What does it take to be the best woman in the sport of disc golf? Skills, determination, perseverance, and plenty of passion. If you’re embarking on your own entry into the exciting disc golf world, you may be wondering, who are the best professional women disc golfers?
The Top 7 Women In Disc Golf:
The list above is the top seven women in disc golf according to their official rankings on the PDGA website at the time this article was written. To take a look at these rankings for yourself, please visit the official rankings page found here.
In this article, we will explore the accomplishments of each of these exemplary women. Not only that, but we’ll talk about who they are as people, how they found disc golf, their favorite discs, sponsors, and more.
Let’s begin!
1. Paige Pierce
Paige Pierce is currently the number-one female disc golf player. Pierce, born in Plano, Texas in 1991, may be young, but she’s been playing disc golf since she was four years old. Her father introduced her to the sport, and she entered the field professionally in 2009. By the next year, she was touring as a pro disc golfer.
In her decade of playing, she’s won the PGDA World Championship on four separate occasions: in 2011, 2013, 2015, and, most recently, in 2017. For that last game, her winning score was 259.
Not only does Pierce have 4 PDGA championships under her belt, but she took home the United States Disc Golf Championship Performance Flight Division victory as well, breaking down a huge barrier for women. None had ever achieved that feat before Pierce.
Most recently, in 2018, she won the United States Women’s Disc Golf Championships with a score of 246. Paige has been ranked the best women’s disc golfer in 2014 and 2015 as well as this year.
As of 2018, Paige signed a three-year deal with Dynamic Discs, a favorite disc maker of hers as well as a sponsor. KEEN, a footwear brand, is another sponsor.
2. Sarah Hokom
A master in sidearm drives, Sarah Hokom is next up on our list. As the second top women’s disc golf player, Hokom deserves some major credit for her extensive and impressive list of accolades. Hailing from Caldwell, Indiana, Hokom was born in 1982. She won the US Women’s Championship two times over and even held the World Championship once.
Discraft was the first disc golf brand to sponsor her, way back when she started her career in 2009. By 2011, she had had her first major victory at the PGDA King of the Lake, a National Tour event. That was her first of three National Tour wins in 2011 alone, even if one of them netted her a second-place spot.
By 2015, Hokom had signed up with Legacy Discs, her new sponsor. That was also the year she decided to start Cali Connection Disc Golf, a retailer under her name for disc golfers. As of this year, she’s partnered with MVP Discs.
Her top scores include the 2012 PGDA World Championships, where she won with a score of 403 over Valarie Jenkins. At 2011’s King of the Lake, she beat Catrina Allen, also on this list, with a score of 245.
3. Eveliina Salonen
The first top female player not from the US is Eveliina Salonen who comes from Finland. Born in 1999, Salonen has earned several championships, including a few Finnish ones and a single European Championship in disc golf as well.
Entering the sport professionally in 2012, Salonen first started playing in 2014. Within a year, she had taken home her first victory in the abovementioned Finnish disc golfing championships. That had been a six-throw event. Salonen continued strong in 2016, winning the Finnish title again, defeating Henna Blomroos (more on her later) with a difference of 13 throws.
Did we mention she was only 17 years old when she did all this? Those victories really cemented her status as a top disc golfer. It was no wonder that, by 2017, Innova Discs had asked her to join their team as a sponsor.
Salonen came to the US for the first time in 2017, playing in two championships, both of which she didn’t come within the first three spots. Still, she ended the year strong, bringing home yet another Finnish Championship, her third to date. The next year, she earned her European title, breaking an eight-year dry spell in which no other European player had won the championship.
This year, Salonen played again in the US and had much more success, having earned the PGDA Memorial Championships victory for her skills.
4. Catrina Allen
From 2012 onward, Catrina Allen has been known as one of the four best women in disc golf. Born in 1985 in Bellflower, California, Allen got into disc golf in an interesting way. Before beginning her career in 2009, Allen had been a bartender and seemed perfectly content with that life. It was only when a pal asked her to come to a championship as a caddy that Allen saw how wonderful disc golf could be.
That same year, she started her new career, taking home the South Dakota Amateur Championships not long after. By 2010, she could add the US Women’s Disc Golf Championship as an Amateur to her growing list of accomplishments as well.
In 2011, Allen went pro, receiving the Female Rookie of the Year Award from PGDA as well as raking in victories in 15 disc golf events. In 2012, PGDA honored her again with their Female Player of the Year Award. Only one woman had received two such PGDA awards two years in a row like that.
By 2014, Allen had earned her first (and only, to date) PGDA World Championship in a game where she scored 431. She beat Paige Pierce, the best in the sport, to achieve that victory. 2015 proved to be a year to remember as well as Allen took home the Scandinavian Open and European Open first-place titles, beating Sarah Hokom both times.
Currently, Prodigy Disc sponsors Allen. She uses PA4 300 and PA1 300 and 400 putters, M4 400 and M2 300 and 400 midranges, and a slew of drivers. These include F7 400, F3 400, D3 400, and D1 400.
5. Jessica Weese
Another very well-known player, Jessica Weese comes from Grass Valley, California. She entered professional disc golfing in 2011 and has participated in 183 career events in those nine years. Of those games, she’s won 65 of them. Unsurprisingly, she’s been dubbed “Disc Princess”.
In 2015, she earned the victory at the Beaver State Fling, and in 2016, she was successful at the Gentlemen’s Club Challenge. The event now goes by the Las Vegas Challenge.
Sponsored by Innova Discs, Weese uses such equipment as her own Tour Series Nexus Big Bead Avaiar putters and Innova discs like the Coyote and Vulcan.
6. Paige Bjerkaas
Sixth on the list, we’ve got Paige Bjerkaas. A pro for more than a decade, Bjerkaas began her career in 2007. From Emporia, Kansas, Bjerkaas has gone all over the world playing disc golf, participating in nearly 180 events and winning 78 of them.
These days, Bjerkaas has a sponsorship with Dynamic Discs. According to the player herself, she favors the Judge disc from that brand. She says her favorite disc golf course is DeLaveaga in Santa Cruz, California.
7. Henna Blomroos
Last but certainly not least, there’s Henna Blomroos from Rauma, Finland. Entering the sport in 2013, Blomroos has had a limited career thus far, participating in only 65 events as of this writing. Still, she’s won nearly half of them, 33 in all, so not too shabby.
In late August 2018, Blomroos became the European disc golf champion. She had also won the Finnish Nationals before that, making 2018 one of her best years to date. Although she doesn’t come to the US often, disc golf company Prodiscus was her most recent sponsor and may still be to this day.
Wrapping Up
No matter whether you want to play professional disc golf someday or even win championships, the amazing, encouraging accomplishments of these seven women show you anything is possible. No matter your age, with practice, training, and a love for the game, you can improve at disc golf and start accomplishing your disc golf goals. Good luck!
