Aussie Open Moving Day Recap
Coming into the 2017 Aussie Open, 3X World Champion Paige Pierce had the 19th highest PDGA Player Rating out of the entire field, all divisions included. When she found out that the event was a United States Disc Golf Championship (USDGC) qualifier, she was elated. 10 spots will be awarded at this event to the 10 players that finish with lowest scores overall, regardless of division.
Earning a chance to compete at the USDGC is exciting in general, but there’s a much bigger accomplishment on the line as well. No woman in PDGA history has ever qualified for the USDGC in this way, based solely on overall score at an event up while competing men and women alike. From the moment the news was broken, she’s believed with confidence that at the end of the day on Sunday, she’d be able to start planning her trip to Rock Hill, South Carolina, USA in October.
Video: Paige Pierce snags a birdie on Hole 2. Find more videos like this here!
Paige nearly earned a USDGC spot in 2014 during Monday Qualifying, taking on Winthrop Gold for a chance to win one of the five spots that were up for grabs. Playing in torrential rain and wind, she missed the cut by just a few strokes.
After finishing with an unreal round score this afternoon of six under par (59), her overall score of 10 under par (185) means she has the 8th best score overall in the competition with just one round remaining. But wait, there’s more…
Ricky Wysocki earned his spot at the 2017 USDGC last October.
According to the Official Qualifying Procedure on the USDGC website, Ricky Wysocki and Eagle McMahon are already eligible for the 2017 USDGC due to finishing in the top 10 at the 2016 USDGC. Paige’s finish of four under par this afternoon (59) moves her into 6th place in the USDGC battle. With a cushion of six strokes separating her from the 10th place position holder, Avery Jenkins, all she needs to do is play safe, smart golf for 18 more holes to not only win the first PDGA Major and first Disc Golf World Tour event of the year, but to make history while doing so.
Wire-To-Wire Win for Eagle McMahon Remains a Very Real Possibility
After the mind-bending, record-shattering scores that both Ricky Wysocki and Eagle McMahon put up yesterday during Round 2, -17 (48) and -16 (49) respectively, it was a fairly easy assumption to make that today’s scores would be a little less…incomprehensible? After all, this is Mundaring DiscGolfPark, not a pitch-and-putt.
Eagle McMahon has been leading the tournament from the start.
Today’s round served as return to normalcy of sorts as far as round scores go, but that doesn’t mean it wasn’t chock-full of entertainment. Starting the round three off the lead, Ricky carded birdies on the first four holes to bring the deficit down to one. It only took four holes to know that we were all in for a great show.
A few holes later, a huge skip on the high-speed fairway of hole 9 left Ricky’s driver putting for birdie from inside of 10 feet (3 meters). Eagle followed with a spike hyzer on a line so steep that when it finally returned to earth, it didn’t have enough right-to-left momentum remaining to get the skip out of the OB putting green. For the first time since late in the round two days ago, Eagle had lost the lead.
Video: Eagle McMahon on hole 9. Find more videos like this here!
With nine holes remaining, it seemed that the momentum had swung into the reigning World Champion’s favor. That is, until the very next hole, a double dogleg that finishes into a narrow, wooded tunnel. Ricky’s drive left him OB with two options: 1) lay up into the fairway and face a long tunnel shot for a chance to settle for a bogey five, or 2) try the spike anhyzer line that plays over OB the entire time and hope the disc makes it way over and/or through the tall trees that protect the green for a chance to save par.
Video: Ricky Wysocki on hole 10. Find more videos like this here!
Ricky opted for the latter but his first attempt at the anhyzer was stopped well short after the disc clipped a branch, knocking it straight down into the OB grass below. A second attempt at the same shot got through, leaving him with a long a tricky putt. Missing the putt just high, his putter dinged off the top of the basket. When it was all said and done, an understandably frustrated Ricky would tap in for a triple bogey, seven.
The hot and humid weather made the conditions tough for our competitors today.
Meanwhile, Eagle finished the hole with a birdie three after a perfect drive, a safe approach, and a birdie putt from a knee from at least 40 feet (12 meters). Unfortunately for Ricky, there was more misfortune headed his way. An OB off the tee and again from his follow-up throw on hole 14 gave Eagle another three stroke advantage.
With four holes to go, the back and forth continued. Ricky quickly gained two back on hole 15, but that would be the last time either of them finished a hole with different scores. They will face each other one last time with the title on the line tomorrow, with Eagle McMahon once again teeing off last as the overall leader, three ahead of Ricky Wysocki.
Philo Brathwaite shot the hot round today.
Outside the lead card, we saw Philo Brathwaite shoot the hot round of the day with his under for today’s 18 holes. Unfortunately for Philo, even the hot round was not enough to lift him to the to the lead card for the final day, as Manabu Kajiyama’s -7 keeps the top Japanese player on the 4th place at a total of -22, a single stroke ahead of Philo. Rounding out the lead card will be Paul McBeth, who is currently on the 3rd place at 24 under par.
Recap on the Moving Day Action!
Video: Paul McBeth picks up a birdie on hole 5. Find more videos like this here.
During the 3rd round, our social media team was following mostly the open lead card on the course. As a result, you can find a lot of photo updates, as well as hole-specific play-by-play videos on our instagram account. Make sure to check them out here!
We also have The SpinTV production crew piecing together play-by-play tournament coverage videos from the 3rd round. While you wait for that, csee below for our daily facebook live report from right after the round, with interviews of Eagle McMahon and Ricky Wysocki.
Make sure to check out also our tournament coverage videos published so far:
Feature Card Round 1 Front 9 ->
Feature Card Round 1 Back 9 ->
Lead Card Round 2 Front 9 ->
Scores and Stats
We also highly recommend checking out the leaderboard and Metrix and course stats from the 3rd round. The new feature we added last year, player- and hole-specific instagram videos on the scoring interface, is in place here at the Aussie Open too, so make sure to check those out by clicking the tiny red arrows where available.
The majority of the Metrix stats are available for registered users only, so make sure to register here if you haven’t already! And if you’re in luck, registering may pay off in a big way, as we’re raffling a $100 Discmania prize package among our followers after the event.
The round scores of FPO, MPM and MA1 divisions can be found over at PDGA.com. Find the results page with preliminary round ratings here!
Tomorrow’s final round will surely be an exciting one, so make sure to check back tomorrow for Championship Sunday action from the 2017 Aussie Open!
Story: Marty Gregwah & DGWT Staff
