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Gentlemen’s Club Challenge Ends with Dramatic Showdowns

Gentlemen’s Club Challenge Ends with Dramatic Showdowns

Monday, February 27, 2017 - 12:56

Left to right: Eveliina Salonen, Catrina Allen, Jennifer Allen, & Paige Pierce. Photo by Innova Disc Golf.

Heading into the final round of the 2017 Gentlemen’s Club Challenge, both Ricky Wysocki and Paige Pierce appeared to be unstoppable. For three straight days, they played nearly perfect disc golf, taking the lead early and never looking back, despite having many of the world’s best on their heels. The race for the first PDGA National Tour win of the year was on, with a very talented two competitors earning a head start.

Pierce teed off on Course Innova for the finals having built up an eight-stroke cushion over the next closest competitor. Course Innova is long and tricky, with dangerous pin locations and a lot of out-of-bounds to manage. A few mistakes can mean a lot of unwanted strokes, and that’s exactly what happened to Pierce early on in the round.

Eveliina Salonen and Catrina Allen gaining a stroke each on Paige Pierce and making dangerous putts look easy on hole 7.

Through the first 11 holes, Pierce went birdie-free with four bogeys and two double bogeys, giving Jennifer Allen, Eveliina Salonen, and Catrina Allen a big opportunity to move up. With just a few holes remaining, Pierce’s lead had been reduced to just four, with both Catrina Allen and Jennifer Allen hoping to finish strong and catch up to Pierce.

In true champion form, Pierce held off the hopeful contenders, matching Catrina birdie-for-birdie on holes 14 and 15. The 18th hole offered up some last minute drama with Pierce’s drive clearly going OB off the tee and a drive by Catrina that we needed to walk up to before knowing with certainty whether or not it was OB. Had it been safe, Paige's four-stroke lead might have been in jeopardy.

In the end, both of their drives were out of bounds, and they both continued their way up the fairway. Paige gently tossed her putter to underneath the basket and was able to simply drop it in the cage for the win in front of the gallery, with a final score of seven over par for week, three ahead of Catrina Allen, four ahead of Jennifer Allen, and five ahead of both Eveliina Salonen and Sarah Hokom.

The Open division story was quite similar, with Ricky Wysocki leading the entire week and heading into the final round with a nice cushion of his own. However, with only five strokes separating him from the field, he wouldn’t be able to afford any early mistakes. Or any mistakes in the middle of the round or the end of the round for that matter.

It wasn’t long before someone started making a move. That someone, was Paul McBeth, and he was on a mission. Through hole 6, McBeth had already started applying pressure, gaining a stroke on him on the short and downhill island hole 6. His drive on hole 7 was mindblowing, carrying 560 feet uphill, into a headwind, to nearly hit the pole of the basket. A basket on a green that had hazard sandtraps on each side. McBeth hit the 25-foot birdie putt for eagle, and was now just five strokes off the lead with 11 holes to go.

McBeth gained another stroke on Wysocki on hole 8, and then another on hole 10, bringing the lead down to just three. Wysocki quickly slowed the momentum with a birdie on hole 11 to McBeth’s par and they would both tap in for pars on hole 12. With only six holes remaining a comeback on the #1 ranked player in the world was starting to look unlikely. But then, this happened...

Paul McBeth gets an amazing ace on hole 13 to bring the lead down to two during the final.

Paul McBeth aced the blind uphill 370’ hole 13 with a midrange that slammed into the chains in front of a huge gallery. He sprinted all the way to the basket, giving high fives to the crowd and celebrating in the excitement. Ricky laid up for par, knowing he had five more holes to play, now with a lead of only two and the momentum no longer in his corner.

But Ricky Wysocki doesn’t need momentum in a sense because he constantly has it. Keep in mind that at this point in the round Ricky is still bogey-free with three birdies. In fact, his last bogey was three days prior on hole 17 of the first round, and that would eventually prove to be the only bogey he carded all week.

The finishing holes of Course Innova are difficult for most, but at this level anything other than a birdie on holes 14, 15, & 16 would probably feel like a bogey or worse in their minds. As expected, they charged through the rest of the course, joined by Eagle McMahon, JohnE McCray, and Jeremy Koling, combining for 10 birdies and two pars on the trio of par 4s.

Pars by the entire group on 17 meant that only hole 18 remained. Ricky played a safe hyzer off the tee, a beautiful second drive, and then an upshot to leave himself with a par putt inside of 10 feet. It was yet another dramatic finish to add to the list of the seemingly never-ending Wysocki vs McBeth saga. And if it were up to us, we wouldn’t have it any other way.

Ricky Wysocki taps in for the win in front of the gallery.

A big thanks to the Las Vegas Disc Golf Club staff and volunteers, ZUCA, Innova Champion Discs, adidas Terrex, Disc Golf Values, and all of the many other sponsors involved for making it such a great week in Las Vegas, Nevada, for the first PDGA National Tour event of the year!

Stay tuned for more action this week, as the Disc Golf Pro Tour kicks off their series at the 2017 Memorial Championship presented by Discraft.