Ahead of the Skellefteå Open, PDGA Europe Media and Marketing Manager Calixto García, who is on-site at the 5th PDGA Euro Tour stop of the season, gave us a report on how things are looking headed into this weekend’s competition.
Practicing From Sun up to… Sun Up?
There are people playing on the course at 23:00. We come back at 06:00, and there are people playing in the course.. How is it possible? First, it’s training day at a PDGA Euro Tour event, and people from all over the world are trying to improve their performance. Second, we’re in the north. Very much north! As much as 64 Latiitude North- sounds familiar? And we enjoy 21 hours of sunlight per day to play disc golf!
Is it possible to keep out of your mind the fact that you are leading an international tournament on the last day with an 8-stroke gap over your pursuers?
Imperial Anttila! As if it were Miron's discus thrower, the young Finnish player has delighted us with an impeccable game at the PDGA EuroTour — Swedish Open presented by Kastaplast, with moments of the highest quality such as the "almost ace" on the 11th hole: a very high turnover that even reminded us a bit of the "Holy Shot" of James Conrad.
Sweden's Dennis Augustsson had the hot round to open the 2023 EuroTour — Swedish Open. Photo: PDGA Europe
MPO
These four first events of 2023 PDGA Euro Tour have shown us a great variety of Disc Golf terrains: the thick woods of Pro Forester, the extra wide fairways of Konopiste, the ever-present OBs of Krokhol and now the narrow fairways and root ground of Swedish Open presented by Kastaplast.
On the MPO side, all of the EuroTour champions so far in 2023 — Paul McBeth, Niklas, Anttila and Bradley Williams — are in the field. In FPO, two champions — Marianne Must and Silva Saarinen — will compete this weekend in Sweden.
The action takes place at Ymergårdens Discgolfcenter in Boras, Sweden beginning Friday. Fifteen countries will be represented in MPO and eight in FPO.
So far, the PDGA EuroTour has delivered incredible action on beautiful courses throughout Europe with every second covered.
Elias Lukkonen and Paul McBeth talk during round two of the Krokhol Open.
MPO
Youth to power!
It was not difficult to assume that two experienced American players of a very high level, such as Paul McBeth and Bradley Williams, would be on the leader card of the PDGA Euro Tour Krokhol Open (Norway), but that they are accompanied by two young 18-year-old Finns such as Elias Lukkonen and Miro Ryhänen is a clear example of the extensive reserve that European disc golf has in general and Finnish disc golf in particular.
Silva Saarinen leads the Krokhol Open after the first round.
FPO
Top players told us in Thursday's press conference that the level of the FPO field is rising and there are more and more players able to win a tournament.
And on this occasion, it has been the Finnish Silva Saarinen, who is steadily improving her game this season, off to a great 3-under round to lead by three strokes at the PDGA Euro Tour #3 — Krokhol Open.
Idyllic? Amazing? A paradise for disc golf? These are some of the first sentences that came to mind when we arrived at the Krokhol Disc Golf Club on the outskirts of Oslo, Norway.
An undulating landscape with coniferous and birch forests dotted with small lakes and large granite slabs is home to the Krokhol Golf and Disc Golf Clubs that coexist in perfect harmony and and benefit from mutual synergies.
British Rachel Turton has finally established herself – if there was any doubt about it - among the top elite FPO European players after convincingly winning the Konopiste Open presented by Discmania, second stop of the 2023 PDGA Euro Tour in the beautiful Czech woods.
Disc golf tournaments are not like highways, with twists, turns and ups and downs…
Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste (Estonia), Sofie Björlycke (Sweden) and Kristi Unt (Estonia) each had their share of ups and downs during round two, each scoring +2. This brought which brought yesterday’s leader, Tõugjas-Männiste, to second place while Sofie and Kristi went down to fourth.
Four candidates will be vying for three open positions on the PDGA Europe Board of Directors. These four self-nominated candidates all share a passion for disc golf. They have diverse backgrounds and a wide range of skillsets, both in their professional lives and within the sport.
Players from 24 countries are playing in the thick forests of Varaždin at the Pro Forester presented by Vall Tours in a clear proof that many players from Central and Southern Europe are willing to join PDGA Euro Tour.
Marianne Must extends her lead into the final round. Photo: PDGA Media
The demanding course just outside of the Croatian city, by the Drava river, is more demanding than ever: summertime is making vegetation grow and the local organizing team has had to make an extra work to clear up the fairways and players to find the lines.
The signage effort has been considerable and the course has players are delighting in the opportunity to play in such a professional looking course.
A European-level robotics contest in Varaždin Arena has attracted hundreds of visitors that are discovering disc golf in the holes around it.
Calixto Garcia, of Spain, is the new Marketing & Media Manager for PDGA Europe.
With the growth of the sport in Europe (and in general), PDGA Europe has expanded its staff with a new Marketing and Media position.
Calixto García is a 46-year-old marketeer from Bilbao, Spain, has three children and realized that throwing discs is somewhat better than hitting a ball with a stick three years ago. Since then, he established himself known in disc golf community as a huge sport promoter as owner of Zona Disc Golf YouTube channel that specializes in content in Spanish language, growing the sport not only in Spain, but also in Latin America.
In addition to the PCS Open, which will return to the DGPT schedule as an Elite Event, the Disc Golf Network will now produce full-scale live broadcasts at a majority of 2023 Euro Tour events. The events added are as follows.
Kristin Tattar will defend her PDGA World Championship at Smugglers' Notch in 2023. Photo: PDGA Media
Bigger and better.
That’s how disc golf has operated over the past few seasons and that trend will continue in 2023 and the proof is here with the release of the 2023 PDGA Elite Series, PDGA Euro Tour and PDGA Majors schedule.
The European Open will once again be a PDGA Major in 2023. Photo: PDGA Media
The votes have been counted for the 2022 PDGA Elections. The elections took place through the month of July with 108,004 ballots sent to eligible PDGA members. Of those, 19,182 ballots were returned, surpassing 2021’s total of 89,986 eligible members and 18,265 ballots cast. That is a participation mark of 17.76%.
Five candidates with wide-ranging skillsets, both professionally and within the sport of disc golf, have filed for three open positions on the PDGA Europe Board of Directors.
They're all ready to help take European disc golf to the next level.
PDGA Europe is a nonprofit organization registered in Finland and a Board of Directors is mandated by the PDGA Europe bylaws.
Responsibilities of the PDGA Europe Board of Directors include attendance at:
PDGA Europe (Headquartered in Helsinki, Finland), established 2006 (Finnish Patent And Registration Office Registered 22-Aug-2019 with ID 3000913-7), is the Europe Continent Segment of PDGA. Thirty Europe Continent Countries have secured PDGA Affiliate Country Status.
With the release of the 2022 Majors & Elite schedule, the PDGA is now accepting requests for 2022 North American A-Tiers via the A-Tier Request Form online. The submission deadline is Monday, October 18, 2021.
When planning for A-Tier dates, please remember not to use dates that would be in mileage conflict with an event already on the provided Major & Elite Schedule. An A-Tier may not be within 1,250 miles of a Major, or 750 miles of an Elite Series event.
