Eagle Wynne McMahon

McMahon came into disc golf in 2007, when he was nine years old, when he looked for a summer activity. What only started as a summer hobby, transformed into something bigger. He started playing more, and soon started competing in smaller tournaments.[1] McMahons first victory in a PDGA-sanctioned event came in 2009 when he won the Johnny Roberts Memorial competing in the Junior II Boys class. He later went on to win tournaments in the intermediate and advanced class, before starting competing in the Open class. Eagle won his first event in the Open-class in 2014, seven years after he started playing. He went on to win another two events this year, including his first A-tier win in the 2014 Colorado State Disc Golf Championship.[2]

McMahon started his professional career eleven years old. He had already been playing Disc Golf for several years, but went professional in 2011. During his career (as of May 2020) he has netted $154,993.20 by performing at a top level and winning 42 Professional Disc Golf Association (PDGA)-sanctioned events. While mainly competing in The United States at a young age, Eagle has travelled around the world after securing his sponsorship with Discmania, making him a touring pro. His biggest international accomplishments consists of winning the European major Konopiste Open in Czech Republic and placing second at World Tour event Aussie Open in Australia. In the United States he has won four National Tours. Three of these victories came in 2018 and helped him secure the overall win in the National Tour.[3]

Eagle started racking up his wins after 2014. He won seven events during the 2015 season. During this period McMahon was starting to build up his name, and by winning his first national tour in 2018, he no longer could only be seen as a young prodigy, but rather a force to be reckoned with among the top elite. This win in the Las Vegas Challenge showcased his huge talents in both driving and putting in the Las Vegas wind gusts. The following years he won multiple big events. Most importantly his wins in Konopiště Open 2018, 2018 Glass Blown Open, 2018 and 2019 Beaver State Fling, 2018 Memorial and Tyyni 2019. His first win in a Disc Golf Major tournament came in 2018 when he won the Konopiště Open in Czech Republic. After four rounds of dominant play, McMahon won the tournament with a five stroke lead over Simon Lizotte and nine strokes ahead of Paul McBeth.[2] Winning a major is regarded as one of the biggest accomplishments in disc golf. One of the most prestigious tournaments every season is the United States Disc Golf Championship. In 2017, the year before his first national tour win, McMahon was tied for the lead after the first round of four. During the second round, McMahon continues his brilliant playing and takes the lead by four strokes after playing a -15 round on the famous Winthrop GOld course. Going into the second last round of the tournament, with pressure never been felt before, McMahon suffers from several bad holes. On the famous hole 13, he cards a quintuple boogie. At the end of the round he has gone down to a fourth place. The final round of the championship was cancelled due to extreme weather, so the third round ended up as the final one. Jeremy Koling won the event.[4] During the 2019 USDGC, McMahon was two strokes from the lead going in to the final round, but struggled with an injury and was not able to get the win.

The Professional Disc Golf Association has its own rating system. A players rating is based by the rounds of disc golf played the last 12 months in sanctioned events. McMahon broke the 1000-barrier rating wise at 14-years old, on June 24, 2014. The following years he has gone up in rating at a fast rate, until breaking the 1050-barrier 03/19/2019. In the rating-update as of October 2018, McMahon was the highest rated player in the world, tied with Paul McBeth at a rating of 1048.[5] As of May 2020, only three players have achieved a rating of 1050 or above in the history of disc golf. McBeth was the first one to reach this rating, but was followed by McMahon and Ricky Wysocki.[6]

Eagle has struggled with two bigger injuries since 2019. The first injury was in his elbow, but the most serious one came during the 2019 United States Disc Golf Championships (USDGC) after a self-inflicted fracture to his throwing hand, which later got diagnosed as a boxers fracture. This broken hand caused Eagle to abandon the last part of the 2019-season, but he was fully recovered when the 2020-season started.[6]