A very grateful Barry Schultz after winning his 6th Tim Selinske US Masters Championship, an event named after his late, great friend.

Three days and four rounds later, the 2017 Tim Selinske US Masters Championships came to an end this past Sunday in Des Moines. The 300+ competitors at the event were split between three courses for the final round with close and exciting finishes taking place at each.

Grandview Park played host to the Senior Grandmasters, Advanced Grandmasters, and Advanced Senior Grandmasters tee times on Sunday, all of which would come down to slim victories by the end of the day. The best example being the Senior Grandmasters, where Dave Greenwell had moved into the lead after round 3, just one stroke ahead of Mike Cloyes.

A strong push by Cloyes put him four down through the first 10 holes for the final while Greenwell went even par in that same span, giving Cloyes a lead of three with only eight to go. Back-to-back birdies by Dave on 13 and 14 reduced the margin back to one, but Cloyes would go on to finish two ahead for the comeback win.

One of many great putts hit by Mike Cloyes during the 2017 US Masters.

As Course Directors Jay and Deb Svitko and the rest of the Grandview team were packing up, the lead card of the Masters division was teeing off at Ewing Park, with Barry Schultz and Dave Feldberg tied up at the top of the leaderboard, joined by George Smith and Joe Rotan who were two and three strokes back, respectively. By this time, Ewing Park had already crowned several new champions including Des Reading (Masters Women), Suzette Simons (Grandmasters Women), Kimberly Giannola (Advanced Masters Women), and Rob Lee (Advanced Legends).

Des slowly but surely increased her lead all weekend, and then turned on the burners for the final round to come out 16 ahead of Melinda Ring and 17 ahead of Cory Hill. On top of her already overly impressive resume, Des is now a 2X Tim Selinske US Masters Women Champion.

Des Reading's final putt to become the 2017 US Masters Women Champion.

With an ever-growing gallery behind them. The Masters lead group made their way around the course. All four men carded birdies on the opening hole, including an 80-foot jump putt by Feldberg to get the crowd going. Dave took the lead with another birdie on hole 2, but quickly gave it back with a bogey on 3. Barry followed suit, taking the lead on hole 5 with a par against Dave’s bogey only to give it right back when a par on 6 was bested by Dave’s birdie.

Dave’s round took a bit of a dive during the back nine, where he would not only lose the lead to Barry but he would eventually lose his 2nd place spot to Joe Rovere while Barry cruised his way to victory. On the 18th, Feldberg let go of a chance to save birdie from 150 feet, knowing he needed it to go in to finish tied for second place. And it did go in, but only for a moment. His putter hit the chains perfectly but was going fast enough to slip through. The putter fell to the ground, as did Dave.

Dave Feldberg in disbelief after a chain-out from 150 feet or more on the 18th basket.

Much like he did at the 2017 Masters Worlds just a month ago, Barry made his birdie putt for the win in front of the gallery, earning his 6th Tim Selinske US Masters title. At age 47, having only competed in seven US Masters events, that’s quite the feat. 

On the south end of the greater Des Moines area sits Indianola Pickard Park Sports Complex, home to the one and only Pickard Park DGC. Mom and Old Man Wallis were running the show at Pickard, making sure the Grandmasters and the Advanced Masters, two of the largest divisions at the event, were getting teed off and onto the course on time.

Only two of the 11 divisions would come down to sudden death playoffs and both of them turned out to be at the same place; Pickard. The Advanced Masters saw the first showdown of the afternoon, one that ended in a playoff between Michael Deeter and David Beery. The playoff was short-lived, however, finishing on the first hole in favor of Michael Deeter.

The only competitors still playing disc golf when the Masters division had finished up over at Ewing were the top few cards of Grandmasters at Pickard. The lead card featured the hardest fought battle of the week without a doubt; a battle between Ron Convers, Jim Oates, Eric Rainey, and Brad Hammock. With just a few holes to go, it was clear that a playoff was likely in the works.

When the scores for the 18th hole finally appeared on pdgalive.com, the prediction came true. It was a 3-way tie at the top of the leaderboard between Convers, Oates, and Rainey, one that could have been a 4-way tie had Hammock not taken an unfortunate bogey 6. Hammock was leading by one heading into hole 18, but a three-putt bogey meant he would not join the others in the playoff.

Left to right: Ron Convers, Jim Oates, & Eric Rainey before their 2017 US Masters playoff at Pickard.

Much like the playoff that had taken place prior, this too was short-lived, ending on the first hole in favor of Ron Convers. Convers is having an incredible year. After his win this weekend he now holds both the World Grandmasters Champion title and the Tim Selinske US Grandmasters Champion title.

Congrats to all the winners and thank you to the staff, volunteers, and sponsors, in Des Moines for putting on a great show. Hopefully we’ll see all of the women next week for the 2017 US Women’s Disc Golf Championship in Tennessee! 

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Tim Selinske's image as it appears on the USA-shaped plaque where Barry Schultz's name will be added for the sixth time.