The tournament we’ve all been waiting for is finally here! The United States Disc Golf Championship, which also doubles as the Disc Golf World Tour Championship, kicked off today in Rock Hill, South Carolina. The legendary Winthrop Gold course, located at the Sports Complex of Winthrop University, provides an iconic setting for settling the top spots on the World Tour this year.
The 2016 USDGC Monday Qualifiers from left to right: Schroeder, Brown, Forehand, Bradshaw, and Chumley. Photos and Story Credit: DiscGolfWorldTour.com
When all of the cards were turned in during the Monday Qualifier only the first three spots were set. Two playoff holes were needed to determine the USDGC’s final two spots. Stephen Schroeder, Colin Forehand, and Cody Bradshaw all scored 63 (-2) and were sitting pretty in the clubhouse.
Travis Chumley and Lance Brown, however, had to fight for the two remaining spots from a four-man playoff that also included Dustin Perry and Jeff Renner (all scored 64).
It’s difficult to capture in words just how incredible it was to watch the final round of the 2016 European Masters. Playing for the third straight day in perfect weather on one of the most beautiful and challenging disc golf courses on the planet, Järva DiscGolfPark, with a lead and chase card all within a few strokes of each other, there simply isn’t much else you can ask for.
The first 18 holes of tournament play here at the European Masters brought us beautiful weather and some top level disc golf action. Today here in beautiful Stockholm, Sweden, the real winner today was none other than Järva DiscGolfPark itself. After asking dozens of the world’s best disc golfers where they rank the course on their list of favorites, there wasn’t a single one that said it wasn’t in their top five. The beauty of the course is only paralleled by its challenging nature – showing up without a solid game plan will not get you very far on this course.
What a day at Nokia! After 2 days of scorching hot temperatures, by Finnish standards that is, the final day brought us substantially colder air but still plenty of sunshine and no rain whatsoever. The wind was pushing hard again, forcing the players to give their full concentration on disc and line selection on every shot. On a course like The Beast, you’ll get punished for every mistake and even a slight lapse in concentration may quickly turn your tournament upside down.
We’ve witnessed a total of 36 holes of exciting world class disc golf at Nokia. Much like during the first day, the weather on the 2nd round was warm and sunny from start to finish. Unlike round 1 that was pretty calm for the most part, today we saw pretty high winds that tested our players especially on the last 4 wide open holes of “The Beast”.
