As a 30 year old that's been playing disc golf for over a decade, watching Round 2 of the United States Amateur Disc Golf Championship was simply baffling. The lead card consisted of 17 year old Matthew Kashima #43528, 15 year old Anthony Barela #44382, 14 year old Izak McDonald #49631, and 19 year old Marc Burnett #22546. The "old guy" on the lead card is a 19 year old? How is this possible? Just how good are these youngsters?

It turns out, they're not good. They're incredble. They might be young, but watching them play isn't all that different from watching an Open division lead card at any A-Tier, PDGA National Tour event, or even a PDGA Major. They crush drives and fairway shots. They park approaches. They hit putts from inside, outside, and way outside the circle. All of this from a group of players with an average age of 16.25.  And NO, that does NOT make them "baggers". A PDGA member with a status of Amateur has zero relation to his or her Player Rating, skill level, talent, etc.  

Amateur (noun): A person who engages in a pursuit, especially a sport, on an unpaid basis.
-OxfordDictionaries.com

Amateur (noun): A person who does something (such as a sport or hobby) for pleasure and not as a job.
-Merriam-Webster.com

Amateur (noun): A person who engages in a study, sport, or other activity for pleasure rather than for financial benefit or professional reasons.
-Dictionary.com

After yesterday's record tying and record breaking rounds, one could only wonder what today would bring. We were expecting a cloudy day with 15-20mph winds. What we got instead was quite the contrary, near-perfect condtions. Despite the amazing weather, no new course records were set. In fact, the best round shot by anyone today was a seven under par (55) thrown by DJ Baldwin #39066. It was four throws shy of Matthew Kashima's USADGC record breaking round yesterday, but impressive nonetheless.   

Actually, let's go ahead and call it extraordinarily impressive. Why? Because what's truly amazing about DJ Baldwin is that he is, you guessed it, yet another 15 year old! After starting on the 9th card this morning, his round of 55 will mean he starts on the 3rd card for the final round tomorrow afternoon, tied for 9th place and only seven throws off the current leader, Anthony Barela.

Anthony Barela, or AB if you prefer, walked off the course today as the overall leader, gaining three on Kashima to give himself a one-throw cushion going into the final round. AB couldn't match his 1030-rated round of 53 that he threw yesterday, finishing with a 56, but he still played great disc golf. AB has spent a lot of time under the wing of the long-time #1 ranked disc golfer on the planet, Paul McBeth #27523. You can see it in his form, but more importantly, in his mental game. He never seems to lose confidence in himself or let his emotions get the best of him. 

Barela nails a 55' putt on Hole 9 of the Toboggan DGC to take the only birdie on the card.

Carding a better score for Round 1 than Round 2 was an overwhelmingly common problem for the players today, for reasons unknown. Take a look at the results and see for yourself. Of the 32 competitors starting on the top eight cards tomorrow morning, only six of them shot a better score today than they did yesterday. And that trend continues all the way down to the bottom card. Perhaps it was nerves or maybe it was fatigue brought on by days of trekking up and down the Toboggan course. Either way, one thing is for sure. They can't blame the weather.

Izak McDonald and Marc Burnett will join Barela and Kashima on the lead card once again tomorrow morning with the exact same difference in strokes separating each of them from the leader as they started with today. The field is still incredibly close overall, to say the least. Burnett shares his fourth place spot with Tyson Bunce #51035 for starters. Beyond that, there are 40+ competitors that are within single digit striking range of catching the lead card. On the Toboggan, anything can happen, and no single digit number is enough to feel comfortable.

Tomorrow is shaping up to be an amazing final round. However, the forecast is calling for afternoon thunderstorms. Severe thunderstorms to be exact. We can only hope everyone finishes in time but the staff is fully prepared to take on whatever situation they're hit with. Tee times are already posted on the 2015 USADGC Results page with the start time adjusted to 7:00am instead of 7:30am. If all goes well, live scoring/tweeting on pdgalive.com will begin at approximately 12:00pm EDT. Follow @PDGA and @USADGC on Twitter for the latest information about weather conditions, scores, and more. High resolution photos from Rounds 1 and 2 can be viewed and/or downloaded on the PDGA Flickr page.

Get ready for an exciting USADGC final round tomorrow morning! The best amateur disc golfers in the world will be bringing their A-games. If they're smart, they'll be bringing their umbreallas too.