Gannon Buhr is Lighting up 2026 So Far

Gannon Buhr is not messing around this year. The first three months of the 2026 PDGA season, Buhr has done about as much as a touring pro can do without hoisting the Champions Cup trophy.

In eight starts between February and late April, he’s won five times, finished second twice, and turned in one “off” week — a fourth-place finish at Kansas City. Buhr has cashed $56,305 in checks, pushed his player rating from 1059 to 1061 (as of the April 14 update), and made every single cash line on tour.

Buhr vs. Wysocki vs. Anttila — 2026 year-to-date

The two players who have actually beaten Buhr this year are Ricky Wysocki and Niklas Anttila. Stacked head-to-head through April 26, the season-to-date numbers are not close on a per-start basis.

Head-to-head, when they shared a tee pad

• Buhr vs. Wysocki, 6 shared events: Buhr finished ahead 4 times. Wysocki took Supreme Flight (by one stroke) and KCWO (where Buhr was 4th). Big Easy was effectively a 1–2 split that Buhr won on the tiebreaker.
• Buhr vs. Anttila, 5 shared events: Buhr finished ahead 4 times. Anttila’s lone win was the one that mattered most — the Champions Cup Major, by a single stroke.
• The only event all three played and Buhr did not win was the Champions Cup, where he was second and Wysocki was fourth. He has out-placed both of them at every other shared start.

The pattern: Wysocki has the deeper career résumé and remains the only player to beat Buhr at a non-Major in 2026, but his finishes have been streaky — a win, a runner-up, then placings of 4, 21, and 29. Anttila has been even spikier — one massive Major win bookended by a 12, a 15, and a 25. Buhr is the only one who shows up in the top four every week.

How does this compare to Buhr at this point in 2025?

Year over year, Buhr has roughly doubled his pace. Through the equivalent calendar window of the 2025 season — six sanctioned MPO events from the Memorial in mid-January through the Kansas City Wide Open on April 20, plus three XC exhibitions — his ledger looked like this:

His 2025 wins through May 2 were the Memorial (A-tier) and the Kansas City Wide Open (Elite Series). In 2026 he already has both of those caliber wins plus three more — Big Easy, Queen City, Blue Ridge, Jonesboro — and he’s been knocking on the door at the elite events he hasn’t won, with two one-stroke runner-up finishes.

The single biggest difference is consistency. In 2025 through this date, he had a 12th-place finish at Supreme Flight and a 5th at WACO; he hadn’t yet found the locked-in mode that defined the back half of his year (the eventual World title in Tampa, the Ledgestone win, the IWGA gold at the World Games). In 2026 he has skipped the slow start entirely. He has not finished worse than 4th in any event, and his floor — a 4th at KCWO — is the same as his fourth-place ceiling at the Champions Cup Major a week earlier.

Notably, last year his Champions Cup result was the inflection point that kicked off his summer dominance — he was 4th there in early May, then ripped off Northwest, Preserve, and ultimately Worlds. This year that inflection point came two months earlier, in the Wysocki-rivalry stretch from late February through mid-March, and the Champions Cup runner-up at -26 was the consolidation of form, not the start of it.

Here is how Buhr’s the run unfolded, event by event.

The Memorial Championship — Feb 5–8, A-tier (WIN)

Buhr opened the year at Fountain Hills with a four-round, 179 (-51) wire-to-wire performance, edging Aaron Gossage and Parker Welck by a single stroke (both at -50). His tournament-high round was a 42 (1089-rated) on Saturday at Vista del Camino, and he closed it out with a 45 (1055) in the finals. Purse: $5,500.

Discraft’s Supreme Flight Open — Feb 27–Mar 1, DGPT Elite Series (2nd)

The first heartbreak. Buhr opened with two even-keeled 60s (both 1046-rated) at Picnic Island, then detonated the field on Sunday with a course-record-pace 52 (1096) — and still lost by one to Ricky Wysocki, who closed in 59. Final: 172 (-23) to Wysocki’s 171 (-24). Paul McBeth was third at 174. $6,000.

MVP Big Easy Open — Mar 13–15, DGPT Elite Series (WIN)

At Bayou Oaks in New Orleans, Buhr and Wysocki tied again at 196 (-11), and this time the tiebreaker fell Buhr’s way. His three-round split — 66/64/66 (1041/1050/1045) — was the most consistent line on the lead card. Isaac Robinson finished third at -8. Purse jumped to $11,500.

Queen City Classic — Mar 27–29, DGPT Elite Series (WIN)

Easily his most dominant week. Buhr shot 54-53-56 at Hornets Nest in Charlotte (the middle round a 1083), totaling 163 (-23) and winning by four strokes over a Raven Newsom / Evan Smith tie at 167. $10,000.

Blue Ridge Championship — Apr 3–5, A-tier (WIN)

A back-and-forth duel with Estonia’s Mauri Villmann. Both finished at 156 (-30), with Buhr taking the win on the tiebreaker after firing a 49 (1083) in round two. The A-tier purse was modest by his standards — $1,205 — but the win extended his streak.

PDGA Champions Cup — Apr 9–12, Major (2nd)

The one that will sting. At the season’s first Major (W.R. Jackson), Buhr opened cold with a 66 (1039), then steadily ramped: 63, 62, and a closing 59 (1071) that nearly stole the trophy. Niklas Anttila of Finland held him off by a single shot, 249 to 250. Anthony Barela was third at 251. The runner-up check was $8,500 — the biggest of his year — but it was the second one-stroke loss in two months.

Jonesboro Open — Apr 17–19, DGPT Elite Series (WIN)

Buhr’s response to the Champions Cup miss was to dismantle Disc Side of Heaven. He went 52-51-55, the middle round a 1086, and won by four over Isaac Robinson (162). Adam Hammes was third at 164. $10,000.

Kansas City Wide Open — Apr 24–26, DGPT Elite Series (4th)

The first finish off the podium since the season opener. Cole Redalen (-23) took the title at the unique two-round-plus-finals format, with Wysocki and Calvin Heimburg tied for second at -21. Buhr’s two stroke-play rounds were a tidy 59/59 (1061/1058) but a 29 in the nine-hole finals left him a stroke off the playoff at -20. Still, $3,600 for fourth.

What’s next

Up next: the Barbasol Open at Austin on May 7, followed by Santa Cruz Masters Cup, OTB Open, and the Northwest Championship before the European swing. He sits at career totals of 187 events, 56 wins, and $627,268 in prize money. A win in Austin would make six in nine starts — and put him into the European Open in late June with the loudest momentum on the men’s tour.

If the 2025 pattern holds, the summer that follows should be a coronation. If the 2026 trajectory holds, it should not even be close.