The Memorial Championship - Round 3 Recap
March 1, 2020 by Bennett Wineka in Recap with 0 comments
2020 Memorial Championship Round 3
Moving day at the Memorial Championship and Vista del Camino brought a new set of challenges and shot opportunities.
Who was able to take advantage of the change of scenery?
Open Women
- A masterful, bogey-free performance from Paige Pierce stretched her lead to eight strokes. She sits at 27-under par 145 total after her 1057-rated, 12-under par moving day at Vista del Camino. Her 94% Circle 2 in regulation rate was 16 percentage points higher than the next closest competitor.
- Pierce’s third round is two strokes lower than Eveliina Salonen’s final winning total score from 2019. It was also Pierce’s third highest-rated round of her career and best since April 2018.
- Jennifer Allen continues to defend her turf well, staying in second place at 19-under par on the back of a 7-under par third round. She was perfect from C1 until the final two holes.
- The putting has not been sorted out but Catrina Allen made a move back up the leaderboard with a 6-under par. She was behind only Pierce for fairway hits on the day.
- Finnish duo Salonen and Henna Blomroos are in fourth and third, respectively, and Blomroos may still have a chance at second place. She is four strokes behind Jennifer Allen at 15-under par, while Salonen is another five back at 10-under.
- Some final placements may be decided on hole 18 Sunday, as no Open Women’s player was able to birdie the hole, and the average score coming in almost a stroke over par. Jennifer Allen was the only player to birdie hole 10 in the division, parking her upshot. Pierce was the only one to get hole 13 and hole 16. Same for Salonen on hole 5.
Heard
“Today [the discs] were coming out exactly when I wanted them. It’s like I was painting the lines on the fairways. I could see exactly which skips I was going to get.” – Paige Pierce
Statline
Four women — Pierce, J. Allen, Salonen, C. Allen — finished Saturday with 1000+ rated rounds, a total that never happened on the Disc Golf Pro Tour in 2019. The second round of the Jonesboro Open came closest and saw three women come in at four digits — C. Allen, Blomroos, Rebecca Cox.
Highlights
2020 memorial paige pierce hole 16 drive
2020 memorial paige pierce hole 13 putt
Open
- Eagle McMahon was able to pull out every shot in the bag to jump Calvin Heimburg and Paul McBeth to move into first at 36-under par 136 total. His 10-under par had a bogey but he was also 100% from Circle 1.
- Despite maintaining top four ratings in every major UDisc Live driving category, Heimburg couldn’t keep the birdie train on the tracks. He missed only one fairway and C2 in regulation during round 3. Heimburg is one back of McMahon.
- The only bogey-free round in the top 15 came from Drew Gibson, who will be back on lead card for the final round after posting the hot round 11-under par. Sunday could look like a repeat of the 2019 Portland Open, as Gibson is in striking distance of McMahon just two strokes behind. Jeremy Koling and Garrett Gurthie also posted 11-under pars.
- Paul McBeth never looked comfortable on Saturday and may have been favoring his right lower leg. He remains on lead card in fourth and is five strokes off the pace.
- No one in the top 15 birdied hole 18.
- Bradley Williams has thoughts on having to livescore during a competitive round.
Heard
“It feels like last year. I’m doing the same thing as last year. Hopefully, it’s the same results as last year.” – Eagle McMahon said after taking the lead in round 3 as he did in 2019.
“I plan to lay it up, but we’ll see what happens.” – Drew Gibson on his plans on playing the treacherous hole 18 during the final round.
Statline
McMahon took the lead on moving day despite his round rating dropping each round. Can he still win with a sub-1068 effort, or will he fix the trend.
Highlights
