What an exciting day we witnessed here at the 2016 United States Disc Golf Championship, the legendary end-of-the-season PDGA Major that doubles this year as the DGWT Championship. The day started with a thick overcast, that would make way to beautiful sunny skies by noon. Likely thanks to Hurricane Matthew wreaking havoc on the Atlantic Ocean, there was stiff breezes of wind on the Winthrop Gold course challenging the players again today.
The setting for the 2nd round definitely wasn't lacking in excitement: The reigning Masters division World Champion Patrick Brown populated the top spot with the young Coloradoan sensation Eagle McMahon. Behind the duo, the reigning world champ Ricky Wysocki was at striking distance, three strokes behind. Completing the lead group was the Charlotte native Jeremy Koling, who surely had his share of fans in the gallery today. As for the rest of the field, there was more than a few handfuls of players within reach of the top 4 spots.
Video: Eagle McMahon chose not to attack the birdie on Hole 8. Find more videos like this here. Many have said that the 18-year-old Eagle McMahon plays well above his age. This fact was clearly visible on the course today, as like yesterday, McMahon was able to dodge bogeys on 17 holes of the extremely challenging Winthrop Gold 18-hole course. Every bit of McMahon's game was well thought out and the only clear mistake during today's round came on hole 9, where he tried to attack the basket off the tee for the eagle, but ended up fairly wide left in the Hazard area. Luckily for McMahon, the new hole 9 is pretty forgiving for those who try to reach the green on their drives and he walked away from the hole with a par on his card.
Video: Eagle McMahon with a great recovery after rolling OB on his drive on the 14th. Find more videos like this here.
As per all other penalties on McMahon's card today, just about all of them could have easily been inside the ropes too. The line between a good shot and one that goes OB is very narrow on this championship course.
Video: Eagle McMahon was close to getting an Eagle on hole 5. Find more videos like this here. McMahon was able to pick up a total of 8 birdies today, while he actually would have had the chance to go even for a couple more, should there had been a need to play extra aggressive. He was also close to score an Eagle on holes 5 and 10, as on the Par 5 hole 5 he hit the basket with his upshot and on the Par 4 Hole 10 he missed his putt ever so slightly from just inside the circle. McMahon, rooted by a vast collective of friends and family, will head to moving day with a minimum of 4 stroke lead.
Video: Jeremy Koling with a big birdie on hole 12. Find more videos like this here.
Besides McMahon, the other name of the day was Jeremy Koling, who - just like during round 1 - made some serious moves on the back 9 section of the course. Koling's -7 for the day was the shared hot round of the 2nd set of 18 holes in the event. Aptly enough, this score was shared with McMahon, which puts these two on spots 1 and 2 atop the leaderboard. Koling's five under for the back 9 was well ahead of the rest of the field for holes 10 to 18 here at Winthrop Gold.
Video: Wysocki's sidearm worked in mysterious ways on couple of holes. Find more videos like this here. Fort Mill, South Carolina, native Ricky Wysocki, who started the day on the 3rd place, was just one shot behind McMahon after the first 13 holes of the 2nd round. Despite starting the round very well, Ricky's scorecard suffered from 2 bad sidearm shots that resulted in bogeys on holes 14 and 16. Over these two holes Jeremy Koling was able to gain 4 strokes over Ricky, while the McMahon's equivalent number was 3. Come hole 18, perhaps Wysocki's concentration was already on the moving day round, as he carded a double bogey - something that's very rare for the reigning World Champ.
Nikko Locastro, who placed 3rd at the Worlds this year, will be replacing Patrick Brown on the lead card on the moving day round. Locastro kept his game together very nicely during today's round, with the exception of a single double bogey on the most difficult hole on the course, the infamous hole 13. For Brown however, today was simply not his day. The San Francisco native will need to start moving day on the tied 8th place on the 2nd card tomorrow.
Other honourable mentions for the 2nd round include Michael Johansen and Cameron Colglazier, who both returned a -6 score today. They'll both head to tomorrow's 3rd round on the 2nd card, with 2013 USDGC champ Steve Brinster rounding out the card with the 2nd to last tee time. On the international side, Finns Jalle Stoor, Pasi Koivu and Teemu Nissinen are joined with Denmark's KJ Nybo in the top 15.
With two more rounds to go in the Championship, the door is still open for a lot of exciting events. As the 2 first rounds were competed in dry circumstances, the situation is set to change for the final two, as Hurricane Matthew has been forecasted to bring rain and possibly even thunderstorms for Friday and Saturday.
Video: Cartrina Allen on hole 3 today. Find more videos like this here.
During the 2nd round, our social media team was following mostly the lead card on the course. As a result, you can find a lot of photo updates, as well as hole-specific play-by-play videos on our instagram account. Make sure to check them out here!
We also have The SpinTV production crew piecing together a wrap up show to be released later tonight. The show will feature select plays from the moving day round, as well as player interviews and Disc Golf Metrix analysis. Stay tuned for the show later this evening and while you're at it, check out last night's Wrap Up show below:
We also highly recommend checking out the leaderboard and Metrix and course stats from round 2. The new feature we added at the European Masters, player- and hole-specific instagram videos on the scoring interface, is in place here at Winthrop too, so make sure to check those out by clicking the tiny red arrows where available.
The majority of the Metrix stats are available for registered users only, so make sure to register here if you haven’t already! And if you’re in luck, registering may pay off in a big way, as we’re raffling a limited edition DGWT Grip Equipment bag among our followers after the event.
There's still plenty of action to come, so make sure to check back tomorrow for Moving Day action from the 2016 United States Disc Golf Championship!