Some dangerous players are still within striking distance
August 24, 2024 by Kingsley Flett in Recap with 0 comments
In Lynchburg, Virginia, the early leaders emerge from New London as the field heads to Ivy Hill for the run home.
The Disc Golf World Championships have always been partly an endurance test. Starting off as a four round tournament in 1982, the worlds increased to a peak of ten 18-hole rounds in 1990, remained at nine rounds plus a 9-hole final for most of the 1990s then decreased to seven rounds plus a final nine by the mid 2010s. This dwindled to six rounds plus a final in 2015, then five rounds plus a final in 2016. Then, for the first Worlds played only by MPO and FPO divisions at in Georgia in 2017, the field played just four 18-hole rounds. Since then, the tournament has been played over five rounds, always on two courses.
The longer format can be more forgiving in some ways – a single bad round can be slowly erased over time, and clear leaders can take a while to emerge. This week in Lynchburg, it has taken two rounds on the technical, Paul McBeth-designed New London course either side of a round at the venue for the final two rounds, the hilly, unpredictable Ivy Hill track, for a set of contenders to stake their claim.
In MPO, defending World Champion Issac Robinson has carved out a four-stroke lead over Joseph Anderson, with Finn Niklas Anttila six strokes back and the trio of Luke Taylor, Calvin Heimburg, and Simon Lizotte eight strokes back. Meanwhile, the FPO contest is setting up for an epic fight between American Holyn Handley and Finn Eveliina Salonen, who share a seven stroke lead over Kat Mertsch with Natalie Ryan eight strokes behind. Lurking, too, at 12 strokes back is two-time world champion Kristin Tattar, seemingly out of the picture but in a place from where she has won major tournaments before.
Ivy Hill is a physically demanding course, with plenty of steep slopes. Whoever emerges as the champions on Sunday will have needed to display physical endurance along with mental toughness and skill.
Isaac in pole position
After sharing the round one lead at 11-under-par with Anthony Barela, Robinson was chased down in round two by Joseph Anderson on the slopes of Ivy Hill before pulling away again in the final holes for a three stroke lead over Anderson and a fast-charging Adam Hammes. Round two was a preview of some of the drama that is bound to impact the final rounds in both divisions, as the steep greens and fairways created some devastating roll-aways. One of Anderson’s roll aways might hold claim to some sort of record for maximum time on edge — his disc looked drunk as it waddled slowly down the fairway towards the OB line and then away from it before collapsing on the grass.
Back into the carefully crafted fairways of New London for round three, Robinson stayed solid as contenders started to fall away: Isaac hit 8-of-9 from inside the circle and hitting the fairway 81% of the time to shoot seven-under-par and stretch his lead over Joseph Anderson to four strokes. Climbing five places up the leaderboard was Niklas Antilla, who shot a nine-under-par to hold third place.
“Today I was able to not think about the score so much and just enter the game,” said Antilla after the round. “I could make my own decisions on the course and play like I know I can do.”
“It was very tense,” observed Robinson after the round. “Nobody was shooting hot and nobody was shooting really well. When you are trying to hold on to a chance of taking this tournament down and you are missing shots, it gets tense out there.”
You can’t win the worlds in the early rounds, but you can certainly lose it. For all of the major contenders it has been missioned accomplished so far.
Evelina catches up to Holyn
The striking feature of the three stroke lead that Handley built in round one was how it was largely created in two holes. Handley eagled both holes 7 & 9 and was the only player in the field to eagle either hole in round one. It was a feat Handley was to repeat during round three. The three strokes she gained over second placed Kat Mertsch on these holes were the difference after the first round. Filling the lead card for round two was Henna Blomroos and Silva Saarinen who were five strokes back. Tellingly after round one, the chase card was already 6 strokes behind. It appeared the separation of the field was happening early.
Round two on Ivy Hill seemed to affect the FPO field differently to the MPO. While for MPO, most of the drama seemed to be caused on the ground through roll-aways, for FPO much of the drama was caused by the difficulty many players had in reading the winds as they swirled around the hills.
“I was trying so hard to not flip and go OB right that I went OB left” said Paige Pierce after the round, echoing the experience of many players. Handley crossed the ropes seven times on her way to shooting just two under par, but still managed to stretch her lead over Mertsch by a stroke. Slipping in to third place after shooting five under par was Eveliina Salonen, sharing the hot round for the day with Hailey King and Natalie Ryan.
Handley pulled away after a slow start in round three, her twin eagles on holes 7 &9 were again a significant advantage. Holyn’s driving throughout the tournament has been a feature, opening up opportunities for easy upshots and birdies that only players like Eveliina Salonen could match.
“I feel like today got off a little slow,” said Handley after the round. “But then I played the middle stretch pretty well and got those eagles. Then it was a little slow in the back. Going one up in the last three when I was hoping to get at least two birdies in there was a little frustrating.”
Handley also spoke about the nerves she is dealing with after leading for three days. “In my head I feel fine and pretty normal, but my body is reacting in some weird ways. I’m going to get some protein shakes to drink in the mornings since my stomach doesn’t want me to eat.”
It was Salonen who finished the stronger in round three, shooting the hot round at 8-under-par and crucially birdieing the last two holes to create a three throw swing over Holyn and steal a share of the lead. Salonen will return to Ivy Hill with some confidence, knowing that she outscored Handley by four strokes in round two.
Despite the seven stroke gap that the leading pair have over third place, both Handley and Salonen have blown significant leads in the past by going cold on the putting green. Going cold on treacherous greens at Ivy Hill can also leads roll aways. In the back of everyone’s minds too, is the fact that the leaders are within a margin that the world’s best player in the last few years, Kristen Tattar, has chased down in the final rounds of major tournaments. Regardless of who triumphs on Sunday, they will have to survive some moments of misfortune that will test their mental resolve and resilience.
The final two rounds are shaping up to be high drama and compelling viewing.
