Five-time PDGA World Champion Paige Pierce acknowledges the gallery after scorching her way through the back nine at Fountain Hills. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen.

Paige Pierce’s 2020 Disc Golf Pro Tour season got off to an inconspicuous start, but after 18 holes at Fountain Hills, Pierce found herself at the top of the leaderboard at the Memorial Championship, a place she’s become very familiar with over the past few seasons.

Pierce made uncharacteristic errors early on in her round, missing a Circle 1 putt on the par-4 2nd, and then missing the triple mandatory on the new hole 4. A badly pulled drive on hole 10 resulted in another OB stroke and a double bogey, setting Pierce back to -1. 

“That’s a hole that I worked on the most, and an error that I didn’t consider at all,” Pierce told Terry Miller after the round. “Super late release, right OB, I wasn’t even looking at the out of bounds at all. But I just told myself, don’t get upset, there’s eight birdies ahead, and I was able to capture seven of them.”

Pierce created highlight after highlight over the final stretch, following up her double on 10 with a 49-foot jump putt on 11. She loved her shot immediately after it left her hand on the 426-foot 15th, calling it “perfect” moments before it skipped to within five feet of the hole. Hers was the only birdie of the day from the FPO field on the challenging par 3. 

“[I looked at scores] right after that double bogey, and I saw that Henna [Blomroos] was at 6 under. For a moment I [thought], I’m five back, but then I was like, ‘I have eight holes left and she has three, so good luck.”

Pierce’s competitors are going to need all the luck they can get if they hope to catch her this weekend at The Memorial.  

She will be joined on the FPO lead card during round two by tour veterans Jennifer Allen and Zoey Andyke, as well as Finnish phenom Henna Blomroos.  

The Beast is Back 

There are only a few players in disc golf that can make a 15-under-par round sound like anything but a huge success, but Paul McBeth is one of them.  

“I feel like I left a few putts out there. I really didn’t have confidence in my putt today, which is kind of weird,” said the 5-time world champion. “The three that I missed were all inside 40, and they were ones I felt like I should have had.”  

McBeth was one of three players to not miss a fairway the entire round, and one of two players to have a C2 putt or better on every hole. He had a parked percentage of 39%, second only to Discraft teammate Paul Ulibarri.  

McBeth wasn’t the only one shooting hot out in the desert. Innova Champion’s young star, Calvin Heimburg, matched McBeth’s 15-under, and was inside of Circle 1 on 17 of 18 holes, capitalizing on 15 of those birdie attempts. 

Another player chasing down in McBeth is the young NorCal bomber Drew Gibson. Gibson made 100% of his C1 putts, which might be a scary sight for the rest of the field.

“If you look at my stats, and I’m 90% inside of Circle 1, I’m top 10, top five, having a chance to win,” said Gibson in an interview before the tournament.  “I’m not Ricky Wysocki…everyone’s missing a little hole, and my hole just happens to be putting.”

If Gibson continues to putt well, he’s one of a few players in the field with the power and shot-making capabilities to keep up with McBeth.  

Round two of The Memorial begins tomorrow at 7:00 a.m., with the lead card of MPO teeing off at 1:30 p.m. The FPO lead card will tee off an hour and a half later, at 3:00 p.m.  You can catch all the action on YouTube or on the Disc Golf Network.