Heimburg, Allen both score second Las Vegas Challenge titles

 

As Catrina Allen paced herself through the final round of FPO division play at the Las Vegas Challenge on Sunday, Calvin Heimburg and Kevin Jones took the MPO division to the tournament’s final hole at Wildhorse DGC in Henderson, NV.

Jones came into the final round of the tournament with a two stroke advantage over Anthony Barela. While the former played solid golf through the front to hold that differential on the field most of the round, the latter struggled through the back nine of the final 18. Barela could not find the disc for swirling winds that encompassed the region the previous few days as well. He ultimately slid to eighth at minus-25.

But Calvin Heimburg snuck up five spots on Saturday to challenge Jones for the championship on Hole 16 of Round 4. After both parring the 17th, Heimburg smoked his drive over the water on the par 4 18th to just hold in-bounds by inches, Jones’s effort was low and forced down by the wind. He ended up wet and out-of-bounds. After a clean approach that left him about 150 feet from the hole, Jones attempted a miracle put that almost paid off for a scramble par.

Instead, he missed, allowing Heimburg to lay up under the hole and tap in to win his second Las Vegas Challenge championship with a score of -31. Jones was second with minus-30, followed by Ezra Aderhold (-29), Kyle Klein and Drew Gibson (-28), and Paul McBeth (-27).

Catrina Allen dominated much of the field through the opening three rounds of FPO play, ultimately earning her a second consecutive LVC championship. Allen held an eight shot advantage at the tee to Hole 1 on Sunday morning, but ran into some bogey trouble on the front nine and failed to anything below par.

Meanwhile, Missy Gannon took advantage of Allen’s string of pars with a pair of birdies to sneak up behind the leader. At one point, she came within two strokes, but Allen battled back to finish even for the day and minus-20 for the tournament. Gannon, who shot minus-5 Sunday, claimed second at minus-16. Holyn Handley came into the clubhouse nine under par for the hot round of the day. It allowed her to move up three spots to finish on the podium in third.

The Disc Golf Pro Tour now moves to the Deep South with WACO Championship presented by Prodigy scheduled for March 10 to 12.

 – Mangy Coyote Media

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