Pierce, Orum Make Big Moves at Fiesta Lakes
Pierce, Orum Make Big Moves at Fiesta Lakes
Two days down and two to go here in sunny Arizona at The Memorial Championship presented by Discraft. The A-Pool pros (Open and Open Women) took on Fiesta Lakes DGC this afternoon, a course that brings in a lot of shots that you simply won’t see at Fountain Hills and/or Vista Del Camino. With the weather being as close to perfect as we’ve ever seen on the PDGA National Tour, we expected the pros to put on a show. Thankfully but not surprisingly, they delivered.
Fiesta Lakes is a new addition to The Memorial, and a new addition to the greater Phoenix area disc golf scene in general. Built into a nine hole ball golf course, it makes for a totally different experience than what you typically get as a disc golfer living in the southwest. This is partly because properties with well-manicured green grass are few and far between, and when they are available, they’re not typically managed by someone willing to put disc golf baskets into the ground.
Luckily for the fans of disc golf watching the SmashBoxxTV broadcast today, Fiesta Lakes is one of a handful of exceptions. The course has been closed to ball golfers completely since Monday morning, allowing hundreds of players to practice the course undistracted. While walking certain parts of the course, it’s hard to believe you’re on private property, especially for disc golf.
FPO
The Open Women were featured today, with the lead group of ladies having the last tee time of the day. Coming off an unofficially 1005 rated Round 1 at Fountain Hills, Catrina Allen #44184 was sitting at the top of the card with a four stroke lead over Paige Pierce #29190, and even farther ahead of Melody Waibel #29858 in 3rd, and Jennifer Allen #15354 in 4th.
In an all too familiar fashion, the fight for the lead quickly became a two-woman battle. Paige came out swinging, shooting five under par through the first 10 holes, taking advantage of an uncharacteristic struggle off the tee by Catrina. With eight holes remaining, Catrina started playing the way we’ve all come to know and love, crushing drives and carding birdies that most players in the Open division would kill for.
Going into the 17th hole, Catrina was trailing Paige by one. Hole 17 is an uphill 370’ beast of a par 3 with an OB putting green in front of the basket and OB behind the basket if you throw too deep. Catrina threw one of the best drives of the tournament thus far, man or a woman, leaving her disc inside of 10’ to tap in for birdie, tying it up with Paige.
The 18th hole gave all four women a chance to birdie after their tee shots, but in the end Catrina would finish with the lone par, as her drive left her well outside of the circle putting towards an elevated basket. Paige now leads the Open Women’s division by one over Catrina, both of which will have new contenders on the lead card tomorrow; Zoe Andyke #39504 and Sarah Hokom #34563.
MPO
With the scores that were posted during Round 1 at Fountain Hills, you could not have, and should not have expected the lead card to end with the same players it started with. There were literally dozens upon dozens of the best players in the world all within single digits of the lead. Nikko Locastro #11534 started the day as the co-leader of the event with Paul McBeth #27523, but neither of them would retain that lead for long.
Nikko and Paul were joined by Simon Lizotte #8332 and Nate Sexton #18824 on the lead card, but as the scores rolled in on pdgalive.com, it was clear that the momentum was slowly shifting towards players from the chase card and the third card; Matt Orum #18330 and Philo Brathwaite #26416, respectively.
Between the two of them, they would card birdie after birdie after birdie, a total of 26 birdies to be exact. Orum finished the round bogey-free with 13 birdies while Philo finished with 13 birdies and one bogey, boosting both of them up to the lead card tomorrow going into Round 3 at Vista Del Camino.
McBeth and Sexton held their own, finishing at -10 and -11 on the day respectively, keeping their names in the mix for the lead card tomorrow.
Coverage
The dynamic foursome of Orum, McBeth, Sexton, and Brathwaite will be last to tee off tomorrow afternoon at 2:02pm (MST), with the SmashBoxxTV crew there to live stream every second of the action for the fans.
Live scoring will kick off bright and early tomorrow morning with the top cards in the Open Women’s division, starting at roughly 7:30am MST on pdgalive.com. Follow the PDGA on Facebook and Twitter for up-to-the-minute information, and @pdgalive on Twitter for pictures and videos of the action. High-resolution photos from Rounds 1 and 2 are now available for viewing/download on the PDGA Flickr page.
Who will make the cut for the final round at Fountain Hills on Saturday? Tune in tomorrow to find out!
Comments
Ok, that camera guy in the
Ok, that camera guy in the picture with Paige is way too close. And I speak as a professional photographer. In no other professional sport are photographers allowed to be that close. Look at the PGA photographers ... they are never that close. We owe the professionals of our sport as much respect as professionals of other sports get. I saw the same guy in Wednesday's coverage be about 5 feet from one of the golfers and get a dirty look. The PDGA needs to set some guidelines for photography/videography. I don't need the wide angle shot from the ground at 5 feet. I need to the shot that follows the disc well so I can see how they did, I need the shot that shows them throwing. I need to be able to watch pros who aren't distracted by someone standing in their peripheral vision on their reach back. I need to not have the pros distracted by questions (how many other professional sports do you see the players get questioned while the game is being played? Coaches, sure at halftime and what not but not players ... not until after the round.) I need to not have people talking while they are playing.
I love what SmashBoxx and others are doing to get the sport out there. Now they need to quantify what it means to be a professional reporting agency and start acting appropriately.