Jesse Bickley #68357 of the Junior 19 & Under division during Round 2 at Bird's Ruins. Bickley finished with a 69 (-14) to tie for the hot round of the day at Bird Ruins which included A-pool competitors.
Photo by A.J. Risley.

Two days down, three to go here at the 2016 PDGA Amateur & Junior Disc Golf World Championships in Madison, Wisconsin. With all divisions having at least two full rounds in the books, things are really starting to take shape. As fatigue slowly sets in and with two or three more rounds to go before the cuts for the semifinals and finals, endurance becomes as much of a factor as talent itself for those that wish to remain at the top of the leaderboard.

The 200+ competitors in the Advanced division have completed just two rounds at this point, both of which were played on courses that feature 27-hole layouts. The division was originally split into three pools (A, B, and C) with the highest rated 1/3 of the players in the A-Pool, and the lowest rated 1/3 in the C-Pool. With 54 holes logged, it was time to mix things up, and the tradition of “The Great Shuffle” took place.

The shuffle reorganized the pool assignments by total score, giving the B & C-Pool players a chance to move up while concurrently giving the A & B-Pool players a chance to move down. Although most players remained in the pool from which they started, roughly 1/3 of them did not. Breaking in to the top of the A-Pool as a B-Pool or C-Pool player is always a difficult task, but a few managed to pull it off.

Both John Lerum #47102 and Joey Erno #56600 made the top 20 in the A-Pool after starting as B-Pool players, and a handful of others did the same in the top 50. There’s still way too much golf left for anyone to get comfortable with where they’re at, considering that the eight players tied for 50th place are just 15 strokes off the lead with another 54 holes remaining before the cuts are made for the semifinals and finals on Saturday.

Georgia’s own Isaac Robinson #50670 will tee off first on the A-Pool lead card heading into Day 3, joined by Michigan’s Bart Kowalewski #68737, Minnesota’s Ryan Johnson #30182 and Jason Butina #53664. Isaac has played incredibly consistent golf, carding ratings of 992 and 1003 to kick off the week, but even with those ratings he still only leads by two over Bart and three over Ryan and Jason. They’ll be taking on Capital Springs for the morning round today, followed by an afternoon round at Hiestand Park.

Kristy Moore #56553 is now the lone leader in the Advanced Women’s division, continuing her quest to bring home not one world title, but two, as she has already taken down the title in the Mixed Doubles competition with her partner Joe Rawling #42974 last weekend. The women have completed three rounds heading into Day 3 and the top of the field is still a close battle.

Great putt Kristy. pic.twitter.com/AHQBdqRgzh

— PDGA Live Scoring (@pdgalive) July 13, 2016

Kristy Moore #56553 hitting a birdie putt at Elver Park.

Washington’s Sai Anada #58303 is just one off the lead after matching Kristy’s round of two over par at Elver during their third round yesterday morning. Wisconsin local Rebecca Heiam #68592 and South Carolina’s Alex Lambert #49750 will round out the lead card, teeing off at 8:00am for a 27-hole battle at Token Creek.

There are close races in almost every one of the 16 divisions that are battling it out for the title here in Madison, so make sure to follow along on pdgalive.com as the 2016 Am & Jr World Championships continues on for another full day on nonstop disc golf action! Scores on pdgalive.com will be complimented by updates, pictures, and videos via @pdgalive on Twitter and @pdga on Instagram as usual, and make sure to follow the 2016 Am Worlds Facebook page for the latest information and live video feeds.