While most players were looking to climb the leaderboard, the lead card made up of four players with no PDGA Major wins — including one player in his first Elite Series/Major lead card appearance — fought to stay on top.
Eight players are within three strokes of the lead after a wild day to kick off the 25th running of the United States Disc Golf Championship, the final PDGA Major of 2023.
And we’ve got a few fresh faces at the top of the leaderboard.
Joel Freeman took off on the back nine, sparked by an eagle on the 10th to take a one-stroke lead as the only player to hit double digits on the USDGC layout at Winthrop University.
The strong start for Freeman is no surprise, given his success in Rock Hill. He’s finished inside the top 15 in his past four trips to Winthrop, including a fifth-place finish in 2021 and seventh place finish a year ago.
Kristin Tattar wrote down that she wanted to win all of the PDGA Majors in 2023.
She would not be denied.
After four rounds at the Regulator course in Burlington, North Carolina, Tattar battled to the top at the 2023 United States Women’s Disc Golf Championships, becoming the first player in FPO history and second all-time to complete the season grand slam of winning all four PDGA Majors.
The Regulator course is already tough to begin with, and playing through cold, wet conditions made the course play multiple strokes harder than the day before. After a difficult day and a dramatic finish for the lead card on hole 18, the leaderboard once again has a familiar name sitting on top.
The course continued to play difficult as the whole field averaged almost an entire stroke higher than the day before and all but two holes averaged over par. After a long season and in the midst of a streak of playoffs and PDGA Majors, players will have to dig deep in the second half to stay focused on the final PDGA Major of the year.
Playing on a new course with the added pressure of the final PDGA Major of the year, this was a great opportunity for players to prove how well they can score and set the bar for the next three rounds. Overall, the Regulator course proved difficult as the course averaged 4.53 strokes over par and every player took at least one bogey.
And the race is on as fifteen of the 21 divisions are separated at the top by less than three strokes after the first of four rounds at the PDGA Major, which features a record-breaking 340 competitors.
For the second time this season at a PDGA Major, the late afternoon sun began to set as Isaac Robinson flashed a small smile walking down the 18th fairway.
Both times — surrounded by family and friends — he was announced as the champion.
Now with back-to-back victories at the World Championships, Tattar is the 10th FPO player with multiple World titles and the first back-to-back FPO Worlds Champion since Valarie Jenkins in 2009.
This year’s PDGA Europe Major event is the Stockholm Open in Sweden, hosted by long time TDs Jonas and Mats Löf, and presented by Latitude 64º Golf Discs, at the beautiful Järva Discgolf Park. All told this is the 34th edition of the Stockholm Open and the 17th time it has been held at Järva since the course was installed in 1995.