2017 Konopiště Open Moving Day Recap – McBeth takes the lead!
We’re 36 holes in to the 2nd Disc Golf World Tour event of the year here in beautiful Czechia and with just one round to go, the situation on top of the scoreboards on both FPO and DGWT Open division are as exciting as always!
The main concern of our players and staff today was the chance of thunderstorms that were predicted to hit the Konopiště area around the time the lead group was scheduled to tee off. Thankfully however, we didn’t see much more than a couple quick rain showers in the afternoon, while most of the time the weather was nice and calm.
Salonen holds on to the lead in the FPO division
Eveliina Salonen leads to FPO division.
The 17-year-old Finnish phenom, reigning FPO European Champion Eveliina Salonen started the day at even par with a 4 stroke advantage over Vanessa Van Dyken, who hails from San Diego, USA, but spends most of her time also in Finland these days. Salonen didn’t get quite the flying start she had yesterday for her round, but was able to avoid mistakes on the long back 9 of the Franz Ferdinand course, resulting in a round score of 71, 4 over par.
Vanessa Van Dyken shared the hot score on the FPO field today.
Overall the round scores today on the women’s side of the field were tighter than yesterday, as 5 of the top ladies returned a scorecard with just one stroke separation within them. Salonen’s +4 was tied today by the lady on the 2nd place, Vanessa Van Dyken, who will start her round tomorrow on the 2nd place with a 4 stroke deficit over the leader Salonen.
Still anybody’s game
Henna Blomroos is on the hunt.
Henna Blomroos (FIN), Katka Bodová (SVK) and Kristin Tattar (EST) all shot +5 today. This places Blomroos on the sole 3rd place with a 6 stroke deficit over Salonen. The 4th place is tied between Bodová and Tattar, but Bodová will be the one rounding out the lead card, thanks to her lower PDGA number as stated on the DGWT rules. It’s going to be an exciting battle tomorrow on the ladies side, as on a course as long as this one, the victory is still within grasp for at least the top 4 competitors.
McBeth ties Wysocki’s course record, jumps in the lead
Video: Paul McBeth hits the eagle again on hole 11. Find more videos like this here!
Over at the DGWT Open division, we got to witness the activation of McBeast mode on the lead card. Paul had a decent look for a birdie from outside the circle on hole 1 today, but left his putt a little too low. After that Paul kept his drives on point and putts inside the chains on pretty much the rest of the round, carding an impressive 14 birdies and one eagle (hole 11) on the remaining 17 holes.
McBeth’s putting game was on point today.
Holes 1, 5 and 12 were the only ones Paul wasn’t able to score a birdie or better on today, hole 12 being his sole bogey for the day after finding himself in the OB pond after his 2nd shot. Paul will head to the final round in sole lead, acquired on the very last hole of the day thanks to his birdie over Wysocki’s par on the 18th.
Wyscoki can’t quite find his groove, shoots 10 under nevertheless
Ricky Wysocki, who started the day with a 4-stroke lead today, remains to be bogey-free for the tournament after the first 36 holes. Ricky’s -10 for the day was not a bad round in any way, but it was clear some aspects of his game were somewhat on and off at times during the moving day round. Ricky’s game has been so solid for the past year, that we’ve grown to expect him to make just about every putt within the 20+ meter radius. Today we witness a couple of momentary lapses in this routine however.
Wysocki couldn’t find as many birdie opportunities on the course today as on the first round.
During round 2, Ricky’s inside the circle putting percentage was 100%, but he only managed to hit one from outside the circle, whereas on couple occasions he left wasn’t able to convert with the signature Ricky birdie putts within the 15 meter (or so) range. The sole successful outside the circle putt for Wysocki today came from hole 11, where he was able to hit the amazing eagle 3. Ricky will head to Championship Sunday on the 2nd place with a one stroke deficit over McBeth.
Video: Ricky Wysocki nails the putt for the eagle on hole 11 as well Find more videos like this here!
Sexton keeps it clean
Video: Nate Sexton’s game was fun to follow today. Find more videos like this here!
Nate Sexton, who started the day on the tied 2nd place today, had his game dialed in very nicely on the Franz Ferdinand course today. Nate’s versatile driving game gave him a lot of birdie opportunities, 13 of which he was able to convert. Sexton also kept himself out of trouble and his scorecard clean of bogeys for the 2nd round in a row. His 13 under for the day secures him the sole 3rd place going into the final, with just a 2-stroke deficit over McBeth.
Lizotte gets bitten on the last 2
Lizotte played a great round except for the last 2 holes.
The defending champion Simon Lizotte’s game was also very enjoyable to watch today, until the last 2 holes, where it got painful pretty quick. Simon was tied with Sexton for the best part of the round, hitting birdie putts left and right up until hole 17, where an apparent mental lapse cost him the birdie in the form of a missed putt from about 5 meters.
Video: Simon Lizotte struggles on the 18th. Find more videos like this here!
It felt like Simon had to pay his dues today on the last 2 holes of the Franz Ferdinand course, as on those very 2 holes he shot the amazing eagle-birdie finish to tie the lead and eventually take the home the victory in 2016. Simon was not happy at all after finishing his round by 3-putting inside the circle on hole 18. We’re sure Simon’s easy going mentality will help him bounce back quick and bring his A-game to the final round, on which he will be the 4th person on the lead card tomorrow.
Finns make moves up the scoreboard
Teemu Nissinen made moves with his -10 for the day.
Outside the lead card, two Finns were able to return the score of -10 today: Pasi Koivu and Teemu Nissinen. Both of them got rewarded with a spot on the chase card for the final round. The second card will be rounded out by Luukas Rokkanen (-7 today) and Leo Piironen (-9 today), making it an all-Finnish card. Nissinen and Rokkanen are tied to the 5th place with a total score of 18 under. Leo Piironen sits solo on the 7th place with -16 and the 8th place is tied between Pasi Koivu, Tony Ferro (CHE), Raimo Sokka (FIN) and Konopiště Open 2015 champion Karl-Johan Nybo (DEN) with their -15 total for the first 2 rounds.
It’s looking to be another exciting finish on the World Tour, with at least 4 players still in clear contention for the top spot on the podium over at the DGWT Open division. Make sure to check back tomorrow for the Championship Sunday action from Konopiště Open!
Recap on the moving day action!
Video: Nate Sexton hits a huge outside the circle putt on the 18th to end the day at -13. Find more videos like this here!
During the 2nd round of Konopiště Open, our social media team was following mostly the lead card on the course. As a result, you can find a lot of photo updates, as well as hole-specific play-by-play videos on our instagram account. Make sure to check them out here!
We also have The SpinTV production crew piecing together play-by-play tournament coverage videos from the both the FPO and DGWT Open division feature card’s first round, to be released tomorrow. Find the play-by-play coverage so far published here and check out our facebook live recap show from after round round 2 below:
If the facebook video embed doesn’t appear on your screen, click here to watch!
Scores and Stats
Click the picture to access the round 2 scores and stats!
We also highly recommend checking out the leaderboard and Metrix and course stats from round 1. The new feature we added last year, player- and hole-specific instagram videos on the scoring interface, is in place here at the Konopiště Open too, so make sure to check those out by clicking the tiny camera icons where available.
Find the PDGA results page with preliminary round ratings here!
There’s still plenty of action to come, so make sure to check back tomorrow for moving day action from the 2017 Konopiště Open!
