Gurthie sits one ahead of the field after the opening round. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen / DGPT

Double Down on Double G

Leave it to the Ledgestone Insurance Open to bring us one of the tightest-packed leaderboards we've seen this year. There are only five throws that separate our leader, Garrett Gurthie from the rest of the top 10. Gurthie finished the round 9 under par, behind him is A.J. Risley and Chris Dickerson tied at 8 under par, and there is a four-way tie for fourth between Gregg Barsby, Matthew Orum, Nate Sexton, and Kevin Jones. The Eureka Layout can be pretty crushing though, the MPO field averaged 5.12 over par with the likes of Josh Anthon, last year’s winner, and Ricky Wysocki finishing at 5 under, and Paul McBeth finishing at even. It’s also worth noting that none of the player’s on tomorrow’s lead card finished the round without taking an OB penalty. So let’s take a look at how it all happened.

Garrett Gurthie might seem like a new name to you this year if you hadn’t been watching disc golf a few years ago, but the casual crush of Double G is something the disc golf world has known about for a while now. Garrett is living proof that you can drive for dough and putt for show. He's hitting Fairways at the same rate he's making putts inside Circle 1. That's honestly pretty rare to see in a hot round at a top-tier tournament. Leading the division in Fairway hits, ranked 2nd in making Circle 1 in regulation, but 92nd in putting inside circle 1 shows that a thrower can still make his mark in this new era of disc golf. Just compare his stats to our current second placeholder, A.J. Risley.

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Jessica Weese and Paige Pierce Snag the Hot Rounds at Northwood

As the midday sun reaches its peak the Open WOmen's division has wrapped up its first round of the 2018 Discraft Ledgestone Insurance Open. For the women today, it was a roller coaster of scores above and below par throughout the round. Tied for first, shooting the hot rounds of the day at 2 under par is Jessica Weese and Paige Pierce. Northwoods proved unable to create large separation in the field though. Catrina Allen and Paige Bjerkaas are tied for third at 1 under par, and Cynthia Ricciotti is in fifth at even. Missy Gannon, Sarah Hokom, and Hannah McBeth round out the top eight in a three-way tie for sixth place at 1 over par. If today’s competition is any indication of what this weekend will bring then hold on tight, because this is about to get good.

Before we jump into individual players round its worth taking a look at how the field scored against the Northwood Park layout. If you are looking at the live scores over at Udisclive.com then make sure you read the fine Print – FPO starts on hole 4. This was a decision made by the tournament staff, based on their knowledge of the course to smooth the flow of play for players and spectators. Holes 1-3 are some of the tightest wooded fairways on the course and have been the site of major back-ups this morning. For the sake of this discussion we'll talk about the holes as they are numbered instead of the order they were played. Besides those three holes, the front nine was where the field scored, while the back nine whittled away their hard-earned under par scores. A number of players experienced huge swings in scoring with some players making it to four down only to finish even or over par at the end. The course requires persistent attention, and the players brought relentless focus to keep the scoreboard this tight.

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