Paige Pierce joins elite company this week in Rock Hill
October 3, 2017 by Steve Hill and Alex Colucci in Analysis with 0 comments
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The United States Disc Golf Championship, while steeped in prestige, is also notable for its employment of a single Open division. As a result, the event has not traditionally seen many women compete.
So when Paige Pierce steps up to hole 1 as part of the feature group at Winthrop Gold on Wednesday afternoon, she will become only the ninth woman in the tournament’s 19-year history (excluding the Performance Flight years) to do so. And given her tremendous play throughout the 2017 season, she is well-positioned to log the best women’s performance ever in Rock Hill:
This is only a selection of the women who have played, and does not actually display the top round logged at the USDGC. That honor belongs to Juliana Korver, who fired off two 1003-rated rounds during her 2001 appearance, where her average round rating came out to 997.
Since there is no ratings data available for Korver’s 37th place finish, which is the best from a woman at the event, a look at the 2015 USDGC (the last iteration to go four rounds) might provide a clue as to what Pierce needs to shoot to become the top female finisher in the tournament’s history.
36th Place Finishers At The 2015 USDGC| Round 1 Rating | Round 2 Rating | Round 3 Rating | Round 4 Rating | Total Average Round Rating | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chris Dickerson | 1021 | 993 | 993 | 1009 | 1004 |
| Jeremiah Kraus | 1027 | 1024 | 987 | 986 | 1006 |
| Dominik Stampfer | 1021 | 1018 | 987 | 995 | 1005.25 |
| Juho Parviainen | 980 | 1024 | 987 | 1022 | 1003.25 |
| Matt Dollar | 992 | 1005 | 999 | 1018 | 1003.5 |
| Simon Lizotte | 1033 | 993 | 999 | 995 | 1005 |
| Round Average | 1012.333333 | 1009.5 | 992 | 1004.166667 | 1004.5 |
The average round rating of six players who tied for 36th place two years ago was 1004.5. It’s more than likely — and not out of the question — that Pierce will need to surpass 1000 twice during the event if she wants to break Korver’s record. Even if she doesn’t, though, we’ll still be seeing history this week, and she’ll have some company: Catrina Allen was a late addition to the USDGC roster via a sponsor’s exemption, making it the first time since 2010 that multiple women will take on Winthrop in the same year.
