Flying Finns Take Off at European Championships

By Brian Hoeniger, PDGA International Director. Photos by Eino Ansio / Innova Europe.

The strength and depth of the Finnish machine was on full display today during the opening round of the European Championships along the undulating fairways of beautiful Meri-Toppila DiscGolfPark in Oulu.

Pasi Koivu shot the day’s hot score, an 11 down 61 rated at 1070 , to vault into the MPO driver’s seat by 2 throws. He was one of only 3 shooters in the Open field of 85 to play bogey-free and 1 of only 2 to card birdies on the final 3 holes. Sitting alone in 2^nd at -9 is Sweden’s Tobias Johansson, followed by home town favorite Juho Parviainen, who is 3 back of Pasi’s torrid pace. A trio of Finns, Teemu Nissinen, Ilari Tuoma, and defending champion Seppo Paju, are tied for 4^th , rounding off the top 6. The tournament’s 2 highest rated competitors, Denmark’s KJ Nybo and France’s Sylvain Gouge, are 8 strokes behind at -3 with work to do if they are to get back in the hunt. KJ suffered a triple bogey on hole 6 while Sylvain only converted 4 birdie putts all day.

Among the women, 16 year old Eveliina Salonen, who beat Catrina Allen earlier this year, shot a stellar 980 rated round of par 61, carding 6 birdies to lead by 6. Estonia’s Kristin Taffar is alone in 2^nd , 1 throw ahead of Eveliina’s fellow teenage compatriot, Henna Blomroos, and Slovakia’s Katka Bodová.

The blue cross of Finland’s flag also dominates the Junior division scoreboard with the 5 players under par all hailing from Suomi. Mäkelä Väinö’s 1021 rated, 7 birdie 5 down 56 has him in front of Mikael Hakala by 1.

In Masters, arch rivals Sweden have so far managed to break the spell cast by the host country. Kristian Bengtsson is setting the pace at -5 followed by his countrymen Anders Swärd and Jonas Hälleblad. Another Scandinavian veteran, Norway’s Terje Rørmark, shot the hot round of +4 in Senior Grandmasters.

Continental European players delivered the best scores in the other 2 age based divisions. Spanish Grandmaster Carlos Rio, the title holder from 2014, holds a slender 1 throw margin over Finland’s Kari Vesala, while in Women’s Masters Switzerland’s Karin Rubin and Germany’s Christine Hellstern are tied at the top.

With tomorrow’s forecast calling for rain and cooler temps, time will tell if Team Finland can maintain their grip on the event and their discs, or if a few more of the 169 competitors from the other 20 participating nations seize the day and the momentum.

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