Hailey King picked up her first NT title of her career in Texas. Photo: DGPT

TYLER, Texas — Moments after Hailey King grabbed the first PDGA Elite Series victory of her young career, she responded in typical fashion.

“Well, this is cool,” she said, a smile growing across her face on the 18th green at the 26th Annual Texas State Disc Golf Championship presented by Latitude 64.

Over the course of 54 holes, including a final lap through the daunting Dogwood track where the first PDGA National Tour title of 2021 was up for grabs, King let her game do the talking in typical fashion: Aggressive and relaxed.

“Yeah, if not more relaxed than it looks,” King said when asked about her calm demeanor out on the course. “I didn’t feel the pressure and it felt great.”

With its tight fairways that punish even the smallest miscues, King commented coming into Tyler that the course, making its debut on the Elite Series tour, felt like home in Wisconsin.

Hailey King smiles with the belt buckle trophy from Texas States. Photo: Hayden Henry / PDGA

“It definitely stands true that this felt like home,” King said. “I was nervous on a few of those tee shots a little bit, but I just tried to make myself think that I was home in the woods. Eventually, the nerves just went away completely. I knew that if I played like I could, then I would take it home—and I did.”

That confidence showed over Sunday’s final round where 11 players began the day within four strokes of King’s one-stroke lead.

King started three under par through the first seven holes on the challenging front nine and was only topped by a four-under start from Rebecca Cox, who, after a three-for-three start, tied things up on hole 7.

But things changed at the turn as King ripped off four birdies in a five-hole stretch, highlighted by a 49-foot birdie putt on hole 11. After grabbing birdies on the back-to-back par fours, her lead had grown to five strokes with six holes to play. King found trouble on the U-turn 14th but a tricky 20-foot putt stopped the bleeding.

The putter was working for Hailey King on the Dogwood course. Photo: Hayden Henry / PDGA

The work was done and it was a matter of keeping it clean the rest of the way through the woods to secure her first Elite Series victory of her career. King finished with a 7-under total on the weekend and a three-stroke victory. Her UDisc stats were steady with a mix of top-five finishes in the key categories.

King was in contention throughout the 2020 season, grabbing six top-five finishes on the Disc Golf Pro Tour. She capped the season with a victory at the DGPT Tour Championship, an exhibition finale to the end of the season.

“Well, this is the first real one,” she said.

And now, in her own words, the true challenge begins.

“I’m here and the challenge is about to start,” King said. “Now everyone knows that I’m here; everyone knows that I can win.”

Holly Finley turned in the second-hottest round Sunday with a 4-under 62 to jump one spot into second place, the highest National Tour finish of her career and secured a one-two finish for Wisconsin natives at the top of the leaderboard. Finley limited the damage to two bogies in the finale and finished first in scramble rate at 80%, according to UDisc.

Cox was four strokes back of King to complete a third place podium finish, her career-best result at an NT was well. Cox was stellar off the tee all weekend and led in fairway hits (74%), C2 in regulation (63%) and strokes gained tee-to-green (15.49).

Next up on the National Tour is the Dynamic Discs Open on Apr. 28 – May 1 in Emporia, Kansas.