DGWT Hits Europe – Konopiště Open Preview
After years of planning and preparation, a new era of professional disc golf is set to arrive to Europe and Czech Republic. Over a hundred of the world’s best disc golfers, including 4-time World Champion Paul McBeth from USA, will participate in the first European event of the Disc Golf World Tour May 5-7. Held at the famed Konopiště Castle Park disc golf course, named Franz Ferdinand, the Konopiště Open is the second of a total five international events of the 2016 DGWT.
Challenger event kicked off the action at Konopiště
Last weekend, 90 players from Czech Republic competed to qualify to Konopiště Open. Qualifier event, called Konopiště Challenger, was played in a nice spring weather over last weekend. After two days and three rounds of competition Lukas Filandr, Matěj Vojtík and Daniel Vecer qualified to this week’s main event. The qualifying spots were awarded based on the hottest rounds on Open, Masters and Juniors category.
Unique showcase of world class disc golf in Czech Republic
Czech Republic´s leading disc golf promoter and Konopiště Open Tournament Director Premysl Novak says having this marquee event in Czech Republic is special, “especially considering that disc golf was basically non-existent in our country 5 years ago. A lot has happened since 2011, and currently Czech Republic is the fastest growing disc golf nation in Europe. For the Czech disc golf community this event is the pinnacle of the year, despite the fact that there’s still few Czech players that can actually attend a tournament of this caliber.”
Konopiště Open provides a great environment for the up and coming Czech players to watch and learn from the best players in the world. And it’s not just the players who can enjoy this great talent – disc golf is a very spectator friendly sport, with top players accurately reaching distances up to 150+ meters with their discs. The event is free to attend for spectators on all tournament days. “Having the privilege to bring superstars like Paul McBeth to our country makes us very proud and grateful”, the Tournament Director concludes.
An international atmosphere
Beautiful greens and fairways of the Franz Ferdinand course greet the players at Konopiste.
The Konopiste Open Tournament Director Mr. Novak is joined by Tour Director Jussi Meresmaa and an international team of event managers, media professionals, and volunteers to ensure the Konopiště Open can be experienced by not only those in attendance, but by disc golf fans around the world.
Disc Golf World Tour media crew will provide production with coverage from the tournament action, analysis, daily interviews, recaps, and photo galleries. Detailed information of the media coverage will follow soon. The Spin18 works as the official media partner of the Disc Golf World Tour.
In addition to the international staff and production crew of the event, the players field boasts a total of 16 nationalities, including players from Czech Republic, Finland, Sweden, Austria, Estonia, Germany, Norway, Denmark, USA, Lithuania, Hungary, Latvia, Switzerland, UK, France and Spain.
Disc golf on Czech national TV
Following the surge of the new players flowing into the sport in Czech Republic, also the Czech national media outlets have taken interest towards the event. “We are excited to work together with Czech national TV to bring disc golf in front of hundreds of thousands of people.” states Tour Director Meresmaa.
Players to watch
Some of the very best Disc Golfers playing this week in Konopiste. Here are the top players to watch.
Paul McBeth
Hometown: Huntington Beach, CA, USA
Age: 25
4-time Disc Golf World Champion and World nro 1 ranked player.
Arguably the best player ever to play the game.
DGWT La Mirada Open winner Paul McBeth. Photo: The Flight Record.
Simon Lizotte
Hometown: Bremen, Germany
Age: 23
Former European Champion and Distance World record holder. Fan favorite.
German wunderkind Simon Lizotte. Photo: The Flight Record.
Karl-Johan Nybo
Hometown: Copenhagen, Denmark
Age: 37
Konopiste Open 2015 Champion, Top player from Europe
10-time Danish Champion KJ Nybo. Photo: The Flight Record.
Further information
Competition begins Thursday, May 5 before concluding on Saturday, May 7 in Benesov. Below you can find a number of handy links for more information about the event. Check out also our intro article for the event with a gallery of photos from the course!
More news articles, videos and photo galleries will be added as the week progresses. Live scoring will be available after holes 3, 6, 10, 14 and 18 from all groups. The top groups will also have their scores updated hole-by-hole, starting from Thursday’s first round.
