WACO, Texas — Emerson Keith delivered one of the great weekend performances in recent disc golf memory, carding a 14-under 50 in round two and holding off a four-way chase to win the Innova Presents 2026 Waco Annual Charity Open at 29-under par Sunday at Brazos Park East.
Keith finished two shots clear of a four-player logjam at -27: Isaac Robinson, Paul Krans, Evan Scott, and Niklas Anttila all finished tied for second. Andrew Marwede, whose final round featured an ace, climbed to sixth at -26.
The win was all the most sweet because Keith lives in Argyle, Texas. A longtime PDGA pro with 117 career wins, 456 career events, and a current rating of 1030, Keith is playing regional tournaments off the road. He is not currently a full-time touring pro, having stepped back from the circuit to focus on his family.
Final Standings
| Pos. | Player | R1 | R2 | R3 | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Emerson Keith | 57 (-7) | 50 (-14) | 56 (-8) | -29 |
| T2 | Isaac Robinson | 58 (-6) | 54 (-10) | 53 (-11) | -27 |
| T2 | Paul Krans | 56 (-8) | 52 (-12) | 57 (-7) | -27 |
| T2 | Evan Scott | 55 (-9) | 53 (-11) | 57 (-7) | -27 |
| T2 | Niklas Anttila | 55 (-9) | 51 (-13) | 59 (-5) | -27 |
| 6 | Andrew Marwede | 60 (-4) | 54 (-10) | 52 (-12) | -26 |
| T7 | Joseph Anderson | 56 (-8) | 56 (-8) | 56 (-8) | -24 |
| T7 | Mauri Villmann | 58 (-6) | 51 (-13) | 59 (-5) | -24 |
| T9 | Adam Hammes | 62 (-2) | 57 (-7) | 51 (-13) | -22 |
| T9 | Jake Monn | 61 (-3) | 54 (-10) | 55 (-9) | -22 |
| T9 | Chandler Kramer | 59 (-5) | 55 (-9) | 56 (-8) | -22 |
Course: Brazos Park East, BEast Championship layout, Waco, Texas. Par 64, 7,957 feet. A-Tier, DGPT.
Keith’s Round 2: A Masterclass in Bogey-Free Disc Golf
The tournament turned on Saturday. Keith posted 14 birdies against four pars and zero bogeys, shooting 50 on a par-64 layout for a round that was arguably the week’s defining performance. His scorecard read like an exercise in inevitability: birdies on the opening hole, the second, the third, the fourth, and the fifth, with brief pauses for pars on six, twelve, seventeen, and eighteen. He played the remaining fourteen holes without a single mark above par, converting birdie after birdie on a course long enough to punish the imprecise.
Keith entered round two in a four-way tie at 7-under with Scott, Anttila, and Connor O’Reilly. He exited it in sole second at -21, one shot behind Anttila, who matched him across most of the card with his own 13-under 51.
Anttila’s Lead Evaporates in the Final Round
Niklas Anttila held the overnight lead at -22 — no bogeys through 36 holes, the tournament’s cleanest scorecard — and entered Sunday as the narrow favorite. The Finn’s final round was a different story. A bogey on hole seven broke his bogey-free streak, and he added two more in a row on seventeen and eighteen to close out a 5-under 59. He finished tied for second, two shots shy of Keith.
Commentators noted during the final round that Anttila’s consistency across the first two rounds was what had gotten him there: “Really capitalized on those birdies and not made any mistakes,” one observed on the broadcast. Sunday, those mistakes arrived at the worst time.
Back-9 Battle: Keith and Krans
Through the first nine holes of the final round, Keith and Krans built matching front-9 scores of -5 and -6 respectively, pulling clear of Anttila and Scott to share the lead at -26 heading to hole 10. The broadcast confirmed it explicitly: “Paul Kranz, Emerson Keith tied at the top here.”
The separation happened across a four-hole stretch. Keith birdied the par-3 11th, then made par on the demanding 609-foot par-4 12th while Krans carded a bogey to open a two-stroke gap. Keith added birdies on holes 13 and 14, extending his lead to three. Krans birdied back on 16, and both players closed with bogeys on the par-3 18th — which played into a headwind — leaving Keith ahead by two.
Keith’s back-nine of -3 to Krans’ -1 was the margin that held.
Marwede’s Ace Highlights a Field-Charging Round 3
Andrew Marwede turned in the most dramatic round of the final day. Playing outside the top 15 after 36 holes at -14, the local player birdied eleven holes in round three and added an ace on the 213-foot par-3 8th to shoot a 12-under 52 — the low round of the tournament’s final day. The ace came in the middle of a birdie run; Marwede also bogeyed the first and fourth holes but more than recovered with the hole-in-one and a string of birdies through the back half. He finished sixth at -26.
Robinson Makes His Move Late
Isaac Robinson entered round three in a tie for seventh at -16. His closing 53 (-11) was the best final-round score among the top five finishers. Robinson birdied nine holes, including a run of birdies on holes 13, 14, and 16, and converted an eagle on the 558-foot par-4 15th to propel himself from the chase card into a four-way tie for second. His -11 was the only round under -10 among that group on Sunday.
Consistency Award: Joseph Anderson
Joseph Anderson finished seventh in a tournament of extremes by shooting -8 all three rounds — an 8-under 56 on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. His -24 total earned him a share of seventh in the most metronomically consistent performance of the week.
Notable Performances
- Adam Hammes carded the low round of Sunday at -13 (51 strokes), climbing from T9 to T9 — a testament to how compressed the field was below the top finishers.
- Mauri Villmann matched Anttila with a -13 round on Saturday (51 strokes), vaulting from -6 to -19 before a -5 Sunday left him seventh.
- Calvin Heimburg and Evan Scott shared the opening-round lead at -9 alongside Anttila and O’Reilly; Heimburg faded with back-to-back rounds of 60 to finish at -20 in a tie for 13th.