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Great First Day

Great First Day

2024 DGPT - Krokhol Open — Round 1 Recap

Friday, July 12, 2024 - 16:11

WOW - the spectators at the DGPT Europe Elite Series Krokhol Open presented by Latitude 64 were certainly treated to a show that lived up to the great expectations that had naturally been growing leading up to this event.

And everything was in place for a perfect day of disc golf. The venue at Krokhol Disc Golf Course, the best rated course in the world on UDisc, makes for spectacular viewings, and when the best players in the world battle it out in near perfect conditions on this warm summer’s Friday, well, then something special is bound to happen.

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The sunny morning saw an FPO field full of big names take on the course, including the anticipated return from injury of Kristin Tattar.

But it was another familiar face that ended up on top after the first round in Oslo. As we’ve seen for so many weeks now, Silva Saarinen has become a household name atop the leaderboard, and after finishing -6, she is now the sole leader.

She is closely followed though, as home crowd favourite Anniken Kristiansen Steen and Rachel Turton sit T2 with -5 for the day. Both of them scored 8 birdies, just as Saarinen, but they will have to dodge the bogeys for tomorrow if they are to take the trophy back home come Sunday.

They are two strokes clear of 2x World Champion Kristin Tattar and Heidi Laine, who took the only eagle of the day in the FPO division.

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After the FPO feature cards had started to take on the course, it was time for the MPO division to have a go at the challenge ahead. With such an incredible list of players in the lineup, fans were bound to see something special.

And they weren’t disappointed! After blistering through the course, which will challenge every player who visits, 2 Professional Disc Golf Association Ricky Wysocki shot an incredible bogey free -13 and is currently in the lead with a nice cushion.

In fact, his 4-stroke-lead proves just how incredible of a show he put on for the fans, that had decided to follow him around the course.

Even on a day with such good conditions, only about half the field managed to finish under par, which speaks volumes of the round Ricky Wysocki put together, a round came in with a 1089 rating!

In solo 2nd place with a -9 which on any day is a great score at Krokhol we find Gannon Buhr, who also put together a bogey free round. An although he will rue those missed putts that led him to finish with 5 straight pars, he is in a great position to challenge Wysocki on lead card tomorrow.

One stroke back of Buhr we find no less than 6 players.

Bradley Williams, the reigning Krokhol Open champion, carded a single bogey for the round, the same as Väinö Mäkelä, who had to borrow the dry sacks of his cardmates until hole 12, where good fortune found him as a member of the gallery handed him a Whale Sac. From there on, he birdied 4 of the remaining 7 holes.

The Americans Eagle McMahon and Joseph Anderson both managed bogey free rounds while Casey White and Morten Brenna took 3 bogeys to accompany their 11 birdies. They will be thinking about turning those bogeys around for tomorrow, where the home crowd will definitely cheer on Brenna, who is currently the best placed Norwegian.

And on stroke behind the six we find 7 players in T9 all with a -7 round. In this group we find 6 x World Champion Paul McBeth, who after an uncharacteristic slow start, started revving the McBeast-machine to birdie 6 of the last 7 holes, including a wonderful par-save on 18, having gone OB early off the drive.

Also at -7 is McBeth’s Discraft teammate Aaron Gossage, who gathered 11 birdies along the way to the green of 18.

They are joined by a quartet of Finns: Joona Heinänen, Samuel Hänninen, Niklas Anttila and Teemu Talikainen, who beat Anttila to the Finnish Championship in a play off last weekend.

And lastly in T9 is Norwegian Markus Fjørtoft, who managed to get the elusive eagle on hole 2 – the only player to do so!

Tomorrow brings another warm day, which the players will have to make use of, because the forecast for Sunday looks very, very wet.

Live broadcast tomorrow: Disc Golf Network

  • FPO: 9:40 AM CET
  • MPO: 3:40 PM CET