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.
The USDGC is the final PDGA Pro Major of the year while the TPWDGC is a PDGA A-Tier, and both tournaments will take place simultaneously at the Winthrop Arena. While most other tournaments offer divisions based on gender or age, the USDGC combines all players who qualify into a single division.
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.
Every player from all 24 divisions — from FJ10 to FA75 to FPO — is set for the four-round event over three courses, all at Cedarock Park, a 500-acre complex in southern Alamance County.
2023 USWDGC player's dinner and meeting. Photo: Justin Anderson / PDGA
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.
Isaac Robinson went to work on Saturday, firing off a 12-under round on Fox Run Meadows to move to spots into the solo lead, which will be four strokes heading into Sunday at Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont.
Welcome to the weekend and what promises to be an incredible finish at Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont.
Cole Redalen dropped a 9-under round from the chase card to jump to the solo lead — a slim one-stroke advantage — in the final round on Brewster Ridge on Friday.
After 14 Elite Series events and two PDGA Majors, players will now have another shot to win the most prestigious title in professional disc golf. Most players will be looking to join an elite list of world champions and past winners will seek to build their legacy.
Officially kicking off on Wednesday, August 30, 295 of the best players in the world return to Smuggs, five years after the beloved venue hosted its first PDGA Pro Worlds, and it's bigger than ever.
Kyle Klein led after the opening round, then Anthony Barela in round 2, then Calvin Heimburg in round 3 with Corey Ellis joining them on the lead card going into the final round. All four players were looking for their first Major title at an event that had never been won by a player without a previous Major win.
“Last time I played here was four years ago and I feel like I had a totally different game back then,” Kristin Tattar said after becoming the first European player to win the European Open. “It was one of my goals going into this season to win the European Open and I’m just super happy that I did it.”
