The strongest field in the 7 year history of The Challenge at Goat Hill Park – Driven by Innova descended on Oceanside the weekend of May 3-5, 2019, and when the last putt fell and the post-tournament concert cranked up the volume, Canadian Thomas Gilbert walked away with the championship and the tallest of the Goat trophies, topping a field of 67 Open players in this Disc Golf Pro Tour Test Event. Gilbert strung together rounds of 57, 58 and 59 (rated 1049, 1042 and 1035) for a total of 174 on the par-69 championship Disc Goat layout. These were the hot scores for rounds 1 and 2 and the second-best score for the final round, giving Gilbert a 33-under-par, 5-shot victory over second-place Seppo Paju (28-under, 179) with three more strokes separating Seppo with third-place-tied Kevin Jones and A.J. Risley (25-under, 182).
Long-throwing Jennifer Allen from Phoenix, AZ came out on top of the 5-player pro women’s field, carding a 1001-rated 64 in the first round on her way to a 2-under par 202 total and a dominating 39 throw margin. San Diego local Natalie Brown came on top of the close battle for second place.
Thomas jumped out to a first round lead with that 57, two shots ahead of Seppo and A.J. and then extended his lead by two more throws after round two. His combination of long-bomber distance (Boss, Destroyer) and clutch putting (Yeti Pro Aviar) in the afternoon ocean breeze across all three days was the combination that gave him the win. Gilbert was third in fairway hit percentage (92%), behind only Risley (95%) and Clint Calvin (94%), led the field in Circle 1 in regulation (72%) and was 5th (82%) in Circle 1X putting (Eric Oakley‘s 92% was the best). Full-field results for the 3-day A-Tier event can be found on the PDGA website, with additional stats on both the A-Tier players and the Goat Hill Park course at UDiscLive.com.
One hundred eighty-seven players participated in this year’s Challenge. Along with the Men’s Pro Open and Women’s Pro Open divisions that played three days, winners were crowned in eleven other divisions on the two-day side of the tournament. Those winners are:
- Shane Dehner – Men’s Pro Masters 40+
- Tom Juhl – Men’s Pro Masters 50+
- Jeff Nichols – Men’s Pro Masters 60+
- Jesse Henderson – Men’s Advanced Amateur
- Courtney Weekley – Women’s Advanced Amateur
- Quinton Henry – Men’s Amateur Masters 40+
- Jeff Lynch – Men’s Amateur Masters 50+
- John Clemmons – Men’s Amateur Masters 60+
- Lucas Hausrath – Men’s Intermediate Amateur
- Kayla Key – Women’s Intermediate Amateur
- Dwayne Allen – Men’s Recreational Amateur
- Full B-Tier results can be found at: https://www.pdga.com/tour/event/39361
Check out complete full-round video coverage of the feature card (Round 1) and lead cards (Round 2 & 3) filmed by Central Coast Disc Golf on our “Check Out the Course” page. Many thanks to Goat Hill Park for their hospitality and to our title sponsor, Innova-Champion Discs for their tremendous support in 2019.
