If the opening day of European Open was dominated by Europeans and rain,
Friday’s second round was the opposite. Americans took the lead in (in
Finnish terms) scorching heat.

Paul Ulibarri took the lead after a solid round of 55. David Feldberg shot
the best round of the day – same as K-J yesterday - and is in second place
together with Nate Doss, who also played convincingly. According to David,
playing in the same group with Nate helped them both to play better.

- The ability to play under pressure, together with other experienced
players, meant a lot today, said David.

Denmark’s K-J Nybo is the fourth name on the lead card, only 2 strokes
behind the leading American trio. Simon Lizotte (GER) astonished the crowd
on hole #13 by landing his drive less than ten meters away from the
basket, and is in fifth place with American Will Schusterick.

Players who are particularly happy about their second round include Avery
Jenkins (USA), Juho Rantalaiho (FIN), and Markus Källströn (SWE), whereas
Nikko Locastro (USA) and Seppo Paju (FIN) were not content after an
average round.

American players also dominate the women’s division. Valarie Jenkins
repeated her score from the first round, 70, and Paige Pierce improved her
game as expected, and is now in second place together with Melody King.
However, Anne Matilainen is only one stroke behind, so anything can happen
on the third round.

The competition continues with the third round on Saturday. The weather is
expected to be about five degrees celcius cooler than Friday, and there is
a chance of rain.

Check out the standings after Round 2 at:
http://opendiscgolf.com/en/leaderboard/open

Once again, lets finish the day off with some snapshots from Round 2:

After a defeat in Presidents’ Cup on Wednesday, Team Europe players
stepped it up and came back to the course to play the first round of
European Open with unforeseen determinance. Round 1 saw some phenomenal
play from Denmark’s Karl-Johan Nybo (-11), as well as from Simon Lizotte
(-9), Ville Piippo (-9) and Seppo Paju (-7), who will all be playing in
the top two pools on Round 2 tomorrow.

KJ set the course record at 53. Will we see even better scores on Friday?

America maintained their solid play and good touch on the Nokia course
during the first round, with Paul Ulibarri as the best US player on the
second place at a convincing -10. The rest of the spots in the top two
pools tomorrow will be manned by Nate Doss (-8), David Feldberg (-7), and
Nikko Locastro (-6).

In women’s division, Valarie Jenkins (+6) took the lead with Anne
Matilainen on the second place (+8) and Melody King (+9) on the third.

Check out the final scores after Round 1 at:
http://opendiscgolf.com/en/scoring/open/1

Better weather expected for Friday

During the first round, the weather kept everyone on their toes, and a
thunderstorm halted play for an hour and a half around 1pm. The delay
caused the last pools of the day to finish their rounds as late as 8:30pm,
but at least the last ones got to enjoy the beautiful evening sun that
came out after a day of rain.

The European Open week continues tomorrow Friday with the second round.
Day 2 will show who has what it takes to play consistently on the
challenging European Open course. Some players – among them Nikko Locastro
– will certainly be hungry for even better results, so we are expecting
another great day of disc golf in Nokia. The weather will be clearing up
and there is no rain expexted for Friday.

To commemorate Thursday’s rough weather here’s a couple of snapshots that show the course and it’s surroundings at their worst:

All photos © Jenni Riutta & European Open 2011

The most prestigious Disc Golf team event of the year is presented by Innova Champion Discs:

Seppo Paju joins Team Europe

So there you have them: the final rosters of the teams for Presidents Cup. Quite expectedly, Jussi Meresmaa decided not to take part as a player, since he is the Tournament Director of the Presidents Cup. Jussi’s spot went to a very promising young discgolfer, Seppo Paju, who earned the titles of World Champion in boys under 16 and European Champion in boys under 19 -divisions last year.

With wins from all the previous cups, Team USA is considered once again a favorite in this year’s Presidents Cup. Europe captain Hans Tegebäck is still confident that team Europe has a good shot at obtaining a surprise victory at home soil.

Presidents Cup Course Map published!

The Presidents Cup will be played on a 9-hole version of the previously published European Open course. The holes featured on the Presidents Cup course are 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 17, 18. The official Presidents Cup course map is here:

(click the pic to enlarge in browser or click here to download .pdf)

Presidents Cup Rules updated!

The rules of Presidents Cup have been updated and can be downloaded here as a .pdf -file.

Presidents Cup to be broadcasted via DiscGolfPlanet.tv!

Our friends at DiscGolfPlanet.tv will be doing a broadcast about the Presidents Cup. The program will be broadcasted a couple of hours after the event, with footage from the Cup and live interviews from the tournament hotel, Spa Hotel Rantasipi Eden. We will be giving out more information on the broadcast as it surfaces.

Come watch the event on site!

The Presidents Cup welcomes spectators to follow the action! The place to be is Nokia Sports Center Park / Nokia Ice Hall and the location on map can be found here. There are no entry fees whatsoever and discs and other DG equipment are sold on-site. You can also RSVP yourself to attend on facebook —>
And why not invite your DG friends too! 

Grip Equipment provides bags for the PC teams!

The new and up and coming bag manufacturer, Grip EQ, will equip the players of the Presidents Cup Teams with brand new disc golf bags! Grip’s hip backpack -type bags seems to be all that the DG folks have been talking about in the interwebs lately and the highly anticipated newest batch of these very compact and functional bags surface right in time for the Presidents Cup.

A limited quantity of Grip EQ Disc Golf Bags will also be available for purchase at the European Open Pro Shop, powered by discmania.fi. It’s also in the plans that Grip bags will be available on selected retailers in Europe later this year.

Here’s a couple of pics so you know what to write Santa about around December ;)