Kaidi Allsalu. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT

What happens when a scene has so many excellent players? The premiere of the Disc Golf Pro Tour Elite in Europe under the DGPT Europe brand at the Copenhagen Open (Denmark) had an entry with many recent winners among which to look for favorites:

Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste (Estonia), Rachel Turton (Great Britain), Anniken Steen (Norway), Eveliina Salonen (Finland)... but the one who most strongly claimed her options was Estonia's Kaidi Allsalu, who with a -8 made clear why she won on this same course at the 2023 European Pro Tour: a flying start with 4 birdies in a row and only one bogey with a really solid game in all aspects.

"I was surprised when I checked the scores at the end! I was calmed, conditions were great, and the whole game went very quickly. The course was similar to last year, so I guess that I'm a better player now!" said Kaidi.

2023 PDGA Euro Tour winner, Finland's Silva Saarinen struggled at the end of the F9, but, she turned in an excellent B9 that brought her to solo second with -5. Something similar happened to her compatriots Jenni Karppinen 5th, Sonja Laine T3, and Great Britain's Rachel Turton T3.

Full Stats & Scores from the 2024 DGPT — Copenhagen Open on PDGA Live

And many more players close to the top on T6: Estonian Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste (winner last week at the DGPT Europe Silver Belgian Open), Keiti Tätte (Estonia) - with a lot of experience in the US events - and the very young Czech Kristýna Jurčíková at 13 years old! We discovered her in 2023 winning the Konopiste Open amateur to face - and in what a way - her idols...

Complicated rounds for some of the favourites: Anniken Steen (winner of the DGPT Texas State) had to keep a cool head to twice pick up triple bogeys on hole 1 - a forehand that was not yet "hot" and a rearwards-broken mando on the very wooded 11th hole to stay also at T6.

Eveliina Salonen impressed with her ability to hit full-power drives into the gaps, but her extra distance over her opponents did not pay dividends on a course like Valbyparken with lots of doglegs and low ceilings and is T10.

Jakub Semerád. Photo: Marika Salmi / DGPT

Logjam at the Top of MPO

24 players within 4 shots of each other! That's how tight the top places are at the DGPT Europe Copenhagen Open

What to expect from the leader? Putting accuracy from American Paul Ulibarri (much cheered by the home crowd and world number 1 in C1X percentage), a bogey-free round (like Czech Jakub Semerád) and excellent accuracy in hitting the gaps from Finland's Daniel Davidsson, who played on one of the early cards. And so we have three different ways to get to -10 which is the current first place.

Paul Ulibarri said at the end of the round: "Yes, I've only had a couple of practice rounds, and I'm still suffering from jet lag. Maybe I'll change a couple of things for tomorrow, but overall I'm happy with my performance. I had a couple of bad breaks at the start, but my putting is solid and the wind is calm.

Three Finns lurk one stroke behind: Lauri Lehtinen (who opened with a spectacular eagle on hole 1), Rasmus Saukkoriipi and Otto Mäkinen.

And behind them, a real "peloton" of 27 players with almost clean cards, a very manageable distance to the lead, and eager to achieve the victory of a lifetime in a Disc Golf Pro Tour Elite event.

Niklas Anttila was considered by some to be out of the running with a +1 after 7 holes, but something magic happened when he chained 8 birdies in a row to enter the battle again! Never give up on a great champion.

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