King, Weese also top leaderboards at bi-coastal events
March 21, 2017 by Alex Colucci in Recap with 0 comments
Not all the professional action last weekend was at the Waco Annual Charity Open, as two A-Tiers drew strong fields in Florida and California.
Paul McBeth took the Open win in Brooksville, Florida, at Throw Down the Mountain V, beating both touring partner Nate Sexton and last year’s Throw Down the Mountain winner, Austin Turner, by four and seven strokes, respectively. Even though Sexton did his best to throw McBeth off his game before the event began and was hitting shots from everywhere, he couldn’t sustain the one shot lead he held over McBeth and Turner heading into Sunday’s final round. McBeth’s Sunday 48 — the lowest score posted at the event — brought him to an overall score of 29-under par 151 to best Sexton by four. The round was rated at a blistering 1077.
Turner — along with Calvin Heimburg, Colin Forehand, Ken Climo and Charlie Goodpasture — qualified for the United States Disc Golf Championship by virtue of being the top five finishers not already qualified for the October PDGA Major. Sexton and JohnE McCray both earned qualification spots for the USDGC after their quality finishes at the Gentlemen’s Club Challenge, and McBeth qualified earlier this season at the Aussie Open. The next USDGC qualifier is next week’s Nick Hyde Memorial.
In Open Women, Elaine King emerged victorious, throwing an 8-over par 188 total score and averaging 934-rated golf through the three rounds. The effort was good enough to keep her 15 strokes clear of second place finisher Ellen Widboom and 16 strokes ahead of 2016 PDGA Rookie of the Year Jessica Hill in third.
McBeth, Sexton, and Turner are all headed to Texas for upcoming events. Turner makes the trek to Temple for this weekend’s Open at Temple, while the trio will all head to Rockwall for next weekend’s Disc Golf Pro Tour stop at the Nick Hyde.
The St. Patrick’s Classic in Orangevale, California, saw a name from the past at the top of the Open leaderboard for all three rounds: Josh Anthon. Anthon was playing in his first competitive PDGA tournament in 29 months after serving part of a four-year prison sentence related to a fatal 2014 hit-and-run in the Sacramento area. His 39-under par 181 was good for first place, as he bested James Proctor by eight strokes while averaging 1047-rated golf over 72 holes. Anthon is scheduled to compete next in the Oakland City Disc Golf Championships in early April and then at the Masters Cup, a PDGA National Tour event, in mid-May.
Jessica Weese dominated the Open Women’s field in Orangevale, averaging 971-rated golf en route to a 13 stroke win over Nicole Bradley. Weese scored the lone hot round during the event’s first two days and shared the honor with Bradley during the final round, finishing with an 11-under par 209. Weese will head to Southern California for next week’s Daniel Boe Memorial, before hooking back up with the Disc Golf Pro Tour in April at the Jonesboro Open.
