World Champions Crowned in Thrilling Finale at PDGA Pro Worlds

The sun hid behind gloomy skies at the Emporia Country Club in Kansas as the 2016 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships presented by Dynamic Discs came to a thrilling close. The week-long event had seen scorching temperatures and high humidity, but the players were grateful for a break from the sunshine.

Competitors in nine out of the 11 divisions faced "moving day" on Saturday morning, with the end of Round 4 marking the end of their tournament journey unless they made it to the semifinals or finals. The Senior Legends and Grand Legends divisions, however, had more significant stakes, as they were vying for new PDGA Professional World Champions.

In a closely contested match, Pete May emerged victorious in the Senior Legends division, defeating 13X World Champion Peter Shive by four strokes. This marked Pete's fourth world title as an amateur and second as a professional, bringing his total to six championships. Carlos Rigby, on the other hand, was crowned champion in the Grand Legends division for his fourth world title since 2011.

Carlos' win was particularly notable, given that he is now 82 years old and competing in the Grand Legends division (80+ years). His previous three wins were in the Senior Legends division, which he dominated from 2011 to 2013.

The divisions with semifinals will face a thrilling conclusion on Sunday, with five out of nine divisions competing for a spot in the finals. The Open, Open Women's, Masters, Grandmasters, and Senior Grandmasters divisions will begin their semifinal rounds at 8:00am CDT tomorrow morning. In these divisions, Ken Climo and Chris Sprague are tied for fourth place in the Masters division, Bruce Knisley leads by two strokes over a three-way tie for fifth in Grandmasters, and Dr. Rick Voakes holds onto fourth place in Senior Grandmasters, just one stroke ahead of Jim Schultz.

Meanwhile, Ricky Wysocki has dominated the Open division since taking the lead after Round 2. In an unexpected turn of events, Catrina Allen's uncharacteristic performance took her out of first place in the Open Women's division, paving the way for Paige Pierce and Val Jenkins to take the top two spots.

The four divisions skipping semifinals will kick off their finals at 11:00am CDT on Sunday. The Open Women's Finals have been scheduled earlier than usual to accommodate SmashBoxxTV's live broadcast of both the Open Women's division and Open division back-to-back.

This article was compiled from disc golf coverage with AI assistance. Source: pdga.com — https://www.pdga.com/2016proworlds/two-world-champions-crowned-nine-go