TURN OF EVENTS AT THE MONSTER

After the first round, Kristin Tattar had put herself in pole position with 4 strokes separating her from her closest competitor, Eveliina Salonen.

But R2 proved to be a tough one for the majority of the FPO field, Tattar included, but Eveliina picked up where she left off yesterday.

Salonen was one of only four players who, where under par after the first five holes, while the rest of the field were over par. And after a bogey on hole 6, she started a great stretch of holes picking up 5 birdies between hole 7 and 13.

And since Tattar was +1 after through 13 holes, the Finn was now in the lead with two strokes.

On hole 14, Salonen had a great bit of luck after having her drive kick out of the dense forest on the left-hand side of the fairway, but her upshot came up short leaving her with a very obstructed putt from outside the circle – resulting in a par.

Tattar on the other hand followed up a near perfect drive with a risky and almost cheeky forehand line to avoid the OB sand bunker guarding the fairway, but with great execution, she hit the single gap in the tree line, to take the birdie from just outside the bullseye.

On hole 17, Salonen was putting for another birdie inside C1, but a stroke of poor putts on the slopey green saw her take a double bogey, and with Tattar taking a bogey, the two were now neck and neck going into the final hole.

And on the final hole, where the basket is perched on the iconic two-tiered mound, Eveliina Salonen turned her drive over to the right of the green while Kristin Tatter found the circle. And while Salonen was forced to lay up on the elevated basket, Tattar converted her birdie putt, reclaiming the lead, that she had lost for most of the day.

AND THEN

Due to inclement weather, round 2 of the PDGA Major European Open was called to a halt for the majority of the field, and while most of those players were out on the course, the lead card was only about to start R2 when the horn was sounded yesterday afternoon. Ultimately, the round was postponed until today, and in the early hours of the morning, play resumed for the MPO division at the Monster in Tampere.

Randon Latta, who had played a great -7 R1, had a terrible R2 in +5, and dropped way off the lead to T29. His co-leader from R1, however, managed to stay on the lead card for R3 with a -4, but dropped two spots on the leaderboard. He now sits in 3rd one stroke off the new joint leaders, 6x world champion and 5x European Open champion Paul McBeth and Gannon Buhr, who had a blistering round, and after making a severely uphill C2 putt on the pyramid green of hole 18 for the birdie, he now holds the new course record with -9!

The previous course record of -8 was held by the Nordic Phenom himself, Niklas Anttila, who climbed 4 spots up the leaderboard with a great -7. That means he sits T4 with 2x world champion Ricky Wysocki, two strokes off the lead.

From thereon down the players are close behind, with Joona Heinänen and Väinö Mäkelä in T7 with -8, one stroke ahead of the highest rated Latvian player, Rainers Balodis.

With no players having distanced themselves at the top, it’s still all to play for later today as R3 when the players return to the mythical ‘The Beast’ course in Nokia, just west of Tampere. This is a layout that McBeth has proven his worth at many times, so we are in for a great show in R3.