The official first day of spring is still a few weeks away, but the disc golf world uses a slightly different calendar. Spring begins when the first ray of sunshine hits our skin when we arrive in Phoenix, AZ for the Memorial Championship presented by Discraft.

As usual, The Memorial marks the first stop on the PDGA National Tour, reuniting hundreds of friends, acquaintances, and even archrivals. More importantly, The Memorial gives disc golf fans and competitors alike a sneak peek as to what they can expect for the rest of the season. Which of the top pros have been working the hardest in the offseason? Who will come out of the woodwork to get their name into the national spotlight for the first time? Only time will tell, and that time begins in less than 24 hours!

In the last few years, The Memorial Championship has spawned some of the most exciting, nail-biting finishes of the year. In 2013, Will Schusterick #29064 tapped in for birdie on the 18th hole of Fountain Hills to finish two ahead of Paul McBeth #27523. However, a two stroke penalty (for an issue with his scorecard) forced him into a sudden death playoff. One perfect drive later, he dropped in his birdie to secure the victory.

Two years later in 2015, Jeremy “Big Jerm” Koling #33705 hit an incredible putt on the 18th, forcing McBeth into yet another sudden death playoff. Koling would go on to win in similar dramatic fashion in front of an adrenaline-fueled crowd.

What can we expect this year? No one can say for sure, so let’s all just cross our fingers and hope for much of the same.

Risk vs. Reward

Many of the top players in the world would describe a lot of the holes at the three courses being used are “birdie or die”. In other words, taking a par (or worse) means you’re very likely losing a stroke to the field. Don’t be mistaken, as this in no way means that Vista Del Camino XL, Fountain Hills Park, and Fiesta Lakes are lacking in difficulty. All three of them feature several water hazards (especially Fountain Hills), tricky greens, mandatories, and hundreds of meters of painted out-of-bounds lines.

Hazards aside, the holes are gettable, and risk vs. reward quickly becomes the name of the game. Rising to the top requires a nearly perfect four-day run of making the right decision when the “Should I go for it or should I lay up?” situation arises.

For more information about each of the courses and their respective holes, download the official Caddie Book (PDF).

Live Coverage

We are excited to announce that SmashBoxxTV will be on site all week doing live coverage and live after-shows each and every day on the SmashBoxxTV YouTube channel. The live feed during the rounds is presented by the PDGA and will be complimented by live hole-by-hole scoring on pdgalive.com, as well as updates, pictures, and videos coming in from @pdgalive on Twitter.

Live scoring for the Open Women’s division kicks off bright and early tomorrow morning at Fountain Hills, starting with the first tee time at 7:08am MST. The SmashBoxxTV live stream, presented by PDGA, will follow scheduled to start at approximately 1:30pm MST, covering the feature group: 2015 Memorial Champion Jeremy Koling, 4X World Champion Paul McBeth, 3X World Champion Nate Doss #11794, and 2015 Amateur World Champion Anthony Barela #44382.

See you in Fountain Hills!