Trek Disc Golf

The Des Moines challenge is currently under way in Iowa. I missed the mark on getting a preview out with the July 4th holiday, but will hopefully get recaps out after each round. FPO is in the middle of round 2 round now, Holyn Handley and Ohn Scoggins are tied at the top with Natlie Ryan a stroke behind, and Hailey King two back.

On the MPO side, I caught up on Jomez coverage this morning, watching the feature card of Simon Lizotte, Cole Redalen, Anthony Barela, and Gannon Buhr. Pickard Park, where the TruBank Des Moines Challenge is held, is a solid course. It is not one of the best on tour, but it has carved out a solid place on tour. Clearly, it has the fan support and a good atmosphere, a legitimate sponsor in TruBank, and hole designs that fit well on the tour. As a viewer, it is a fun mixture of holes, and provides some a good balance of scoring and difficulty. Sometimes, I think about a course based on how memorable the holes are, and Pickard has several that stick out in my mind.

As for the first round results, on the feature card, Simon and Cole let there round go in the back nine. Both taking high numbers with double and triple bogeys, putting them out of contention fairly quickly. Gannon was right near the top until hole 18 where he took a tough double bogey, looking mortal out there. But he still finished -6, three strokes off the lead. And AB finished with a bogey free -7, two strokes off the lead. He missed some putts from C2 (0 for 7), but overall played well enough to be within striking distance.

As for our leader, Matt Orum sits alone at -9. Raven Newsome and Braeden Sides are at -8, and there are a slew of players at -7. Matt played solid, going 100% from C1X and not taking an OB stroke the whole round. Will be interesting to see how things shake out on day 2 with so many players in the field bunched at the top. Let it rip!