The Top 10 Best Rated Rounds have been updated thru July 2012 and 28 new rounds make the Top 10 in five categories.

The Top 10 rounds are tracked in five SSA ranges: Under 48, 48-54, 54-60, 60-66 and 66+. The hottest SSA range is 48-54 which also happens to be the most common range for courses played in PDGA competitions. Men have now thrown 12 rounds rated 1100 and higher on courses in this range since 1998. The two 1100 rounds shot by Gregg Barsby and Will Schusterick now just miss the new top 10 and are tied for 11th in this category!

Five men shot rounds over 1100 in this popular SSA category since the last update at the end of 2010 with highest being Michael Johansen's 1113 during the 2012 Worlds with a 41 on Bradford long. David Feldberg posted the first of his two 1100+ rounds during 2012 shooting a 42 on Fountain Hills rated 1109. Terry Gallops posted an 1103 with a 40 on Lake Reidsville. Paul Ulibarri also shot a 40 on the Hambrick West course in 2011 coming in at 1102. Will Schusterick shot a 42 overseas at the 2012 Fukui Open rated at 1101 to round out the top 10 in the 48-54 SSA category.

New Leaders

We have new leaders in four categories: Courtney McCoy tops the Under 48 SSA category with a 1030 round shooting a 43 on a special layout at FlyBoy in 2011. Catrina Allen threw a 44 on the Bradford short layout used for 2012 Worlds rated at 1058 in the 48-54 SSA category. This becomes the highest rating ever shot by a woman in any SSA category.

Our 2012 World Champ, Sarah Hokom, pictured above making her Worlds winning putt, took over the top spot in the 54-60 SSA category with a 56 rated 1021 on the Moraine course during the 2012 Pittsburgh Flying Disc Open. David Feldberg and 2012 World Champ, Paul McBeth, took over the top two spots in the same SSA range with the first two rounds rated over 1099 in this category with Feldberg posting an 1113 and McBeth an 1105 on the Vista del Camino course during the 2012 Memorial.

The 66+ SSA range doesn't see much change except during the USDGC for men. Perhaps we'll see a new entry by the end of the year with the return of the Open division this October. The women play courses over 66 SSA less often than the men. However, Paige Pierce took advantage this year at the Glass Blown Open posting a 67 at the Emporia Country Club rated an even 1000 to enter in 5th on the Women's list.

Five SSA Ranges

The five 6-throw SSA ranges for tracking Best Rounds were defined to cover the wide range of course ratings found in disc golf compared with the single 5 to 6 shot range for all course ratings typically played during a PGA ball golf season. In looking at our Top 10 chart on the link above, it's apparent that the range of best round ratings for both men and women peaks in the 48-54 SSA range. Why this happens isn't completely clear.

One theory is the majority of rounds played are on courses in the 48-54 SSA range. So we simply haven't had enough rounds played in the other categories yet to get round ratings as high. That may be part of the answer. Another theory is that courses in the 48-54 range have more opportunities to score lower than the SSA than courses in the under 48 range where shooting a perfect 36 isn't as far below the SSA.

For SSA ranges on the higher side of 48-54, the more throws involved in the score, the range of rated rounds each player throws on average starts to narrow naturally, i.e. one throw becomes a smaller percentage of a player's total score. For example, shooting 13 below SSA on a 65 SSA course is just 20% below SSA. Shooting 13 below SSA on a 52 SSA course is 25% below SSA. In theory, that's a little more impressive and the ratings reflect that, even though it's the same number of throws below SSA in both cases.

All Five Categories Prove Elusive

Even with all of the rounds thrown since ratings started in 1998, none of our players who have been near the top for several years have posted a top 10 rated round in all five SSA categories. David Feldberg and Will Schusterick (already!) among men plus Juliana Korver and Valarie Jenkins among women are the only players to post top 10 rated rounds in four of the five SSA categories. Who will be first to post a top 10 score in all of them?

Here are the best rounds of 2012 among men and women in the five categories thru July:

Top 10 Rounds thru July 2012