Countless smiley faces and high-fives were seen last weekend at Disc Golf EuroTour event near Prague, Czech Republic. The astonishing Konopiste castle park catered world class Disc Golf event for three days of stress-free Disc Golf. 144 players in 5 divisions faced the "Franz Ferdinand" 3060 meter par 66 monster course designed by Discmania CEO Jussi Meresmaa. The course was gentle for the players with almost no artificial OB's and wide fairways. The level of the game in Europe is rapidly increasing and it was shown on the leaderboards across the divisions.
The event was the biggest Disc Golf event ever organized in Czech Republic. Tournament TD Premysl Novak was one happy man after the prize ceremony: “This is like a dream come true to have so many international players at Konopiste. I´m really proud of our staff making this happen. This event will have a big impact to the local Disc Golf scene.”
Karl-Johan Nybo takes the title in front of the Finns in Open Division
Team Discmania's Leo Piironen gave KJ Nybo a run for his money.
Denmark's Karl-Johan (KJ) Nybo shot the unofficial course record of 15 under par at the last practice round and that set the tone for the competition where the Dane cruised to four throw victory over Discmania's Leo Piironen. Leo was able to put pressure on KJ during the final round with long laser-like putts. Despite fierce pressure from the top Finnish players, eventually it was KJ's long and accurate drives that tamed the course and the competition. “Yeah, I'm really happy about the result. Finally, after a long stretch of 2nd place finishes, I got a win.” said the winner after the prize ceremony. KJ held a nice speech thanking his supporters (Innova and huk lab) and foremost his wife for taking care of the family business while he is on tour. Seppo Paju, who made an incredible Ace run on round 1, finished third.
Men's Pro Open top-3: Leo Piironen (2nd), KJ Nybo (1st) & Seppo Paju (3rd).
Finnish colours were highly visible on the leaderboards of the other divisions too. Ville Piippo took a clear victory in Masters with a 12-throw margin. Discmania's Mikael Birkelund Jensen-Johansen and Greg Marter finished second and third respectively. Junior Division was a battle between Team Discmania's Niko Rättyä and fellow Finn Mikael Hakala. At the end of the day, Niko was able to bring home the title with a very convincing 7 under finish from the back nine on final day.
Women's division was a tight battle between Switzerland's Natalie Holloköi and Finnish Marianne Jakonen. Natalie was able to keep the young Finn behind, earning her another EuroTour win. Marianne – playing only her second EuroTour event took great second place while Team Discmania's Jessika Edwardsson (SWE) climbed third after a consistent final round. The battle for the title at Grand Masters division was really tight. There were five players entering to the final round with just one throw separating the contestants. Bernd Wender was able to handle the nerves best and won the event. Martin Frederiksen and Wolfgang Krauss tied for second.
EuroTour event in the highest order
Konopiste Open 2015 was a great success. Discmania CEO Jussi Meresmaa was happy to see the event evolving to international level and he is waiting to see it grow even bigger and better in the future. Many players considered the Franz Ferdinand course the best and most scenic course they've ever played. This year, the course was relatively easy to score and the par generated a rating of 950. The course designer was spending a lot of time around the course surroundings and there are plans to extend and evolve the course for the next year: “I want to create even greater course where the challenge comes from the distance and natural obstacles. Next year we will upgrade Franz Ferdinand to Par 67 and add another 350 meters to the layout. It will not be distance only, but we all want to see those discs fly.”
Kuva, jonka Jussi Meresmaa (@jussimeresmaa) julkaisi
Seems like you should book this weekend early for next year. Discmania was the main supporter of this amazing new EuroTour event and we want to thank tournament TD Premysl Novak and his whole crew making this event possible.
Results
See the final results here (PDGA.com)
See the results with hole-by-hole scorecards here (Skoorin.com)
Pictures & video
You can find plenty of pictures and videos from the ProDiscGolf.cz instagram account and with the hastag #konopisteopen. Check out also their YouTube channel for videos with great production quality:
For more videos and photos to come, please give the Konopiste Open facebook page a follow ;)