While most people were talking about Paul McBeth’s second straight course record breaking round as the last cards were being turned in at Moraine Lakeview DGC this morning, a handful of people were talking about something much more serious. Word was spreading that the current Open Women’s division leader and 2012 PDGA Pro World’s Champion, Sarah Hokom #34563, had been in a car accident.

And it wasn’t a typical run-of-the-mill fender-bender either. Hokom’s vehicle was rear-ended at roughly 50mph as she waited at a stop sign. The force of the collision was enough to propel her vehicle into the oncoming lane, where she was struck again, head-on, by a large truck all in a matter of seconds. Her car...totaled. Her desire to compete...unphased.

Sarah’s near-miss with certain death didn’t hinder her spirits. Surrounded by police and demolition clean-up crews, her only concern was getting from the accident site to Deer Lakes Park. Even in the most serious of moments, the true competitor in her shined through.

By the time Sarah arrived at Deer Lakes and caught up with the lead card, she had already missed two holes, carding 7s (par + four) for both, per the PDGA’s Official Rules of Disc Golf. Luckily, she had spent the three days prior putting up some of the most impressive rounds of her career and had built up a five throw lead. When she teed off for the first time this afternoon after involuntarily taking back-to-back quadruple bogeys, she was still sitting in 2nd place, down by just four throws to 2014 PDGA Women’s World Champion, Catrina Allen #44184.

Because multiple divisions were on the course at the same time, the FPO lead card started the round on Hole 7. On Holes 13-15, Hokom’s deficit went from four to five but she quickly gained three back on Allen on Hole 16, where an uncharacteristic missed putt inside of 10 feet rolled away, eventually resulting in a triple bogey for Allen.

After another two-throw swing on Hole 1 and a steep uphill birdie putt on Hole 2, Hokom regained the lead from Allen. They would eventually finish the round tied for 1st place with overall scores of 2 over par for the week (323), but they are nowhere near a Sarah vs Cat race to the finish. 2X Pro Women’s World Champion Paige Pierce #29190 is just one throw off the lead in 3rd place, while 3X Pro Women’s World Champion Val Jenkins #17495 sits in 4th, two back from Pierce.

McBeth vs Moraine

SPOILER ALERT! McBeth wins. Details below.

Yesterday’s record-breaking performance at Deer Lakes by Paul McBeth #27523 in which he finished a mind-blowing 15 under par, bogey-free, was jaw-dropping to say the least. Even Simon Lizotte #8332 commented about it during his acceptance speech after winning 2014 Euopean Player of the Year award last night at the PDGA Awards Banquet. "I was surprised when I found out I was winning this award. Almost as surpirsed a I was when I counted Paul's scorecard today", said Lizotte on stage with his award. 

But we’ve all seen competitors have “one of those days” where everything was working. However, what we witnessed today was something new. Back-to-back course records with back-to-back rounds of 15 under par on two different championship-level courses? That's just ridiculous.

If you saw the energy and excitement beaming off of Paul after he finished his round at Deer Lakes yesterday afternoon, you would’ve probably suspected that he was capable of doing something incredible at Moraine the next morning. But, if you’ve seen him play enough and you’ve seen him at that level of enthusiasm before, you wouldn’t have suspected it was possible, you would have simply expected it as an inevitability.

Two days ago, McBeth finished his second round at Slippery Rock with an eight throw deficit between himself and the leader at the time, 3X USDGC Champion Will Schusterick #29064. In his first three rounds, Will carded 34 birdies and two eagles, with just a single bogey. During Round 4 at Deer Lakes, despite turning in a bogey-free eight under par, he lost seven strokes to McBeth’s lights-out round of 15 under.

Paul McBeth's disc glimmers in the sunlight at Moraine Lakeview DGC. Photo courtesy of @DiscGolfFarm.

McBeth quickly put himself in the lead this morning at Moraine Lakeview DGC, carding birdies on Holes 1 and 3 with Will forced to settle for par. The downward spiral continued for Will both mentally and on the leaderboard as McBeth gained an astonishing eight more throws on Holes 5-10. Meanwhile, Ricky Wysocki #38008 was also gaining ground and eventually passed Will to move into 2nd by the end of the round.

McBeth heads into the semifinals tomorrow morning back at Moraine Lakeview with a lead of eight over Wysocki in 2nd place, 11 over Schusterick in 3rd place, and 14 over Locastro in 4th. This sort of separation is extremely rare with players at this skill level. By the time you go from 1st place to 8th place, the difference in overall score is already at 20. Wysocki and/or Schusterick will need to play flawlessly to gain enough ground on McBeth to have a shot at the title during the Final 9 layout at Slippery Rock tomorrow afternoon.

It doesn’t get any bigger than this! The 2015 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships final day! The semifinals begin at 8:00am EDT. Follow the hole-by-hole scores on pdgalive.com with updates, pictures, and videos via @pdgalive on Twitter and @PDGA on Instagram. And of course, watch it all streaming live online on DiscGolfPlanet.tv!