Fountain Hills To Pay The Bills | Professional Disc Golf Association
Date Published
The sun rose over the picturesque Fountain Hills DGC to kick off the 2015 Memorial Championships presented by Discraft. The Open Women's division was the first to tee off, with a strong field of players vying for the top spot. Val Jenkins, a three-time World Champion, set the tone early on, carding an impressive 53 (-3) unofficially rated at 996. This stellar performance comes on the heels of her dominating victory in the 2015 Aussie Open, where she averaged a rating of 980 over four rounds.
Paige Pierce, the returning champion from The Memorial, trailed Jenkins by two strokes with a score of one under par. Rounding out the top three were Zoe Andyke and Jennifer Allen, each separated by two and three strokes from Pierce respectively.
Meanwhile, Catrina Allen led the chase card in the Open Women's division, with Liz Carr, Paige Bjerkaas, and Jessica Weese hot on her heels. The women's field will take center stage again tomorrow for round two, teeing off last with live streaming coverage provided by SmashBoxxTV and live scoring updates from PDGALive.com.
The men's Open division followed the women's lead, with an enormous field of 179 players taking to the course. While there was no single "lead card" at the start of the tournament, a group of top players including Ricky Wysocki, Will Schusterick, Paul McBeth, and Jake LaPutka drew attention as they teed off in the final foursome of the day.
As the scores began to trickle in from the Open division, Jeremy Koling and Simon Lizotte emerged as the leaders with scorching hot rounds of 13 under par. However, Wysocki, Schusterick, and McBeth were in hot pursuit, battling it out for the top spot throughout the front nine.
In a stunning turn of events, both Wysocki and Schusterick pulled away from McBeth, trading birdies on multiple holes to take the lead. Wysocki's incredible round included 11 birdies over the last 12 holes, while Schusterick birdied 10 of the final 12 holes.
The Open division will reconvene tomorrow afternoon at Vista Del Camino, where the course's average hole distance of 475 feet and sparse tree coverage will provide a unique challenge for players. The men's lead card will feature Koling and Lizotte, with McBeth trailing closely behind on the chase card.
In the Open Masters division, Mike Milne stole the show at Fiesta Lakes, finishing the day bogey-free with nine birdies and an eagle. His impressive round of 11 under par gives him a commanding five-stroke lead over Ken Climo, Robert Jerez, and Stanley Pratt, who are tied for second place.
As the tournament enters its final stages, fans can expect non-stop action from PDGALive.com, SmashBoxxTV, and the PDGA Flickr page. With so much golf left to be played, anything can happen in sunny Arizona!
This article was compiled from disc golf coverage with AI assistance. Source: pdga.com — https://www.pdga.com/fountain-hills-pay-bills