Wysocki Wins Big at 26th Annual Texas State Disc Golf Championship

Story posted April 1, 2021 in CommRadio, Sports by Zech Lambert

It’s been over a year since the disc golf world got to experience the National Tour, and the return did not disappoint.

The pros stayed in Texas following the Pro Tour Silver Series event—the Open at Belton—and made their way northeast to Tyler, Texas for the 26th Annual Texas State Disc Golf Championship.

The Dogwood Course at Lindsey Park is one of the most challenging and demanding courses on tour, featuring technical shot after technical shot.

The course is so tough, in fact, that there is a warning sign on a rock prior to the starting hole suggesting only “highly skilled golfers” play.

Highly skilled golfers certainly showed out, though, including 21-year-old Casey White and veteran Matt Orum, who both managed to make each lead card for the event.

Unfortunately for those two, the man who seemingly runs Texas disc golf—Ricky Wysocki—found his way to the lead card for the final round and put the pedal to the floor in round three.

Fresh off his win at Belton the weekend prior, Wysocki found himself on chase card for round two.

While on chase card, he shot just one stroke off the hot round that Kevin Jones shot and just so happened to be a course record.

The dominant moving day performance from Wysocki was enough to tie himself with Orum for the lead and catapult himself to the lead card for the third and final round.

Wysocki would tie Jones’ course record of -11 in round three and cruise to a relatively easy victory, beating Orum, who finished in second by four strokes.

The Campobello, South Carolina native would walk away with his sixth career win at the Texas State Championships and his 12th win in the state of Texas alone.

Possibly the most impressive feat Wysocki was able to pull off, though, was his putting from inside the circle.

Due to just how technical the lines at Dogwood are, parking holes is difficult to come by, so to have success, circle-one putting is imperative.

Wysocki checked that box as he did not miss a single putt from inside the circle on the entire weekend while also connecting on eight of his 13 putts from circle two for a staggering 61.5% circle-two putting percentage.

Coming into the event, Wysocki was considered by many to be the favorite, and he relished that title and felt as though he had earned it; he certainly lived up to expectations.

Many of the top players will take a weekend off before heading back out for the Vintage Open, a part of the Pro Tour Silver series.

As for the National Tour, the second stop will be April 28 at the Dynamic Discs Open in Emporia, Kansas.

 

Zech Lambert is a junior majoring in broadcast journalism. To contact him, email zbl5146@psu.edu.

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