It was a leaderboard shakeup in the FPO division as Sofie Bjölycke turned in the first round under par this weekend at the Kalhyttans DiscGolfBana. She jumped three spots and built a two-stroke lead heading into Championship Sunday with a 950-rated, two under par round that included six birdies, including the first of the weekend on the 114-meter, par three hole 14.
Pekka Kyvönen fired off six-straight birdies to finish and grab a share of the lead with Mathis Karlsen to open the Heatland Open sponsored by Kastaplast.
A call for candidates for the upcoming PDGA Elections is underway through the month of May and there are spots on the PDGA Global Board of Directors, and the PDGA Europe Board of Directors, as well as PDGA State and Provincial Coordinator positions, available.
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.
Natalie Höllokoi lines up her shot during the first round of Scottish Masters. Photo: Matěj Verl / PDGA
Euro Tour
The second stop on the PDGA Euro Tour kicked off today in Dunbar, Scotland, UK with the Scottish Masters. The Scottish Masters is the first ever separate masters-only Euro Tour event.
It is the first of seven stops in 2022 on the PDGA Euro Tour.
The conditions were tough to start the tournament, but the action heated up quickly throughout the weekend to set up a dramatic finish in the 35-player MPO field. In FPO, the battle was just as tight.
The PDGA fully condemns the actions taken by the Russian government regarding their invasion of Ukraine, and the Belarusian government for their support of the invasion. Fellowship and sportsmanship are cornerstones of disc golf and its global community, unifying across borders, languages, and cultures. To that end, the PDGA unequivocally stands with the people of Ukraine.
Kristin Tattar and Eveliina Salonen are both two-time PDGA European Player of the Year winner. Photos: DGPT
PDGA Europe Player of the Year is an individual competition governed by PDGA Europe to recognize the best European player performance in disc golf in a calendar year. An MPO and an FPO player is recognized after each season.
Europe’s Disc Golf Pinnacle
A performance based points system decides the European Players of the Year. Criteria include where their player rating ranks at year end among his or her European peers, as well as that player’s finishing positions at Majors, European Championships and the season long Euro Tour Series.
Henna Blomroos tees off at the 2020 Waco Annual Charity Open. Photo: DGPT
“I’m ready.”
It was a simple but strong response from Eveliina Salonen heading into her first PDGA Elite Series event in the United States in almost two years.
The last time that Salonen competed in the U.S., she left with a trophy at the 2020 Waco Annual Charity Open. That weekend in Texas, the COVID-19 pandemic began in full force and since then, Salonen, the fourth highest-rated FPO player in the world,, and the rest of the international contingent of professionals have been absent from U.S. competition.
Luxembourg is the 48th PDGA Affiliate Country. Photo: Suessem, Je T'aime
Gérard Kraus has always had a knack for organizing events, from a video game club in junior high school to organizing a pop-culture convention, the first of its kind in his country.
After discovering the sport in 2019, Kraus combined his passion for organizing and his newfound love of disc golf. As a result of his efforts, Luxembourg has recently been added as a PDGA Affiliate Country.
Niklas Antilla putts during the 2021 European Championship. Photo: PDGA Europe
The biennial European Championship is the most prestigious and magnificent disc golf event in Europe. This year was no exception either, although we had to wait longer than normal when the event was postponed from 2020 to this year due to COVID19.
Hosted by the Czech Disc Golf Association, the 2021 edition was held in the beautiful Konopiště castle park, near Benešov, Czech Republic. MPO, FPO and MJ18 played on a 3,303 -meter (10,837 feet). par-66 Franz Ferdinand course, designed by Jussi Meresmaa.
A record number of ballots were cast in the 2021 PDGA Elections and the votes have been counted.
The elections took place through the month of July with 89,986 ballots sent to eligible PDGA members. Of those, 18,265 ballots were returned, far surpassing 2020’s total of 51,800 eligible members and 11,821 ballots cast. That is good for a participation mark of 20.3%, just short of the record 22.82% in 2020.
Lithuania, whose affiliation was previously with the Vilnius Club in the capital city, changed its affiliation to the newly-formed national disc golf association, the Federacija Lietuvos Diskgolfo. Lithuania has been a PDGA affiliate country for 10 years.
Three 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.
Plans to bring the Disc Golf Pro Tour overseas to Europe for the PCS Sula Open, a PDGA Euro Tour event, in 2021 have been postponed due to travel restrictions amid the unpredictable COVID-19 situation currently in Europe.
Since the inaugural PDGA Europe Board of Directors elections were held four years ago, PDGA Europe has been going through the process of formation as our association’s legal and largely self-governing continental body for Europe.
