Cover photo of Ricky Wysocki courtesy of Dynamic Discs.

Fun in the sun is a phrase you often hear, but you probably won’t hear it from many of the players here at the 2016 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships. A heat index 110+ combined with the pressure of a World Champion title on the line made for some intense action here in Emporia, Kansas for Round 3 of the 2016 Pro Worlds presented by Dynamic Discs.

With only two rounds in the books, many of the 11 divisions were still in tight-knit battles to start the day with most of them having a difference of just a few strokes between the leader and the player in second place. However, by the end of Round 3 this afternoon, leaders in a few key divisions pulled away and will have a nice cushion heading into Round 4 tomorrow.

For the players in the top slots of their division, there’s still a lot of golf left. Not only will they have Round 4 tomorrow to try to move up, but they will have a full round of 18 for the semifinals on Saturday. For the players on the brink of making the cut for semifinals, tomorrow is certainly their official “moving day”. Missing the semifinals cut means that for many, tomorrow will be their last day competing at the 2016 Pro Worlds.

Wysocki Dominates at Country Club

If you were watching the live coverage on SmashBoxxTV this afternoon, you already know that one of the divisions where a leader opened up a nice lead was the Open division. For many, this comes as a surprise, as it is hard to fathom the difference in skill level between the top Open division contenders. But, if you’ve been following the year that Ricky Wysocki #38008 has been having, it is certainly understandable.

For years, Ricky has been one of the best in every aspects of the game. But it hasn’t been until this year that he has put all of those skills together. It’s been a dominant year for Ricky, and he’s on pace at the moment to add the most important title to his disc golf resume, World Champion.

After shooting a combined -27 during his first two rounds at Jones East (-14 and -13), Ricky finished his round at Emporia Country Club today as the only open division competitor to finish double-digit under par. Despite the grueling heat and gusting winds, he shot a bogey-free 12 under par (51). His game plan seemed simple enough; play smart and safe, and make everyone else try to catch him. This strategy caused them to make their own mistakes while he quietly carded birdie after birdie.

Heated discussions were aplenty on the Open division lead card during Round 3.

Ricky Wysocki now leads by eight strokes or more heading into Round 4 after shooting at least four strokes better than anyone else in the Open division during Round 3 to finish with an overall score of 146. He will return to the Emporia Country Club once again tomorrow afternoon, joined by Nikko Locastro #11534 (154), Paul McBeth #27523 (155), and Nate Sexton #18824 (161).

The Catrina and Paige Saga Continues

The Open Women’s division saw a different story unfold. Going into the round, Catrina Allen #44184 led by three over her disc golf arch-rival, Paige Pierce #29190. While Catrina played mostly par golf, Paige was playing bi-polar golf, carding bogeys and birdies throughout the round.

On holes 1-3, Paige went bogey-birdie-bogey, but followed it up with birdie-bogey-birdie on holes 5-7 and then again on holes 8-10. In those same 10 holes, Catrina carded just one bogey and one birdie. Paige followed it up with birdies on both holes 11 and 12 that meant she had finally caught up to and tied it up with Catrina.

Four more holes went by before anything changed, as the two of them went par for par on holes 13-16. Finally on the 17th hole of the round, a birdie by Paige Pierce against Catrina’s par gave her the lead with just one hole to go.

Open Women's Round 3 Lead Card (left to right): Catrina Allen, Paige Pierce, Sarah Hokom, & Val Jenkins.

Unfortunately for Paige, it wouldn’t last. On the par 4 Hole 18, Paige’s drive into the trees on the right in an attempt to play safe and avoid the OB on the left. She over-corrected on her drive however and was left with a tough second lie. Knowing Catrina was likely going to finish with either a birdie or par, Paige opted to pitch out for a safe third shot knowing she would lose a stroke or two instead of tow or three. Paige settled for a bogey five and Catrina made her putt for a birdie. It was a two stroke swing to end the day, and Catrina will go into Round 4 once again at Jones East tomorrow afternoon with an overall lead of one.

Joining Catrina and Paige will be Val Jenkins #17495 five off the lead and Sarah Hokom #34563 10 off the lead. Between the four of them they have a combined eight Pro Women’s World Champion titles. No matter what happens going forward, it going to be an epic battle.

Both the Masters and Masters Women’s divisions have leaders that are four ahead of the field, with a slew of contenders still in striking range going into Round 4. Chris Smith #19983 leads over both Chris Sprague #16425 and JohnE McCray #9852 in Masters while 3X World Champion Des Reading #15863 leads over 6X World Champion Elaine King #3090, with Des looking to take home her first Masters Women world title.

In the seven other divisions with world titles on the line, not one has a leader that is ahead by double digits. Follow along with Round 4’s action all day tomorrow on pdgalive.com for live scoring and find links to all of the other places to watch online on the 2016 Pro Worlds Scores & Coverage page on PDGA.com.

The SmashBoxxTV live coverage presented by the PDGA will begin tomorrow at approximately 2:00pm CDT, following the Open division lead card at Emporia Country Club. Good luck to all of the players on the cusp of the cut line! See you all tomorrow in Emporia for Round 4 in what finally be manageable temperatures here in Emporia, Kansas!

Round 3 live coverage of both the Open and Open Women's division from SmashBoxxTV.