After 3 rounds of Team Doubles and one round of Singles, the race for the title of National Collegiate Disc Golf Team Champions is far from over. With the wind staying steady from the first throw of the day to the last, there was no way to predict what was going to happen as the teams in the Championship Flight took on two courses on the other side of the Hippodrome Disc Golf Complex property this morning and afternoon.

Coming off back-to-back solid rounds on Hogback and Old Glory yesterday, Augusta University teed off this morning as the overall leaders, but with nowhere near any sort of comfort zone between themselves and the school that would be chasing them throughout the day.

NCDGC Scoring Explained

This is perhaps the most complicated disc golf event you’ll ever come across, so let’s take a moment to go over how the scoring works. This scoring system holds true for each of the Flights: Championship Flight, First Flight, Second Flight, and Women’s Flight. For this explanation, let’s look at Augusta’s Championship Flight scores thus far.

Augusta played two rounds of Team Doubles on Day 1. Their Round 1 score was 53 and their Round 2 score was 46, combining for 99. At this point, their team total is 99, obviously.

The first round this morning for Day 2 was Singles. During singles play each team’s four players are split between two courses, with two on each. So for our example, Dustin Perry #36224 and Clint Kuglar #58751 played Old Glory while John Baker #54600 and Brad Minter #69858 played Hogback. Below are their respective scores for their singles rounds.  

We’re not even close to done yet. Stay with us. For the moment, those singles scores don’t matter in the big picture, but keep them in mind.

This afternoon, Augusta played their third round of Team Doubles and finished with a 45.

At this point, the equation to determine their total score is still very basic:

Dbls. R1 + Dbls. R2 + Dbls. R3 = 53 + 46 + 45 = 144

Tomorrow morning they will play their fourth round of Team Doubles on the Moody Woods course. Let’s assume that Augusta finishes at even par, 56. Now we take all four Team Doubles rounds and add them together:

Dbls. R1 + Dbls. R2 + Dbls. R3 + Dbls. R4 = 53 + 46 + 45 + 56 = 200

They will then play one last Singles round in the afternoon. For this example, let’s assume the players shoot the exact same scores as their first Singles round.

Now, a new variable is needed for the scores equation. That variable is the sum of the top three round scores from Hogback combined with the top three round scores from Old Glory. Those six round scores are then summed up and added to the total from the four rounds of Team Doubles. In the Augusta example, the Singles scores that would be used are:

The rest of the scores are dropped, and the sum of the six scores is then added to the total from all four Team Doubles rounds. In this example, the Singles Score would be a total of 336 (52 + 56 + 60 + 52 + 56 + 60).

Now we have the final equation that determines who will compete in the Team Doubles finals on Saturday. The top 32 overall scores will make the cut.  

Dbls. R1 + Dbls. R2 + Dbls. R3 + Dbls. R4 + Singles Scores = 53 + 46 + 45 + 56 + 336 = 536

That’s pretty much it, except for the fact that there is also a Singles finals round for the top 28 players (plus ties) on Friday night. The Singles Finals rounds do not affect the team championship at all. It is for the honor of becoming an Individual National Collegiate Champion, many of whom have gone on to do big things in the disc golf world. College Disc Golf also awards All-American Honors. The top 10 individuals make the first team and 11-20 make second team.

But I digress…

Championship Flight Team Doubles

Now that you are an NCDGC scoring expert, let’s talk about what we know so far, AKA let’s talk about only the total scores of the first three Team Doubles rounds and see where we’re at.

Despite using Augusta as an example for the NCDGC scoring school above, it was North Carolina State that shined in Team Doubles this afternoon. Starting on the chase card today with California State University-Monterey Bay (CSUMB), they came out swingin’, tallying up five birdies in their first nine holes. Their back nine was even more impressive, snagging seven more birdies to finish the round bogey-free at 12 under par.

Augusta is now tied for the lead with NC State, with CSUMB sitting one back. Ferris State uncharacteristically fell apart during Team Doubles, finishing their round at just three under par and dropping all the way to 8th place, tied with five other teams. CSUMB is now sitting alone in 3rd place with Liberty University alone in 4th place.

Falzone hits a nice birdie to tie it up with Augusta. CSUMB birdies as well. 3-way tie for 1st. #NCDGC pic.twitter.com/51IPBR4kBU

— PDGA Live Scoring (@pdgalive) April 14, 2016

Alec Falzone #57550 of NC State hits a great birdie putt on Hole 18 on Dunipace Dunes.

Keep in mind that all of this is noteworthy at best, as everything can change based on what happens tomorrow. Not only is there still one more round of Team Doubles to be played, but there’s also the second round of Singles, which can very seriously affect any of the team scores to date. Not to mention the fight for the individual title.

No matter what happens, it’s guaranteed to be an extremely close battle from here on out. We’ll see the Singles finals tomorrow night, plus by the end of the day we’ll also know which 10 teams (plus ties) will have made it through the complex scoring algorithm to the Finals on Saturday.

Women's Flight

The women's team for the most part has been a battle bewteen two schools since the opening round. North Texas and CSUMB have been back and forth for two days, but today one team prevailed and pulled into a significant lead; North Texas. The North Texas squaad, consisting of Angelina Bissey #79157, Allison Carlton #61493, and Holly Gage #73457, are now leading by seven over CSUMB. 

Much like the Championship Flight, all of this can change easily, because both of the womens' singles rounds will be played back-to-back tomorrow.

As usual, scores will be up and running on pdgalive.com and we’ll be providing updates, pictures, and videos via @pdgalive on Twitter. High resolution photos from the day are available for viewing and/or downloading on the PDGA Flickr page.