In recent months, registration as a not-for-profit in Finland has been completed and our first permanent staff persons have been hired and trained. Now it is time to move PDGA Europe forward by envisioning, building and managing activities that have the overriding aim of growing disc golf into the future in concert with our individual members, sanctioned events, and national association partners across Europe.
Competition and community highlight the 2021 PDGA Women's Global Event. Photo: Conrad Meyer / PDGA
Nearly 100 events around the world have already registered to take part in the 2021 PDGA Women’s Global Event, which returns on May 8-9.
This impressive number showcases the rise in women’s disc golf and continues to grow every day.
A biennial tournament, the fifth edition of WGE finds women participating at the their local courses as well as with women around the global on a worldwide leaderboard.
Kalle Vainikka was recently named the new PDGA Europe Administrator. Photo: Annett Dufvelin
It’s always been about growth and building, both professionally and in disc golf, for Kalle Vainikka.
After working in the construction industry and jumping into disc golf full steam, Vainikka will combine those passions as the new PDGA Europe Administrator, an opportunity he sees to help further push the rapid growth of disc golf in Europe.
Gregg Barsby putts during the 2018 Sula Open. Photo: PA Maseidvag
Gregg Barsby found himself looking over the vast fjords on the western coast of Norway, a beautiful disc golf course and a disc golf hungry community behind him.
A destination and experience that is second to none.
“You take a second to look around and realize where you are in the world and what you’re doing,” Barsby said. “At Sula, the water is right there, the mountains, the cliffs – everything. On a clear day when the water is calm, it’s a mirror effect.
“You just have to see it for yourself.”
In 2021, the entire world will get to see what Norway and European disc golf has to offer.
Philo Brathwaite plucks an ace from the basket at the Drava Forester. The spring iteration of the tournament will kick off the 2020 Euro Tour in April. Photo: Drava Forester
With six events spanning from April to July, the 2020 Euro Tour is set to put the height of European disc golf on display. From venerable, long-established events in Scandinavia to up-and-coming tournaments in the Baltics – and plenty in between – it’s set to be a wild ride that will feature several hotbeds of the sport.
Maxime Tanghe tees off at the Creeksea Classic while Blær Örn Ásgeirsson (left) and Tony Ferro (second from right) look on. Photo: PDGA Europe
If you want a succinct summary of last weekend’s Creeksea Classic in Burnham on Crouch, England, look no further than this comment from competitor Tony Ferro: “Everyone came to play this weekend, and the course conditions were perfect for it.”
Henna Blomroos, shown here during the 2019 PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships, closed out her season with a victory at the EuroTour's Nokia Open. Photo: Alyssa Van Lanen
If disc golf fans know anything about Nokia, Finland, other than its connection to cell phones, it’s that it’s home to one of the most famous courses in the sport. That course, The Beast, is mostly thought of as the challenge awaiting contenders at the prestigious European Open. But last weekend The Beast roared back to life—with some slight modifications—to play host to the penultimate EuroTour event of the season: the Nokia Open.
Paige Pierce soared to her second career European Open title this weekend in Nokia, Finland. Photo: Tomi Mäkipää
NOKIA, Finland—After a perfect drive on hole 4 Sunday at The Beast, Paige Pierce found herself in difficulty: She followed up by yanking her upshot a little right, then bumped a tree and fell into circle 2 on a dangerously sloping green. Despite having a lead in the double digits, she stared down her line with intensity and then launched her putter with a slight anhyzer around a tree into the heart of the chains.
Pierce’s caddie, Tina Oakley, shook her head incredulously and smiled. “She didn’t even need that,” Oakley said. “She just wanted it.”
After three rounds, Paige Pierce has a commanding lead at the European Open. Photo: Jari Mäki-Kuutti
NOKIA, Finland—There was a moment in round three of the European Open on the Open Women’s lead card that seemed emblematic of the fates of all Paige Pierce’s competitors at the PDGA Major. Finn Henna Blomroos had laid up to just a few meters from the basket for an easy par on the 94-meter, (308-foot) par-3 6th. Her putt hit so perfectly, the gallery was already clapping.
Paige Pierce (right) assesses her lie during round two of the European Open. Photo: Tomi Mäkipää
NOKIA, Finland—Holes 4 and 5 of The Beast hit Texan Paige Pierce hard during round two of the European Open. On 4, a wooded, 155-meter par-4, her driving putter wedged in a tree in the shape of a taco. From there, the hole snowballed to a double bogey. She then three-putted on 5, causing a drive into circle 1 to quickly devolve from birdie to bogey.
