Nikola Moravcová on Friday. Photo: Johannes Fidemo / IG: jfidemodiscgolf
FPO
An interesting leading card with the stellar presence of Ella Hansen, the American player with a rating 25 points higher than her immediate pursuer, raised the expectation for the first day of the women's category at the PDGA EuroTour #5 — Skellefteå Open presented by Latitude 64°.
However it was, once again, Finland's Silva Saarinen who achieved the best score but, this time, the distances were much smaller, with the first four players being separated by only three strokes.
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.
Qualification information for the 2023 European Open, a PDGA Major set for July 20-23 in Nokia, Finland, has been released.
New in 2023, 22 tournaments throughout Europe and the United States will serve a one of five qualification categories. Those categories also include previous winners, the top 10 MPO and top five FPO finishers from 2022 and special invitations.
Bogota is one of the cities in Colombia that, despite its structural limitations, has bet on positioning Disc Golf as a competitive sport and a recreational activity among its inhabitants.
Thanks to PDGA members Nicolas Restrepo and Julio Castro and other players, the sport has grown considerably in our city.
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.
Chandler Fry, left, looks on during a clinic in Uganda. All photos via the Paul McBeth Foundation.
After their course installation and visit to the Lake Victoria-side town of Katosi, the Paul McBeth Foundation’s Uganda Team turned its attention to the campus of Ndejje University, 40 km north of the capital city, Kampala.
Simply stated, this project has the potential to be the keystone of disc golf’s development across the East Africa region.
A deep team from the Paul McBeth Foundation led by Zachary Smith, Director of Operations, and including their media team members as well as touring pros Missy Gannon and Chandler Fry, together with Zambia’s top players, Wilborn Munkombwe and Melody Kawadza, arrived in Uganda, the “Pearl of Africa,” a few days ago. I am privileged to represent PDGA as part of the team following visits to the neighboring and PDGA affiliated countries of Ethiopia and Kenya.
Twenty miles outside of Nairobi, near the Ngong Hills where Karen Blixen’s famous book 'Out of Africa' was set, a unique and paradisiacal disc golf course is nearing completion.
Here, transplanted American Kevin Becker #190646, and his Masai wife, Rarin Ole Sein, reside on 2,000 acres of land which were returned by the British when Kenya gained its independence in 1964, and assigned by local elders to her family.
The PDGA Europe Women's Event returns in 2025 to further demonstrate the PDGA Europe's commitment to developing women's disc golf by providing a platform to women for inclusion and celebration.
PDGA Europe Women's Events are hosted every two years – on the years which the PDGA Global Women's Events are not held. The results of all the events are combined through a virtual classification of all the events entered under the PDGA Europe Women´s Event umbrella.
The Aussie Disc Golf Day 2022 (emphasis intentional) was held during the weekend of December 3-4. It was the third running of the multi-site event. Pictured: Australian pro Connor Donnelly (#133024) of Myaree, Western Australia.
The Aussie Disc Golf Day began in 2020 during the COVID lockdowns and travel restrictions in Australia. During that time, most Australian state governments managed their risk by restricting the distances people could travel, but still allowed limited recreation close to home and, crucially, small gatherings.
Chris Leonard first appeared on my radar in the fall of 2019 as I came across his private, yet public, 18 hole course in Cerros Maya, Corozal, Belize, on Instagram.
Belize is a small Central American country of 405,000 residents on the Caribbean seaboard bordering Guatemala to the west and south and Mexico to the north. Owing to its relative proximity and very lax tax laws, the country has become quite the hotspot for American expats, snowbirds and retirees alike.
PDGA Latin America coordinator Luis Rodríguez throws at Parque Simón Bolívar in Bogota, Colombia.
Luis Rodríguez has extensive experience in the field of flying disc sports, developing competitive structures and community building platforms.
As disc golf continues its rapid growth around the world, Rodríguez has been hired as the PDGA Latin America Coordinator under PDGA International Director Brian Hoeniger to expand the presence of disc golf in Latin America countries and to promote the growth of PDGA activities in the region.
Going beyond a women’s celebration!