Final Round Recap
April 18, 2021 by Anthony Mikos in Recap with 0 comments
Ricky Wysocki is officially the scariest man in disc golf. He’s won not one, not two, but three events within the last month
With a third consecutive hot round on Sunday, Wysocki became a three-time Jonesboro Open champion, winning the 2021 event by four strokes with a final score of 35-under par 157.
“It feels great,” said Wysocki. “That last hole was a little bit brutal, but the conditions got rough at the end. I am overall happy with the way I played.”
Wysocki entered the tournament with a National Tour win at the Texas State Championship, a DGPT Silver Series win at the Open at Belton, and he captured his first DGPT Elite Series win of the year at Jonesboro, the first time he’s won the event since the first two editions in 2017 and 2018.
“I’m here to stay and I’m able to play at this level consistently week in and week out,” said Wysocki. “If I play to my game and my level, which I know I can and have been for the last couple weeks, I’m going to win tournaments. That’s all the confidence I need to play well, and I got some momentum going. It’s on now.”
Calvin Heimburg trailed Wysocki by one stroke heading into the final round, and Paul McBeth and Eagle McMahan remained in contention on the lead card. Wysocki left the door open early on the first two holes registering pars on each, but Heimburg also left two birdie putts uncharacteristically low to leave strokes on the table.
From hole 3 on, Wysocki was clinical in execution, missing only two greens in regulation for the remainder of the round. A Circle 2 conversion for birdie on hole 3 was his only make from long range on the day, but his putter didn’t hit the ground when being thrown from inside 33 feet. Wysocki would see out an 11-under round, which with the early cushion was enough to keep Heimburg’s 8-under par round at bay.
“I was a little tentative to start on hole one two, but I really snapped out of it and I’m happy with the way I snapped out of it,” said Wysocki. “I got onto a birdie streak after hole 3up until hole 9. That really set the stage for the round and I was just happy on how I kept my mental game going.”
Heimburg was never able to recover from a bogey on hole 11 and finished in second at 31-under par total. It’s Heimburg’s fourth podium this year and he has yet to finish below fifth in six events.
Wysocki did not bogey over 54 holes. In addition to scramble percentage, Wysocki led the division in parked percentage and was second and third in finding Circle 1 and Circle 2 in regulation, respectively. His 17.26 strokes gained from tee to green was third in Open behind Heimburg and McBeth.
“I went bogey-free on the weekend and I knew that if I was going to do that then I had a great chance to win,” said Wysocki. “That’s all I was focusing on all week. I laid up some putts and laid up some shots, which I know the fans didn’t expect, but I did it for a reason. I came here to win, and I did.”
McMahon reached 10-under par on Sunday to move up one position to third place and round out the podium. It’s his second DGPT podium this year, including the season opening win in Las Vegas. McBeth dropped to a tie for fifth with Casey White and Adam Hammes. Kevin Jones matched Wysocki’s hot round 11-under to move into solo fourth place, his best finish of the year.
