Things heated up in the chase for a PDGA World title on Friday at the 2023 PDGA Amateur and Junior Disc Golf World Championships.

And, yes, Mother Nature played a factor as storms forced a tournament-wide weather delay. At this point, the 800-plus player field is used to it and continues to battle through.

• Saturday Schedule in Peoria
• Junior Worlds Leaderboard & Live Scoring
• Amateur Worlds Leaderboard & Live Scoring

When the action resumed, a few leaders established themselves and more than a few are right in the hunt heading to Championship Sunday in the Peoria, Illinois area.

15 PDGA World Champions will be crowned on Saturday but there's plenty left to settle in Central Illinois.

Will Parris

• MA1 continues to be the hardest hit from a week of delays and suspensions. Five cards must finish their third rounds early Saturday morning at Wildlife Park before over to Northwood Blue for the finals. Before the weather rolled in, the MA1 field completed their second round and was shuffled. Owen Hamilton jumped to the top of the leaderboard with a 1045-rated round on Northwood Black. Hamilton was joined by Axel Olson, Carson Smith, Will Parris, and Chuck Hoffman on the lead card when darkness was called on Friday night. Olson had re-claimed the lead by one stroke when the horns blew.
• Hannah Lengel continued her romp through Am Worlds with the only round under par (-1) at Sunset Hills on Friday to build her lead to 15 strokes. Robin Eng and Amber Jones are tied for second and Alexa Marx rounds out the lead card.
• In MJ18, Waden Sides posted his second-straight 1000-rated round to jump into a tie for the lead with Patrick Yu. The Texas native shot 11-under par at McNaughton with an eagle on 17. Yu followed with an 8-under. Judah Kooistra is three strokes back and Levi Stout will round out the lead card. Loren Buterbaugh matched the hot round of the day to make a move up the leaderboard into a tie for fifth with Nicolai Hagen.
• Eliezra Midtlyng once again grew her lead and now is 17 strokes clear of the field. Trinity Bryant followed with the second-hottest round of the day to add to her cushion in second and now leads Lillianne Waite in third by eight strokes. Isabella Parker, Montana Adams and Grace Dykema also made the cut and will be on the chase card.
• Sylus Williams kept the pedal down in a highly-competitive round in MJ15 to take a four-stroke lead into the semifinals. Williams had the hot round of 9-under, highlighted by a 7-under finish on the final six holes. Riven Tanner followed with an 8-under round and is one clear of Herman Bentzen Hinkel in third. Asher Weiderman rounds out the lead card at 27-under, six strokes off the lead.

Kayla Hess

• Things got interesting in FJ15, where Kayla Hess turned in a bogey-free 6-under par at Washington Park to jump into a tie for first with Therese Cuevas. Addison Woodard entered the conversation with a 932-rated 9-under par to move into third place, just two strokes back of the leaders.
• Taaniel Mehine, of Estonia, continued his steady play and now has a three-stroke lead in MJ12. Mehine (-21) is averaging 936 golf this week. Kaidin Bell continued his rise over the past two days with another hot round to pull into solo second place, three strokes back of the leader and three ahead of Luke Sindall and Holt Whitted in a tie for third.
• In FJ12, Nova Belanger went over 200 points above her rating to take a three-stroke lead. Belanger was bogey-free at 12-under and finished 8-for-9 on the back nine. There was a three-way tie for first entering Friday in FJ12. Peyton Kohut is in solo second (-6), followed by MJ Gager (-4).

Cole Kresge

• Welcome to the 1000-rated round club, Cole Kresge. The Pennsylvania native dropped a blistering 39 — 15-under — at Roanoke Park to surge to the top of the leaderboard by four strokes. Marcelino Cisneros is in second (-17), followed by Isaac Crawford (-14).
• In FJ10 and FJ8, Genevieve Davis and Sarah Wadsworth have a strong lead with 27 holes to go on Saturday.
• It'll be a battle to the finish in MJ8 with Rylan Haag (+15) leading William Larson (+17) and Vejas Mikuzis (+19).