McBeth falls out of contention, five strokes out of the lead
July 20, 2019 by Christopher Wiklund in Coverage, Recap with 0 comments
Ricky Wysocki quadrupled his bogey count at the European Open but has managed to hold the lead at the year’s first PDGA major going into the final round in Nokia, Finland.
After three rounds, Ricky Wysocki maintains first place after shooting a 1035-rated, 6-under par 58, his worst round of the tournament. His usual scrambling prowess eluded the American over the back nine, as Wysocki was unable to save par on four occasions. The rest of his game was generally working on all counts. He only had four attempts from Circle 1X of which he hit every one, and he added a 50-footer for an early birdie.
Wysocki has yet to miss from inside 10 meters during the event. He also leads the division in parked percentage at 28%. Wysocki is at 28-under par 164 total.
A hard-charging Eagle McMahon, whose hot round 10-under par 54 moved him into sole possession of second place, is only one stroke off Wysocki heading into the final round at 27-under par 165.
It was McMahon’s first bogey-free round of the European Open and unique in that he recorded no birdie streak longer than two holes. He’s first in the division in finding Circle 2 in regulation and second in fairway hits.
Coming into the day all the attention was on a potential record-breaking showdown between Wysocki and then second place Paul McBeth. Mcbeth is now in third, four strokes back of McMahon at 23-under par 169, after a disappointing 3-under par round. A six-hole par streak in the middle of McBeth’s round included two-putts on two holes while McMahon overtook him on the leaderboard. It was during the same stretch when Wysocki was picking up bogeys, so McBeth definitely did himself no favors, taking zero advantage of the situation. He’s 42nd in C1X putting at 83%.
While Kevin Garnett would have us believe that anything is possible, it’s going to take a combination of something very special from McBeth, and something tragic from Wysocki and McMahon for this to be anything other than a two-horse race at the top on the final day.
Albert Tamm is only two strokes back of McBeth at 21-under par overall and actually shot better than McBeth did during round three. Tamm carded eight birdies to McBeth’s five, but a double-bogey on 18 marred an otherwise solid round from the Estonian.
