Advanced A-pool's Aaron Fruendt flicks out of the rough on hole 17 at Bradford Park during his second round.

For an unfortunate majority of the field, the opening round of the 2018 PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships was plagued by absolute downpour. In some sections of the greater Charlotte area, the rain was coming down with such ferocity that visibility was less than the length of even some of the shortest disc golf holes in the city. But, such is life, and this is a world championship after all. A bit of rain wasn’t about to slow down the true competitors.

With only one or two rounds in the books, depending on the pool and/or division, the journey to Saturday’s finals has only just begun. There is still SO MUCH golf left. With the exception of the players in the Amateur Masters 70+ division, six full rounds of 18 or more holes are to be completed by Friday night, only to be followed by another full semifinal round on Saturday morning for some, and then by another nine holes for the finals by each division’s post-semifinals top four.

The Great Shuffle Nears

When Wednesday’s action comes to an end, the Advanced (MA1), Amateur Masters 40+ (MA40), and Amateur Masters 50+ (MA50) will face what has come to be known over the years as “The Great Shuffle”. Here’s why:

When divisions contain more than 72 players, they are split into multiple pools. The Advanced division for example, is made up of 288 competitors. Prior to the first round, those 288 were divided into four pools of 72, sorted by PDGA Player Rating with the 72 highest-rated in the A-Pool, the next 72 highest-rated in the B-Pool, etc.

Once all the pools have played the same three courses, which takes two days to accomplish, they are then “shuffled” and reordered by overall score instead of their rating-based pool. For some, this means a confidence-boosting jump from a lower pool to a higher one. For others, just the opposite.

Wednesday will see a much more promising forecast for the nearly 700 competitors at the 2018 PDGA Amateur Disc Golf World Championships as the battle continues on day two of five in Charlotte, North Carolina. Follow the scores and updates all week on pdgalive.com and make sure to follow the PDGA on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter for updates and info.