Round Two Update
After Day Two of the 2023 PDGA World Championships, the new guard is making their names heard. In the MPO, most of the players in the Top 10 are under the age of 25 with two athletes tied on the podium who are under the age of 20. In the lead we have Grady Shue, husband of Paige Shue who won here at Smuggs in 2018. Grady is tied with Niklas Anttila, the Finnish superstar with a killer instinct for Majors. Calvin Heimburg sits 6 strokes back, but still has three rounds to mount his comeback.
In the FPO, Kristin Tattar has already built a lead that will be hard to overcome. She has 7 strokes over 2nd and 12 strokes over 3rd. That said, a Worlds podium is a win all-to-itself. The FPO will be battling for 2nd unless Kristin takes her foot off the gas. Team Innova’s Eveliina Salonen and Alex Benson are tied for 3rd place and will be on the 3rd round lead card.
Team Innova FPO Highlights
Eveliina Salonen
Eveliina Salonen is back in the States for the first time since Jonesboro and she looks the best she has all season. She currently sits in a tie for 3rd place. Eveliina is 1st in C1 Hits in Regulation, 2nd in Strokes Gained Tee to Green, and 2nd in Parked percentage.
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Alex Benson
Alex Benson has been playing consistent, smart golf, taking pars, and getting birdies when they come. If she can clean up just a couple mistakes from her first two rounds, Benson’s brand of play could result in a hot round on the day. She is getting work done on the putting green and from the tee.
Henna Blomroos
Henna Blomroos is looking dialed off the tee, as always. She leads the field in C2 Hits in Regulation and has only taken one OB stroke so far this tournament.
Jennifer Allen
Innova Team Captain, Jennifer Allen, is hoping for the best Worlds finish of her career this year. She currently sits in 12th and her best ever result was 7th. In Round Two, Jen had a three hole stretch that kept her from shooting one of the best rounds of the day. In the final three days, she will need to avoid those lapses of focus to secure a Worlds Top 10.
Ohn Scoggins
Fan favorite and recent Elite winner, Ohn Scoggins, had to drop out of the 2023 PDGA World Championships due to injury. Ohn is such a fighter and played two rounds through pain even though it was clearly affecting her throws. After her fans, friends, family, and team all encouraged her to withdraw for her own health’s sake, Ohn reluctantly pulled out of the competition. The outpouring of love that has been sent her direction since then has been beautiful. Get well, Ohn! We’ll see you back out there soon.
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Team Innova MPO Highlights
Calvin Heimburg
Photo by DGPT
Calvin has been just a couple small mistakes away from playing the same level of golf as the athletes at the top of the leaderboard. He has birdied half the holes so far this week and if he can clean up those mistakes for the final three rounds, Vinny is still well in the mix for the win.
Joel Freeman
Joel Freeman put together a super solid second round until the final hole. On 18, he took an unfortunate double bogey, but his score of -4 has kept him in the conversation for a World title. Joel will have to catch fire through the final three rounds if he wants to make up his six stroke deficit on the leaders.
Jeremy Koling
The Big Innova storyline from Day Two has to be Big Jerm’s smokin -11 to launch himself 110 places up the leaderboard. That round was one stroke off the hot round of the day on Fox Run. Jerm made 100% of his inside-the-circle putts and was 61% in C1 Hits in Regulation. If Jerm plays three more rounds as well as he did on Day Two, he could secure his best ever Worlds result.
Nathan Queen
Nathan kept it together for his round on Fox Run, the harder of the two courses for a left-handed, woods-lover like Queen. He’ll be back at Brewster for Round Three, looking to match his efforts from Wednesday.
Nate Sexton
Nothing like an ace to turn your day around! Sexton was going through a tough stretch in his round, coming off a double bogey, when he skipped one into the bucket from 320 feet.
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Pools Reshuffle for Day Three
For the third round of the PDGA World Championships, the pools will reshuffle. The top half of players by score will head to Brewster Ridge for their third round while the bottom half stays at Fox. Catch the action live on the Disc Golf Network. Visit Innovadiscs.com for Daily Team Recaps.
