EO2016 Round 2 Recap: It’s getting tight!
We’ve witnessed a total of 36 holes of exciting world class disc golf at Nokia. Much like during the first day, the weather on the 2nd round was warm and sunny from start to finish. Unlike round 1 that was pretty calm for the most part, today we saw pretty high winds that tested our players especially on the last 4 wide open holes of “The Beast”.
We had a great gallery of over a thousand spectators at Nokia today.
The big gallery following our lead card today saw most likely the 4 best players in the world going head to head on the extremely challenging Par 64 course here at Nokia. And what a wild ride it was! Much like yesterday, the reigning European Open champion Paul McBeth suffered a slow start today, shooting all pars on the first 6 holes today. While McBeth was struggling the get his game in the right gear, the other members of the lead group moved past McBeth by picking up birdies in the arboretum part of the course.
Nybo, Lizotte and Wysocki battling head-to-head
KJ Nybo was shooting good again today.
Crowd favourite and EO veteran KJ Nybo (DK) tied the lead already on the first hole by snatching the lone birdie of the group. KJ’s game was nicely on track today, as he never let the lead drift further than a single stroke away from him. Actually all 4 players of the lead card held the lead at certain points of the round (McBeth only on the 1st tee, shared with Wysocki) and for a good chunk of the round Nybo, Lizotte and Wysocki were hitting birdie after birdie, with all 3 tied to the lead.
Ricky Wysocki (USA) is in the lead.
Sharing KJ’s hot round of the day (-8) was Ricky Wysocki, who’s impressive 67% green hit percentage for today proved that this man can do a lot more than hit long putts to stay on top. Wysocki’s great birdie on the 18th hole resulted in a -16 total score for the first 36 holes. This gives Ricky the number 1 spot on the leaderboard going into Championship Saturday. However the top 2 Europeans are right at his heels, with KJ at -15 and Simon Lizotte with -14 for the week.
Simon Lizotte ripping a drive on hole 15.
Speaking of Lizotte, the German had his putting game on point today despite the windy conditions. Simon managed to hit a total of 3 putts from outside the circle today, while only missing one from inside. Even the one putt he missed was a very challenging straddle putt from the knee after going too deep on his 2nd shot on 18.
The Finns populate the chase card
Teemu Nissinen (FIN) shot the hot round on the 3rd card today.
While there was lots of exciting action and drama on the course today, especially on the last 4 holes, the lead group will stay intact also for the final round. Much like today, the chase card will be formed by 4 Finnish talents: Teemu Nissinen and Ville Ahokas at -7, Seppo Paju at -6 and Lassi Hakulinen at -5. Pasi Koivu, who was bitten by “The Beast” on the buncr island hole 16, will have to make way in the chase card to Seppo Paju who’s moving up from today’s 3rd card.
Recap on the 2nd round action!
Video: Simon Lizotte, Ricky Wysocki and Paul McBeth on hole 11. Find a lot more videos like this on our instagram account!
On moving day, our social media team was following the lead card. As a result, you can find a lot of photo updates, as well as hole-specific play-by-play videos from our instagram account. Make sure to check them out here!
We also have our production crew piecing together a wrap up show to be released later tonight. The show will feature select plays from the 2nd round, as well as player interviews and Disc Golf Metrix analysis by the 2009 disc golf world champion Avery Jenkins. Stay tuned for the show this evening and in the meanwhile, check out the Day 1 Wrap Up show here!
Scores and Stats
We also highly recommend checking out the leaderboard and Metrix stats from round 2. As a new feature, we also added the improved course stats to our Disc Golf Metrix platform. The stats are available for registered users only, so make sure to register here if you haven’t already! And if you’re in luck, registering may pay off in a big way, as we’re raffling a limited edition DGWT Grip Equipment bag among our followers after the event.
