What an end for the PDGA Euro Tour regular season!

Another day of more than pleasant weather and a total of 154 players between the Open, Masters and parallel Amateur tournament played for the final rankings of this 9Hill Open 2023 and met in a crowded trophy ceremony that had something of a farewell for this year, waiting for the Grand Final of the PDGA Euro Tour Championship in Spain at the end of October.

The ladies, all of them simultaneously competing in the PDGA EuropeWomen's event, opened the day with the FPO category still to be decided. A disappointed Sintija Klezberga suffered a nightmare round that dropped her from second to fourth place, a circumstance that Anna Damberga, with many exchanges of impressions with her caddie Renārs Strazdiņš (7th in MPO) and Katrīna Jencīte, with an interesting forehand game that she used frequently, took advantage of to gain one place each to 3rd and 2nd, respectively.

Helēna Dreimane. Photo: PDGA europe

However, it was Helēna Dreimane who took the lead from day one and never let go, and she is enjoying a rapid progression in the barely two years she has been participating in PDGA competitions. Her round started well on the technical front nine in the woods, but as she moved out to the open holes, her drives started to clearly deviate. The reason? She explained that the increased wind meant that her disc choices were often wrong. For sure, this experience will be useful for her on future occasions.

In FP40, Lithuanian Oksana Zukauskiene left no room for surprises and once again prevailed over Norway's Trine Haugen improving her first round performance by nine strokes.

The surprise came in the MP55 category: the Latvian Aigars Sirmovičssuffered a bad round that made him drop to third place, and the German Wolfgang Kraus appeared on the 18th hole two strokes ahead of another historic, British Derek Robins, who made the only birdie of the category, while the Teuton was left with a putt from the edge of the C1. Maximum expectation, but the disc does not want to enter, which leads us to a sudden-death playoff in which he finally achieved the victory, showing both a great spirit of play and sportsmanship.

In MP40, the Finnish Joni Luuni is still unbeatable and won by 18 strokes! With a -5 on the first 6 holes and a spectacular eagle on the 17th, which reminds us a little of the 18th of the European Open, with a 90º dogleg to the right and uphill where the brave can try to gain metres with an endless flight over the OB. On the 18th he tries to repeat his first round eagle... but goes OB long, and the demanding Drop Zone gives him a bogey that leaves him with -8 (with a round rating of 1014).

The Estonian Rait Saluri had everything undercontrol on the 17th hole with a 6-shot lead over his compatriot Sören Vetevool. You've heard the saying that nothing is decided until the last putt? Well, the wind and the OBs teamed up, and he made a quadruple bogey while Vetevool took a birdie and got within one! However, a clever layup on the 18th earned Saluri a birdie and second place.

And closing the day was the MPO category, which struggled against a very demanding layout, so much so that only two players submitted cards under par. The first of them, the Latvian Ingemars Stalsans achieved the fourth final position from the third card! Yet another example of fighting to the end...

One of the most exciting battles of the day was between two young Estonians, Roland Kõur and Björn Marrandi. The former started with a 4-stroke lead, but by the third hole, he was already one shot behind. From then on, it was a continuous up and down in which either of the two could win the other, and in which Marrandi's 100% C1X putt stood out. The key moment came on the 14th hole when Björn went OB while Kõur made birdie, an advantage that would serve him to take second place ahead of his compatriot. A brilliant future for Estonia with junior players of such a high level!

Rainer Balodis. Photo: PDGA Europe

And the one who came hungry after his discreet second round was the final winner and local idol Rainer Balodis, with a very powerful and complete game both backhand and forehand, an almost perfect kicking from circle 1 and an unfortunate double OB on 17 as the only blemish that did not prevent him from taking revenge with a spectacular birdie parking the disc in the very demanding island of 18 to the delight of the gallery that witnessed the final.

In short, a magnificent end to an event that has shown us the high quality of Latvia both at the organizational and sporting level, winning in both Open categories.