As of Saturday morning, there are now nearly 700 disc golfers in the greater Peoria area competing for their little piece of the metaphorical pie that is the 2015 Ledgestone Insurance Open. It’s hard to believe that there are still courses we’ve yet to see and tournament staff members we’ve yet to meet. The madness continues for one last full round this morning, and for some, a Final 9 as well.

At the end of the first day, the 216 competitors of the Open division were split into three different pools: A, B, and C. Everyone had played a single round at Northwood that day, making the split pretty simple. The best 72 scores were put into the A-Pool, with the next set of the best 72 scores in the B-Pool, and the bottom 72 scores into the C-Pool.

Sounds pretty cut and dry right? Well…it’s not. Actually, it might even be unprecedented. Typically, pools are assigned before the tournament begins. This is followed by several rounds of disc golf and after the competitors have all played the same courses, they are reassigned into new pools based on their overall scores, AKA the shuffle.

This is where it gets interesting. With one full round to go this morning and the biggest payout ever on the line, there are some B-Pool players that are going to end up finishing much higher in the rankings than one might think. Confused? Stay with me here.

Simon Lizotte #8332 at Northwood Park for Round 3. Photo by Lauren Lakeberg.

If the leader of the B-Pool, Tony Ganger #25005, were in the A-Pool he’d be tied for 27th place (currently at -15 overall thus far) and heading to Lake Eureka’s temporary course this morning. Lake Eureka Temp is an extremely tricky course with narrow fairways, water hazards, and strict OB penalties (several holes play stroke and distance when a disc goes out of bounds).

Ganger is instead, on this rainy and windy morning, heading to play McNaughton with the rest of the B-Pool. I am in no way suggesting that McNaughton will be easy in the cold, wet, and windy conditions this morning. But, compared to Lake Eureka Temp, there is certainly far less to worry about.

After shooting back-to-back rounds of 47 yesterday, first at McNaughton and then at Northwood, Simon Lizotte #8332 made the biggest jump in the rankings, moving from the 10th card to the top of the lead card. He is now tied for 1st place with Paul McBeth #27523, who also made a move yesterday, starting from the third card. Cale Leiviska #24341 and JohnE McCray #9852 are tied for 2nd place just two throws back, with 20+ of the best players in the world within single digits of catching them.

Paige Pierce #29190 and Val Jenkins #17495 are now tied for the lead in the Open Women’s division, heading back to Sunset Hills DGC for their final round this morning. Catrina Allen #44184 is in 3rd just one throw shy, and Ohn Scoggins #48976 has now joined the lead card for the first time this week in 4th place. Ohn’s lights-out round at Bradley Park yesterday afternoon came in rated at 1006! She was the only woman to shoot a score in the 40s yesterday (46) at Bradley.

SmashBoxxTV will be streaming the A-Pool’s round at Lake Eureka Temp this morning starting at approximately 9:00am CDT. Tune in and watch as Lizotte, McBeth, Leiviska, and McCray play one of the trickiest courses you’ll ever see. If you can’t watch the live stream you can always follow the hole-by-hole scores on pdgalive.com and stay up to date with tweets from @PDGA and @pdgalive.

We’re off to Eureka for the final day of the 2015 Ledgestone Open! Finals begin at approximately 1:30pm CDT. Stay tuned!