The first two rounds of the 2014 Brent Hambrick Memorial Open came to an end earlier this evening after an enduring 12-hour day of disc golf in the hot and humid climate of an Ohio summer. The gusting 25mph winds provided the only occasional relief to the heat, but often brought with it more trouble than it might have been worth. The courses here at the Hoover Dam don’t respond well to bad air-bounces and fluttery putts.

The room for error is small, and the results from the day are a shining example of just how difficult this place can be. There aren’t many courses anymore where shooting over par still means a 1000-rated round. Here at the BHMO, this was actually the case for BOTH rounds. Of the 93 total players in the competition, only 12 of them would finish the day with an overall score in the red.

Paul McBeth #27523 took control of the tournament quickly, throwing the lowest score for round one and following that up with much of the same for round two. He’s now leading the division by five over the defending BHMO champion, Jeremy Koling #33705. Paul Ulibarri #27171 and JohnE McCray #9852 are stuck in a tie for third place with a much more significant hurdle to overcome for a run at the lead. That hurdle being they’ll need to gain 10 throws on the current #1 rated and ranked player on the planet, just to tie it up.

Val Jenkins #17495 is way ahead in Open Women’s division, but the real story might be that she was able to play with her mom Sharon Jenkins #5408 on the same card to finish the day. But the fun isn’t over yet. Sharon and Val are in first and third place respectively, and they’ll be joined on the lead card tomorrow morning for their final full round by Columbus local, Lisa Warner #9519, in second.

Steve Boylan #6542 leads in the Masters division after shooting the hot round of 50 on the Hoover Dam West course, unofficially rated at 1046. It was far and away the highest rated round by any Masters player today, but the competition remains extremely close. One throw back is Dan Sisk #27669, with a handful of others in range that are all capable of taking over the top spot.

Mark Roberts #15229 leads the Grandmasters division, with James Collins #7780 in second place and well within striking distance, just two throws back. They’ll be joined by Robert Martinek #32087 and Michael Frame #20305, but the battle won’t end there. The chase card will be fighting for position with them, right on their heels and keeping them in check.

We’ll have live scoring, pictures, and videos going all morning for Round 3 on pdgalive.com starting at 9:00am EDT with coverage of the safari course finals shortly thereafter, tentatively scheduled for 3:00pm EDT. High resolution pictures from the rounds today can be seen on the PDGA Flickr Page and check out all the #BHMO tagged photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.