European Open is Back!
It’s the most prestigious event on the old continent – the Disc Golf European Open. First competed on 2006 at Epilä DiscGolfPark in Tampere Finland, the European Open was the first event ever to be awarded a PDGA Major status in Europe. The EO2006 was also the first event ever to draw greater numbers top US players to compete on this side of the Atlantic.
Avery Jenkins (USA) has attended all European Open events. This year he will work with the tournament media.
At the ´06 event, those lucky enough to spectate on site witnessed an all new style of play for the European courses by names like Ken Climo, Dave Feldberg, Avery Jenkins and Nate Doss. Keeping in mind that this was a time when services like youtube, facebook and instagram had yet to make the world around us smaller and more open to influences from all across the globe, seeing the top American talent on European soil was an amazing experience for everyone who was there to witness the birth of the European Open.
Dave Feldberg (USA) won the inaugural EO in 2006. Picture from EO2009.
Dave Feldberg went on to win the inaugural European Open by a 8-stroke marginal to local Finnish favourite, Timo Pursio. In 2007 the top US Pro’s were back in even greater numbers. This time it was Ken “The Champ” Climo’s turn to take the highest spot on the podium over Feldberg (2nd place) and Manabu Kajiyama (3rd place).
Ken Climo (USA) and Timo Pursio (FIN) fought head to head at the 3 first editions of the EO. Photo from EO2009.
After 2007, the father of the European Open tournament, Jussi Meresmaa, was still working in the advertising industry, slowly in the process of making his 2nd job of running a then small time disc golf company in to his main gig. Always aiming for bigger and better with his events, Jussi decided that the European Open had grown to be too big of an undergoing for his limited resources at the time to be organized annually.
After 2007, the EO was organized every second year, on 2009, 2011, 2013 and most recently in 2015. As the event grew and the overall talent of pro disc golf accumulated over the years, the European Open 2011 found a new venue at Nokia, a city located right next to Tampere. The Nokia DiscGolfPark course, nicknamed “The Beast”, still works as the venue today and thanks to YouTube, it still holds a high raking on the “dream course to play” index of players all across the globe.
Jesper Lundmark (SWE) is the only European player to ever win the European Open. Picture from EO2009.
As the years rolled by, the European Open saw 3 new winners: Jesper Lundmark (SWE) in 2009, Dave Feldberg (USA) in 2011 and Paul McBeth (USA) in both 2013 and 2015. During these events, the EO was the event to introduce many new things for the sport from the artificial grass TeePads to the iconic scoreboard on the 18th green and live TV broadcasts on Finnish National television.
Jussi Meresmaa (right) has been the architect of the European Open since day one. Photo from 2009.
“The European Open has always been the test press for big things for us. With the formation of the Disc Golf World Tour, we now have not one, but 5 events around the world to bring our expertise of event production to the test”, Jussi Meresmaa explains the role of the event. “Essentially instead of doing one event a year, we now strive to organize 5 European Open’s in 5 different locations to expand the experience of a top level disc golf event to wider audiences. With the number hours and manpower needed to organize everything, it’s not a small adjustment, but we’re proud of what we’re doing and the importance of the work we put in will be understood in the future”, Jussi concludes.
Jussi Meresmaa at the European Masters 2014.
Fast forward to 2016, the European Open has seen one of it’s biggest changes to date by being a part of the Disc Golf World Tour, contrary to being simply an individual event. Being a part of the DGWT also means the EO2016 is a “one division, one champion event”. The 10th anniversary European Open also marks the first time the EO is not listed as Major in the PDGA tour schedule. This is by no means due to lowered standards of event production, but simply to award this year’s Euro Major status for the European Masters, to be organized at the legendary Järva DiscGolfPark in late July.
Paul McBeth repeated his EO2013 victory in 2015.
DGWT Tour Director Jussi Meresmaa explains the situation: “With the City of Stockholm’s graveyard development project threatening Järva DGP’s existence in the years to come, we wanted to grant the PDGA Major status for the European Masters (DGWT #4) this year instead of the European Open. It’s only fitting that the best and most well-known pay to play course in Europe gets to serve as the sole 2016 European Major, since at the moment it’s impossible to say whether Järva DiscGolfPark will be able to host an event of such caliber in future. Naturally it’s a pity that the ‘Original European Major’ can’t be a Major this year, but as a part of the Disc Golf World Tour, we know the change of the tier status will not make the European Open any less of an event.”
Every player starts their round on “The Beast” right here.
Going into the European Open the tour situation could not be much more exciting. Paul McBeth, deservingly cited the greatest player of all time, leads the tour points race with his victory at the La Mirada Open and tied 2nd place at the Konopiste Open. Simon Lizotte is on the 2nd place with his epic come from behind win at the Konopiste Open and 7th place at La Mirada.
KJ Nybo was sporting sweet viking look at the 2009 event. He is one of the favourites again this year.
Ricky Wysocki on the other hand has back to back wins under his belt from Masters Cup and St. Jude Charity Invitational. One should not overlook Denmark’s own KJ Nybo either, who’s always given a consistent performance on The Beast. KJ is currently on the 3rd place on the tour points race, with his tied 2nd place finish at Konopiste Open and tied 7th place finish at the La Mirada Open. Outside these 4 favourites, there’s a strong field of local Finnish talent, hungry to showcase their skills in front of the home crowd.
Young Simon Lizotte made his EO debut in 2009 with a great 5th place finish. Now he is one of the favourites to win the 2016 event.
Whoever it will be on top of the podium after Champioship Saturday, we’re in for a week of amazing disc golf by top players of the world on undisputedly one of the best courses in our sport. The tournament action kicks off on Thursday – Stay tuned for a lot more stories, photos and videos to come here on discgolfworldtour.com and our social media accounts and recap on the previous DGWT event in the video below!
