Hailey King bested Paige Pierce in a two-hole playoff for the DGPT Championship. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen / DGPT

Defining moments happen when the pressure is at its peak.

That’s the point of the Disc Golf Pro Tour Championship, to throw the best players in the sport into the gauntlet, crank up the nerves and let them battle. The Pro Tour season came down to the wire on Sunday with the pressure at an all-time high.

Hailey King’s defining moment came via a 25-foot, tournament-winning putt over Paige Pierce in the second hole of a playoff. Kevin Jones’ moment came as he pured his drive on the 18th hole after Chris Dickerson sent his deep into the rough.

“This is a dream for me,” Jones told the Disc Golf Network’s Terry Miller after winning the MPO side of the event by a single stroke. “This is proving to myself that I’m here to stay and going to continue to do this as my career for a long time.

“This is awesome.”

King, who played steady throughout the weekend and lurked as an ever-threatening force in the shadows, came up clutch when battling with two world champions.

“It means a lot,” King told Miller. “I put in a lot of time this past offseason so it’s really cool that it worked and paid off.

“It was really fun. Everyone knows (Paige) is really good so being able to compete against her and get to a playoff was really cool. Paige, it was really fun playing with you all week. You definitely gave me some words of advice and I’ve taken them. It worked.”

Pierce, who had seven Pro Tour wins in 2020 as well as the Women’s National Championship, appreciated King’s moment and knew it was just a matter of time before the rising 18-year-old star broke through. King finished the Pro Tour season with three top five finishes on the Pro Tour and a second-place finish, to Pierce, in a Silver Series event.

“Hailey, amazing job,” Pierce said at the awards ceremony, the first of the year. “I knew this win was coming for a while. I know how bummed you were after the Silver Cup and I told you that the Silver Cup doesn’t matter, you’re going to get a big one and you did today.

“That last putt was definitely a defining moment of your career.”

Both divisions came down to the wire but, once the dust settled, King and Jones capped off the Pro Tour season with a $20,000 check and momentum heading into 2021.

After several strong finishes in 2020, Hailey King broke through on the biggest stage at the Hornet's Nest. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen / DGPT

High Drama in FPO

It was a two-stroke lead through 15 holes in the FPO division.

Catrina Allen, who won the 2019 Pro Tour title in a playoff, had birdied four-straight holes before giving one back on the 16th. She sat at 4-under, one ahead of Pierce and two in front of King.

Two holes remained.

King laced the drive on the 17th while Pierce and Allen found trouble off the tee and chipped their way into the circle after their fourth shots.

The elevated basket then showed its teeth. After Pierce connected on her bogey putt, Allen three-putted for a brutal quadruple bogey 8, ending her bid for back-to-back Pro Tour titles.

Then there were two, all knotted up at 2-under par with one to play.

Pierce ripped her putter through the tunnel and out into the fairway to a perfect location. King didn’t make it out of the gap but bent what could be the first of her tournament-defining shots out into the fairway. An early release led to a layup from Pierce for par, which King matched with a 15-footer to send the FPO battle into extras.

Pierce had a 60-foot winning putt on the eighth, the first playoff hole, but nicked a branch on the attempt. King scrambled with a sidearm to 18 feet and connected on the putt for a push to the 11th.

King, as she did in regulation, laced the tee shot to a prime location. Pierce went errant to the right and hit the first available tree on her second. She followed with a must-have shot into circle one at 24 feet. King had no issue hitting her upshot into the circle and then, with the win on the line, drilled the 25-foot putt for the crown.

Kevin Jones played chess on Saturday to reach the finals and then went toe-to-toe with Chris Dickerson on Sunday. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen / DGPT

Shootout In MPO

Dickerson and Jones engaged in a shootout from the very beginning on Sunday’s Finals.

Tied up at a blistering 6-under through eight holes, Dickerson took the lead with a birdie on the ninth – the seventh of eight-straight for the back-to-back Pro Tour champion.

Jones tied things up again after a huge turnover upshot to circle one for the tap-in birdie. Two holes later, he s-curved a sidearm to the bullseye on the tricky 14th for a one-shot lead.
The chess match continued on the infamous gauntlet hole, Dickerson pinned it after an early tree hit from Jones.

Tied up again with three holes to play.

After pars on the 16th, Dickerson missed his first circle one putt of the day with an airball to the elevated pin on 17. Jones’ circle two attempt for the lead came up short.

It all came down to Hole 18 with a playoff looming.

But that was not the fate this time as Dickerson’s drive cranked over deep into the woods. Jones followed with a shot into the circle and, after Dickerson’s scramble attempt dropped short, he pitched up for the win and a $20,000 payday.