In 2009, Tim Selinske passed away after a long battle against a very rare type of cancer called Langerhans Cell Histicocytosis. Today, nearly a decade later, we are still celebrating his life at the Tim Selinkse US Masters Disc Golf Championship presented by Innova Champion Discs.

It’s more than safe to say at this point that what we’ve experienced thus far has been the nicest weather we’ve had at a PDGA Major in quite some time. Those lucky enough to tee off early in the morning saw temperatures in the upper 60s and low 70s and even those that teed off in the afternoon played in the low 90s at worst, but with minimal wind and humidity.

The tournament’s schedule is divided into two parts; professional divisions and amateur divisions. The pros took on Lockeford Springs Disc Golf Course this morning and afternoon whle the amateurs played two rounds at Oak Grove Regional Park, one on the Purple course and one on the Gold course.

Tomorrow the pros and amateurs will swap places and by the end of the day we’ll know who will make the cut for the final round of 18 holes on Sunday; an 18-hole safari layout using parts of both the Purple and Gold courses at Oak Grove.

Coming in as the natural favorite based on his PDGA Player Rating, Patrick Brown #25713 started his round hot and finished in much the same fashion. Patrick went eight under par thru the front nine and continued to shred the par 72 Lockeford layout.

Playing on the card ahead of him was another well-known Californian, Jon Baldwin #18114, who was also throwing all the right shots. Jon Baldwin, often referred to as simply “JB”, started his round almost as flawlessly as Patrick Brown, carding seven birdies thru the front nine.

PB opts for the anhyzer route, has a longer putt than expected...but he cans it for a birdie #2016USMasters pic.twitter.com/h9SN9mugll

— PDGA Live Scoring (@pdgalive) September 9, 2016

Patrick Brown making it look easy.

Patrick and Jonathan swapped the lead over and over as the round progressed. There was no way to know who would finish as the overall leader but eventually it was Patrick that would make a move. Carding his first bogey on hole 13, all we could do was wonder if he would recover and finish strong, and finish strong he did. On the 855’ par 5 that followed,he canned a 50’ putt for eagle and finished the round with three more birdies.

JB went on to finish the round with a still very impressive 11 under par, matched by California’s Noah Rodriguez #21215 and Rob Ryan #30296. The lead card for tomorrow morning is truly a Cali card, as all four players claim the Golden State as their home.

The Grandmasters are also putting up 1000+ rated rounds that are beyond impressive. Mike Ward #36593 held the role of clubhouse leader for most of the afternoon and ended the day as the leader in Grandmaster easily, finishing with a score just one shy of Patrick Brown’s 13 under par, rated 1042 unofficially.

Carrie Berlogar #13815 and Anni Kreml #7879 are in 1st and 2nd in the Masters Women division carding scores of even par and two over par, respectively, teeing off as the last group of the afternoon. Their round scores may have been even better had they not faced the hottest and most exhausting conditions of anyone on the course today.

The professional divisions move on to Oak Grove for tomorrow’s rounds, starting with a morning round on the Purple layout and an afternoon round on the Gold layout. Only the top 40% will make the cut for the final safari round of 18 at Oak Grove on Sunday so tomorrow means moving day for all of the divisions.

Make sure to follow the PDGA on Facebook and Twitter for links to live scoring, updates, pictures, and videos tomorrow afternoon. Stockton is forecasted to continue to bring the heat, and the 2016 Tim Selinske US Masters will be doing the same.

Click on the image above to see all the photos from day one on the PDGA Flickr page.