Paige Pierce (right) won her 11th tournament of 2018 at the Idlewild Open in Burlington, Kentucky. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen / DGPT

A two-player race quickly became a one-woman show Sunday at the Idlewild Open, as Paige Pierce pulled away early to repeat as the tournament champion.

Pierce’s final round 3-over par 69 took her total to an 8-over par 206 and garnered her $1,125 in prize money, while Sarah Hokom’s 8-over par final put her firmly into second place with a 15-over par 213 total. Rebecca Cox took third place after a 28-over par 226 weekend, while Jessica Weese and Holly Finley tied for fourth with 29-over par 227s.

The win was Pierce’s 11th of the 2018 season, but it was her first on the Elite Series of PDGA National Tour and Disc Golf Pro Tour events since the end of May. The victory was also her first in her last four starts, a midseason swoon she chalked up to a lack of confidence in her putting that dated back to her late-round collapse at the Beaver State Fling.

“I think it’s between the ears,” Pierce admitted. “It was one bad putting round that I started to question things, and all of a sudden it…turned into more…To have a lead like that and let it slip through my fingers because of 15-footers was not OK with me, and it just sat heavy every night going to bed.”

Her putting performance at Idlewild, then, was the boost she needed. Pierce connected on 90 percent of her attempts from inside the circle – second best in the 19-player Open Women’s field – and at one point she went 50 straight holes without missing a putt, she said.

Early in Sunday’s final, though, Pierce took the putter out of the equation. She parked the first two holes for tap-in birdies, then hit from 16 feet for another birdie on hole 4. That moved her initial two-shot cushion over Hokom to a five-shot pillow, giving her a little breathing room.

“I mean, I started pretty good, for sure,” Pierce said. "I was feeling good this morning. I started out really hot and started to pull away a little bit and could coast a little. But honestly, on that course you can’t count it until it’s over.”

Pierce was able to add to her lead in the middle of the round, taking only a double bogey on hole 7 as Hokom hit the skids. The sidearmer went OB on hole 4, missed the fairway on 7 for her own double bogey, and failed to scramble on holes 8 and 10 to fall off the pace.

Even when Pierce slipped slightly – she debated between throwing a forehand and backhand for her approach on 15 and, mistakenly, opted for the backhand – she had built an 11-shot lead. Her three bogeys and a double bogey in the last four holes affected her round rating, but never put her in danger of ceding the win.

Pierce now has a comfortable lead in the Disc Golf Pro Tour’s season-long standings, and she’ll take a week off before heading north to Smugglers’ Notch in Vermont as the pro ambassador to the United States Junior Disc Golf Championship. After just spending time in Emporia, Kansas, at the PDGA Junior Disc Golf World Championships, Pierce was feeling inspired by the friendships and camaraderie shared by the young competitors and jumped at the opportunity to see it again: "I think it's something we should all kind of strive to have in our mental game, just kind of cheering for each other just trying to execute.

And, yes, she’ll get in some early practice for Pro Worlds while she is there, too.