Simon Lizotte, shown here at the Las Vegas Challenge, started his Memorial Championship title defense with an 1110-rated performance at Fountain Hills. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen

Simon Lizotte and Eagle McMahon have a lot in common.

They share power. They’ve shared a trainer. They share a sponsor. Thursday, they shared the feature card at the Memorial Championship.

And now, they’ve shared a milestone, as each the dynamic duo often known as the Crush Boys broke the 1100 round rating barrier on the same day.

Lizotte’s 16-under par 40 at Fountain Hills was good for an 1110-rated performance and gave him a slim lead over McMahon, who tossed an 1101-rated 15-under par 41. It was each competitor’s career best in the ratings department.

Jalle Stoor, Ricky Wysocki, Sias Elmore, and Alex Russell all fired off 12-under par 44s to land in third place on a jam-packed leaderboard that found 14 players shooting 10-under or better.

Lizotte was nearly flawless during the round, landing in circle 1 in regulation at a 78 percent rate and connecting on two putts from outside 10 meters.

“I kind of, like, played completely mistake-free, it felt like,” Lizotte said. “It felt easy. Sometimes you find a zone. It’s nice.”

As much as he was excited about the career-high mark, he downplayed the ratings performance. Sure, he might have a beer to celebrate. But as the defending Memorial Champion, he was more focused on working his way toward a repeat.

“It’s the first round and I don’t feel accomplished whatsoever yet,” Lizotte said. It was a good start to the mission…If you only win one event or two events a year, you don’t get very many chances to defend a title”

McMahon has now shot consecutive 15-under pars dating back to Sunday’s Las Vegas Challenge final. That round came in rated at 1088, but McMahon felt like it was the stronger performance of the two.

“Last weekend in Vegas, that felt like a better round,” McMahon said. “They’re both 15s, but the difficulty of the Wildhorse course, it’s greater than Fountain Hills.”

That doesn’t mean he wouldn’t take the 1101 if it ends up sticking once ratings are official.

“I am excited,” he said. “I feel like it’s taken a little bit too long.”

Though it’s early in the tournament, Lizotte was well aware that McMahon has been playing at a consistently elite level. The German star said McMahon’s pars only came on unlucky breaks – a quirky roll away on hole 9 and a fluke palm tree strike on 11 – and that the Colorado pro is going to be difficult to defeat this week.

“I need a lot going for me if I want a chance to beat him,” Lizotte said. “There’s no mistakes, no mistakes. Any mistake will cost you.”

Even Keel in the Open Women’s Division

A six-way tie highlights the Open Women’s field after one crack at Fountain Hills, with Jennifer Allen, Zoe Andyke, Jessica Weese, Maria Oliva, Eveliina Salonen, and Missy Gannon all scoring even-par 56s during their morning rounds.

Allen, who limped to a 39 percent circle 1 putting performance at the Las Vegas Challenge, rebounded with a 71 percent clip Thursday. Andyke is packing the field in parked shots (17 percent), while Oliva and Gannon were the only two players in the top 10 to never stray outside the lines.

Paige Pierce kicked off her Memorial title defense with a 1-over par 57 to land in seventh place, with five OBs waiting to be corrected in round two. Madison Walker, Callie McMorran, and Hailey King make up eighth place at 2-over par.

Open Women’s live coverage begins at 10:45 a.m. ET on the Disc Golf Pro Tour YouTube channel, with the Open division teeing off at 4:45 p.m. ET.