer centered only in the United States, and Europe now has a rotating major capable of producing its own landmark moments.

For Finland, Salonen’s title answered years of expectation on one of the sport’s biggest stages. For Buhr, it added another layer to an emerging major-era resume that keeps pushing the MPO standard higher. In Tallinn, the European Open did more than crown champions. It announced a new geography for the sport’s biggest days.