Nate Doss and Valarie Jenkins Take Leads into Final Day at Brent Hambrick Memorial in Columbus, Ohio, as players find two extremely different experiences on the two courses at the Hoover Dam disc golf complex.  

Renowned sports psychologist Dr. Bob Rotella has written one of the seminal treatise on the sport that forces us to resign ourselves to the fact that Golf is Not a Game of Perfect.   

And while the women’s lead group would surely admit that their first round efforts were far from perfect, all but Valarie Jenkins must have been begging to the disc golf gods, “Can you at least throw me a bone here?” during their second rounds at the Brent Hambrick Memorial National Tour event in Columbus, Ohio.  

Valarie Jenkins shows off some of the championship form that has her in front of the field at the Brent Hambrick Memorial PDGA National Tour event in Columbus, Ohio (Photo: Chuck Kennedy)

First on the list had to be Paige Pierce, as it did not take long for her five throw lead to evaporate in the second round, as the Plano, Texas high school phenom suffered through a triple-circle eight on just the second hole of her afternoon round on the Hoover Dam west course.  At the same time (and on the same hole), Valarie Jenkins confidently threw right to the postage-stamped size green of hole one on the west course (the women started on hole 18) to card an impressive three.  And that was all it took for Jenkins to pull even and gain the momentum in a round that all, but Jenkins, on the lead card would rather forget.  

Pierce, whose game has clearly been on the ascent in her inaugural professional season, reversed course in the afternoon after tossing an impressive 963-rated round in the morning that catapulted her to the top.  But one round does not make a tournament title, as she no doubt is learning during her competitive experiences with disc golf’s top pros.  Pierce dropped down with an 837-rated afternoon round that capped off an 13-throw swing between her first round lead and now her fourth place standing going into Sunday’s play.  

Jenkins, on the other hand, showed great patience on Saturday, understanding that the opportunity for her to rise up would eventually present itself.  And it did, as Liz Carr and Sarah Hokom, like Pierce, seemed to wilt under the sweltering Columbus sun during their the afternoon rounds  on Hoover west leaving room for Liz Lopez and Sarah Stanhope to join the women’s open lead card with Jenkins and Pierce.  

Today’s Sunday round should be welcomed by all the women, as they move back to the Hambrick course, where they had their early tournament success.

Nate Doss driving on the scenic Hoover Dam course looks to capture his first PDGA National Tour title of 2010 (Photo: Chuck Kennedy)

In the men’s open division, dawn broke on what looks to be the best weather in quite a while for the Brent Hambrick NT in Columbus, OH. The Hambrick has been plagued with annoying to severe weather in past years. Not today. Several waves of light to heavy rain passed thru yesterday making practice without umbrellas spotty at best. The amateur pool had to cope with several wet natural tees on the temporary West course in the AM. TD Paul Jay and Co. swiftly slightly shifted several tees between rounds to provide the NT pool with a little better footing. The only DQ of the day was the ice cream franchise that provided 600 of their tasty treats for players throughout the weekend with proceeds to the Leukemia Foundation in Brent's name.  

Nate Doss took advantage of the favorable conditions, leveraging this first round tie for the lead into standing alone at the top of the leader board after Saturday’s play with a three-throw lead over four-time men’s Masters World Champion Brad Hammock.  Doss is looking to return to the PDGA National Tour winners circle this year, after capturing two titles last year: one at the Minnesota Majestic and one at the Green Country Open.  

Local Brad Schick is still in the hunt at the Hambrick Memorial in his hometown of Columbus, Ohio (Photo: Chuck Kennedy)

Doss will have to fight off the fiery Hammock, who seems to be rounding into shape to make a another run for a World championship in just a few short weeks at Lemon Lake, Indiana.  Columbus local, Brad Schick too is still in the hunt, only five throws off Doss’ pace.  And the recently crowned 19 and under Junior PDGA World Champion, Ricky Wysocki, is showing that he can play with the big boys, as 14-under par performance has him on the lead card going into Sunday’s final day of competition.  

Follow all the action with Live Scoring from Columbus at PDGA.com.