In her nine-year professional career, one of the few high-profile events that has eluded Paige Pierce has been the Beaver State Fling. In her five previous attempts at the event, she had collected four second place finishes, including a loss in a sudden-death playoff last year.
The last time Ricky Wysocki and Paul McBeth were in a playoff outside Portland, during the 2014 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships, Wysocki was left trudging up the steps of hole 7’s green at Blue Lake Regional Park to collect his heartbreak, while McBeth converted an uphill birdie to seal his third consecutive world title.
On a day that switched from warm to cold to rainy to sunny to windy to calm and everything in between a dozen or more times, only a handful of competitors at the 2017 Beaver State Fling presented by KEEN Footwear seemed unaffected. Paul McBeth #27523 and Eagle McMahon #37817 emerged as the leaders in the Open division at 16 under par and 14 under par by the end of round 2, respectively, but it was Paige Pierce #29190 in the Open Women’s division that would pull off the most impressive scores of the day.
Story originally published by Ultiworld Disc Golf. Cover photo by Tim Cattera.
With a six-stroke lead going into the final round of the Masters Cup at the DeLaveaga Golf Course, the result was never in doubt for Paige Pierce, as she coasted to her third PDGA National Tour win — and 12th victory overall — of the season.
Pierce’s 2-under par 58 final round easily secured her a third Masters Cup win with a total score of 4-over par 208. More impressively, the win was her ninth of the season in which she’s won leading from start to finish.
The 2017 Santa Cruz Masters Cup trophies; created by Zimbabwean stone sculptor Tapiwa Mapranga.
The looming morning fog has already burned off and the dew on the fairways is slowing evaporating as we prepare for the final round of the Santa Cruz Masters Cup this morning here on the beautiful grounds of DeLaveaga. The DeLa DGC will host the Masters, Grandmasters, and Senior Grandmasters divisions while the Open and Open Women competitors take on the championship 18-hole layout set up on the breathtaking DeLaveaga Golf Course
With the immense amount of talent on site at the Santa Cruz Masters Cup, one would expect to see a few rounds by the end of the weekend that, for the average player, are hard to comprehend. However, what Paul McBeth did yesterday at DeLaveaga DGC, one of the most difficult courses on the planet, is beyond words.
