It was an incredible Memorial Day weekend on a variety of levels. For many of us the weather was delightful and allowed for casual rounds with friends and family on our local courses. There was also plenty of tournament action for those seeking the thrills of competition.
The most notable event was the inaugural, St. Jude Disc Golf Charity Invitational in Seaside, CA. Competition took a back seat to the much larger mission of raising funds for the St. Jude Hospital. Team Innova lead the way raising $34,614 for the cause, and the event as a whole raised $214,708. By all accounts the event was a tremendous success, especially for its debut. There’s still time to donate if you’d like to do so.
What a sick putt for the win!!! Val Jenkins is your first St Jude DG Charity Invitational winner! Congrats! pic.twitter.com/lLK1ENxHY5
— PDGA Live Scoring (@pdgalive) May 24, 2015
Team Innova had a pair of winners on the course as well. Valarie Jenkins won in heroic fashion draining a lengthy jump putt on the third hole of sudden death to slip past Catrina Allen. Jessica Weese was also in the hunt finishing just two shots back and securing the 3rd place spot. Kevin McCoy won Masters in convincing style. He grabbed the lead early and held on to win by five over Bamba Rico.
Paul McBeth cooled off a little this weekend and had to settle for a 2nd place finish. Three time US Champion, Will Schusterick had the hot hand affording him the Open Division win. McBeth did lead the way in fundraising however. Paul alone raised $21,023 helping to ensure everyone was a winner no matter how well they played.
Innova had two other pairs of winners over the weekend. Des Reading won Open Women at the Des Moines Challenge in Iowa, while teammate Justin McLuen took care of business in Masters. Then in North Carolina Barry Schultz and Brian Schweberger were marching to victory at the King’s Cup in Kinston. Barry took home the Open title and Brian was tops in Masters.
Two other nice wins were earned by KJ Nybo and JD Ramirez. KJ won the Oslo Open in Norway in an Open field that had 100 total competitors. That is stout competition for a PDGA sanctioned B-tier event! JD Ramirez got the win in his home state of Texas. He earned the Masters title at the Dogwood Classic in Tyler, TX.
The PDGA National Tour will be back in action June 12-14 for the Beaver State Fling. The event is held in Estacada, OR just outside of Portland. If you are in the area come on out. We look forward to seeing you there!