Due to overwhelming weather conditions at Rock Hill, South Carolina, the tournament officials along with the PDGA decided not to allow the USDGC’s final round to be played. While the USDGC and DGWT Staff would have wished for a better ending, all parties agreed that player safety is a matter that holds the uttermost importance.
With the cancellation of the 4th round, the results after Friday’s 3rd round will remain as the official end results of the event.
Koling is the New US Champion & Disc Golf World Tour Champion
Jeremy Koling, Charlotte, NC resident, who could easily be referred as a hometown favorite here at Winthrop, takes home a double victory. Not only does the win this week make him the new US Disc Golf Champion, but also the Disc Golf World Tour Champion, as the USDGC worked as the Championship event of the World Tour.
During the awards ceremony, Jeremy Koling, who also took home his first PDGA Major victory today, thanked his network of friends, family and sponsors who have supported him to become the player he is today.
Wysocki wins the DGWT Points Champion title
Now here is where things get interesting. Besides the DGWT Tour Champion title that was awarded to the winner of the USDGC, there was also the DGWT Points Champion title at stake here at the USDGC. The points title was to be awarded to the player with the most points out of all 5 DGWT events. Heading to the final event, there were three players still in position for the points victory, depending on their success here at Winthrop: Paul McBeth with 2263 points, Ricky Wysocki with 1763 points and Karl-Johan Nybo with 1462 points.
While going into the Tour Championship it looked like McBeth would be having a fairly firm grip of the championship, a total of 1000 points awarded for the winner of USDGC was still enough to cause changes in the order for the trio. In the end, what decided the winner, might be something McBeth won’t forget anytime soon.
As Wysocki took the 3rd place at USDGC, all McBeth would have had to do was to place 16th or better to secure the victory. But as we saw on the scoreboard and on The SpinTV’s feature card coverage, this was not McBeth’s week.
McBeth’s Scoring Error Decides the Winner of the Golden Jacket
The points race came down to McBeth’s scoring error on the 3rd round, that remained to be the final round of the event. On hole 18, McBeth got a 6, but turned in a scorecard that said 7. McBeth then later approached the tournament staff, stating he had posted the wrong score on his card. As clearly stated on PDGA rules, McBeth’s score was adjusted and 2 penalty strokes were added to his total round score, resulting in a 64 for the round. This score put McBeth on the 20th place, and with the cancellation of Saturday’s round, that remained as his final position in the event.
Should McBeth had posted his score of hole 18 correctly in the first place, he would have won the points Champion title and the golden DUDE Jacket and international bragging rights that comes with the title.
The Disc Golf World Tour congratulates the new US Champion & Disc Golf World Tour Champion Jeremy Koling and the DGWT Points Champion Ricky Wysocki!
Stay Tuned for More
There’s still quite a lot of media being currently processed at the tournament media dungeon, and if weather permits, we’ll keep posting videos and photos from #USDGC2016 throughout the weekend. Stay tuned for those and make sure to mark the 2017 DGWT stops to your calendar, as we’ll be back sooner than you might think!
