Last year, it was Simon Lizotte crushing the competition at the Memorial with his Discmania teammate Eagle McMahon right behind him in second. After a trip around the sun, the duo flipped positions as McMahon steered clear of trouble and grabbed victory in the first stop on the 2019 Disc Golf Pro Tour.
McMahon trailed Lizotte after the first two rounds, but grabbed the tournament lead after round three and never looked back.
50 Birdies, One Bogey
After McMahon’s blazing finish at last weekend’s Las Vegas Challenge, momentum was on his side and as the play shifted to Arizona, he came out just as hot. McMahon opened the tournament with a 41 (-15) which turned out to be his best round of the tournament. While the scores slowly rose over the weekend, that doesn’t mean that he had a bad round at all. He followed the 41 with a 43, 47, and 52. In fact, his first three rounds had an average 1090 rating.
To try and put McMahon’s tournament into perspective, they played 72 holes and McMahon carded a birdie on 50 of them. The remaining 22 holes included just one bogey. It’s easy to say that McMahon was in the zone.
Lizotte Flies into Second
At the start of the Memorial, Lizotte turned heads with a blazing 40 (-16) to open the tournament. A par on the first hole and par on Hole 9 were the only exceptions on the birdie train. He followed that effort with a 42 (-14) which kept him in the lead midway through the tournament.
Over the next two rounds, Lizotte would run into a little bit more trouble than at the start of the tournament and couldn’t hold back McMahon from leaping him in the standings.
As the final round wound down, Lizotte needed to pick things up to assure himself of the runner-up finish. He shook off the slow start in the final round and birdied four of the final five holes to help him secure second place.
Team Discmania Results
Men’s Open
1. Eagle McMahon (-49)
2. Simon Lizotte (-45)
T-41. Nate Perkins (-22)
72. AJ Carey (-11)
T-107. Colten Montgomery (-3)
T-135. Duncan Schulz (+3)
Men’s Masters
27. Bob Kulchuk (+13)