Jeff Plaisance (left) and Jacob Horning (right) with Tournament Director and course designer John Houck (center). Photo: PDGA

After a moving day plagued by severe thunderstorms, weather delays, and eventually round cancellations, the 2019 PDGA Amateur World Doubles Championships still managed to come to an exciting conclusion on Sunday. The top two teams in the Advanced division kept it close after each round -- so close that by the end of the fourth round they would be forced into a sudden-death playoff.

At the end of the opening round of Best Score Doubles on Friday at the Trey Deuce course, Andrew Brown and Brandon Malecek of The Pulsars sat three strokes ahead of three different teams. However, a few mistakes during their afternoon round of Alternate Throw Doubles at the Texas Twist course allowed for several teams to make a move. One such team was simply named Jeff and Jacob, comprised of Austin, Texas, natives Jeff Plaisance and Jacob Horning. After sitting three off the lead, the Alternate Throw round put them one ahead of The Pulsars.

Saturday’s moving day was originally scheduled to be another day with a morning round and an afternoon round, but mother nature simply wasn’t having it. Severe weather rolled into the Mt. Vernon, Texas area by the early afternoon, forcing officials to call weather delays to keep the competitors safe. When the initial weather delay was called, nearly all the teams that were playing either the Selah Ranch Lakeside or Selah Ranch Creekside had already finished their morning round. However, the story was quite different on the much larger courses of Trey Texas Ranch.

The flow of play was much slower there, meaning no teams had finished before the delay on either the Trey Deuce or Texas Twist tracks. Hours went by with dangerous conditions persisting, and it was decided that play wouldn’t resume until roughly 4:00 p.m. The afternoon round was canceled and would be played on Sunday morning. Sunday was originally scheduled to have its own full round plus final 9s, but there was simply no way to pull that off. The Sunday round was replaced by Saturday afternoon’s round, and the finals were canceled, too.

Dozens of lightning strikes could be seen within a few miles of Trey Texas Ranch on Saturday afternoon. Photo: RadarScope

The Advanced division was part of the pool playing at Selah Ranch on Saturday, giving them the afternoon to rest and prepare for Sunday’s final full round that would determine the champions. Jeff and Jacob added one more to their lead of the Pulsars on Saturday morning during the Best Throw round at Selah Ranch Creekside and would have to fend them off for their final round at Selah Ranch Lakeside while playing Best Throw once again.

When the round was all said and done, it wasn’t done at all. The Pulsars shot two better than Jeff and Jacob forcing them into a sudden-death playoff. The loop had been pre-determined to be holes 16, 17, and 18. Jeff and Jacob would tap in for the win on 16, but not the first time around. It wasn’t they had played the three-hole loop before they would eventually prevail on the fourth hole of the playoff.