Cover photo by Stuart Mullenburg.

Two new names sit atop the leaderboards of the 2015 Pro Worlds, but new to being in the lead they certainly are not. Sarah Hokom #34563, having won the PDGA Professional World Championships in 2012 in Charlotte, NC, knows exactly how to manage the stress of and compete with the pressure of a world title hanging over her head. Will Schusterick #29064 has yet to add the title of “World Champion” to his résumé, but as a 3X US Disc Golf Champion,

If you know the courses in Charlotte, you know that they favor technical skills over raw power and distance. This among many other reasons is what helped propel Hokom to victory in 2012, as her deadly accurate forehand is built for tight wooded tee shots and approaches. While others were carding pars or bogeys at Knob Hill today, Hokom was hitting putts for birdies and pars.

One of the best forehands in the game; Sarah Hokom. #2015proworlds pic.twitter.com/ClduMF5Euu

— PDGA Live Scoring (@pdgalive) August 5, 2015

While most throw right handed players throw backhand hyzers, Hokom opts for a precision forehand anhyzer through the woods of Knob Hill (Hole 14).

Hokom was the only one in the Open Women’s division to finish under par for the round on the par 61 Knob Hill from the long tees. Her score of 59 (-2) is also the only 1000+ rated round for any woman thus far at the 2015 Pro Worlds. But it doesn’t end there. Hokom is also the only woman with an overall score under par, sitting at -2 going into Round 4 tomorrow morning at Slippery Rock.

Speaking of Slippery Rock, it was absolutely annihilated by the men in Open division A-Pool this morning and again in the afternoon. During the morning round, Will Schusterick set the bar at a nearly unreachable height, turning in a round score of 16 under par (51) unofficially rated at 1086. To do this he carded three pars, an eagle, and 14 birdies. With that round alone he jumped from the chase card to the overall leader and would have a chance to widen his lead on the same course in the afternoon.

Just when we thought 16 under par was unbeatable, Ricky Wysocki #38008 went on a run during the afternoon that nearly bested Will’s incredible morning round. Through the first seven holes alone, Ricky was already eight under par, carding six birdies and an eagle on the par 5 Hole 7. He finally took a par on his eighth hole of the day (Hole 9) only to follow that with four more birdies in a row. Having started on Hole 2 from the chase card, Ricky headed to the last hole of the round (Hole 1) already having matched Will’s round of -16.

Will Schusterick throws a forehand approach shot at Slippery Rock during Round 3.

In a surprisingly anticlimactic finish, he ended the day with a double bogey putting him at -14 for the round. Ricky will tee off for Round 4 tomorrow in second place, and that would have been the case regardless of the double bogey on his last hole, as Will had already gained enough ground for the point to be moot. Schusterick now has a lead of four heading into Round 4 but as we’ve said plenty of times in the past, there’s still a lot of golf left.

Meanwhile, at Moraine State Park (Lakeview DGC), another chase card competitor was making big moves. San Fran’s own Patrick Brown #25713 started the day at the bottom of the second card but would finish at the top of the leaderboard, tied with his Innova teammate Jay “Yeti” Reading #15864. Patrick’s round of eight under par at Moraine (58) was four better than anyone on the lead or chase cards, and was matched only by George Smith #4034.

Patrick will be joined on the lead card tomorrow by Yeti, Mike Moser #5557, and 14X World Champion, Ken Climo #4297. They’ll be playing just one round tomorrow at Deer Lakes in the afternoon once the Open division A-Pool men finish up their round there in the morning.

Live scoring on pdgalive.com and live streaming coverage by DiscGolfPlanet.TV will be up and running starting at 8:30am EDT and will continue throughout the day until the last Masters division putt hits the chains at Deer Lakes. Follow the PDGA on Facebook and Twitter for updates, pictures, and videos. High-resolution photos from the week are available for viewing and downloading on the PDGA Flickr page.

See you at Deer Lakes tomorrow as the 2015 Pro Worlds continue!