Konopiště Open 2017 Preview
We’re back here in beautiful Central Bohemia and less than a day away from the first round of the 2017 Konopiště Open. It’s the 2nd Disc Golf World Tour event of the year and the setting probably couldn’t be more exciting.
The 2017 season began in late January in Perth, Western Australia with the Aussie Open, where we saw the young Coloradan phenom Eagle McMahon hold the lead for a majority of the tournament play, only to be passed on the scoreboard by the reigning world champion Ricky Wysocki (USA) on the very last hole of the event. This places Wysocki in the lead on the tour standings with his 750 points over McMahon (650 points) and 4-time world champ Paul McBeth (575 points) who placed 3rd down under.
Video: Ricky Wysocki snagged the Aussie Open victory from Eagle McMahon on the final hole of the event. Find more videos like this here!
Lizotte returns to defend the title
While the action on the top cards at Aussie Open was top notch, the Konopiště Open should bring even more excitement to the race for the podium with a little wider base of top level players in attendance. We recommend keeping an eye especially on Simon Lizotte (GER), who missed the Aussie Open due a knee injury and will be back here defending his title from 2016 on the Franz Ferdinand course.
Denmark’s KJ Nybo is one of the crowd favourites here in Konopiště.
Another European that’s sure to have a great chance to success here in Czechia is Denmark’s KJ Nybo, who won the 2015 Konopiště Open and placed for second place last year, after being the 2nd person to get eliminated in the exciting 3-way playoff for victory with Lizotte and McBeth. If you haven’t watched the epic conclusion of the 2016 Konopiště Open, check out this post with playlists of all videos from the 2016 event, or watch the final round wrap up show below:
Lots of European talent on the field
Other very possible European contenders for the Konopiště Open title include the 2016 European Champion and Konopiště Open 2015 runner up Leo Piironen, 2016 Konopiště Open 4th place finisher Seppo Paju and other Finns like Jalle Stoor, Juho Parviainen, Pasi Koivu, Teemu Nissinen and Janne Hirsimäki, who all can easily challenge the top if they keep their game in great shape. Outside the Finnish armada of talent, we recommend keeping an eye on guys like Marvin Tetzel (GER), Håkon Kveseth (NOR) and Henric Hagman (SWE), all of whom are hungry for a spot on top of the leaderboard.
Top US players: Challenge accepted
As per usual for any big disc golf event, it’s more than likely we’ll see some American colours on the top cards this weekend. Ricky Wysocki, who more often than not has seemed to be the man to beat for the past couple of seasons, will be making his debut on the Franz Ferdinand and we’re excited to see how this course suits Ricky’s game.
Eagle McMahon is looking for the top spot here in Konopiště after a sore final hole loss at Aussie Open.
Another Konopiště first-timer, young Eagle McMahon has a tendency to play the better the bigger the event, especially abroad, so he will most definitely be a man to watch during this weekend. McMahon seems also be a fan favourite on tour right now, as he was the one to receive most votes in our feature card fan vote on facebook. Granted, the defending champ and another fan favourite Simon Lizotte had already secured a spot on the feature card thanks to his victory last year. Both McMahon and Lizotte have been really entertaining to follow this year, thanks to their easy-going attitude, long and sometimes even fearless style of play.
Nate Sexton is back again this year and ready to challenge the course.
Naturally players like Nate Sexton and Paul McBeth, who will attend the Konopiště Open for a second time, will be hungry for success this weekend. Both of these players have the tools to turn in great results on the beautiful but long Franz Ferdinand course and their expertise from 2016 will be most certainly be an advantage on this beastly Par 67 course.
FPO division joins the action
This year, 3 out of 4 Disc Golf World Tour events feature a Female Pro Open division, besides the non-gender-protected DGWT Open Division. Due to a long running tradition of the USDGC being held under the “One division, one champion” -banner, the FPO division is not organized as a tour, but as separate events at Aussie Open, Konopiště Open and the European Open in July. Paige Pierce, who won the FPO division at Aussie Open is not present in Konopiště, but we nevertheless have some great talent on the FPO field as well.
Eveliina Salonen is the top rated FPO player. Image copyright: Jeff Panis / Innova Discs.
Eveliina Salonen (FIN), who won the 2016 European Championship title is the highest rated FPO on the field and with her powerful driving game, will be a force to reckon with on the FPO division. Katka Bodová’s (SVK) experience of the Konopiště course from the editions prior to DGWT will also likely be a huge advantage this weekend.
Other ladies to watch this weekend include Finns Jenni Eskelinen & Henna Blomroos, who both can even challenge some of the top guys on the field on a good day. Estonian Kristin Tattar and the US duo Hannah Croke & Vanessa Van Dyken were the ones to get the most votes in our feature card fan vote, which means their first rounds will be captured by The SpinTV for a play-by-play video set to be released during the weekend.
Video: Kristin Tattar hits an amazing ACE on hole 1 in practice. Video courtesy of Kristin Tattar.
Stay on top of the action!
While there’s no live broadcasts scheduled for the weekend*, there’s still plenty of ways to follow the action online. We’ve compiled a handy article for those following the event from their computers and mobile devices, so make sure to add that to your bookmarks. You can find the online follower guide here!
*(Outside our facebook live bits on all tournament days)
Oh, and don’t forget the to check out the amazing course photos from the Franz Ferdinand course 😉
