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McBeth & Allen Win in Skellefteå

McBeth & Allen Win in Skellefteå

2015 Scandinavian Open Results

Saturday, July 11, 2015 - 16:21

Cover photo courtesey of Latitude 64°.

Another beautiful day of weather greeted the 72 Open Men and 8 Open Women who survived the cut to advance to the final round of the 2015 Scandinavian Open on Saturday in Skellefteå Sweden. Following two rounds of competing in cold and wet conditions on a saturated course, the field was treated to playing their final two rounds in the beautiful weather that is traditional in northern Sweden this time of year. It was almost as if it were two entirely different events when comparing the first 36 holes to the last 36 holes due to the playing conditions on the course.

In the Open Women’s division, Catrina Allen #44184 started the day off with a pretty comfortable 8 throw lead over Sarah Hokom #34563, but that comfort level quickly diminished after Hokom made up 6 strokes on Allen on the first 8 holes with 4 birdies on the front 9. Hokom wasn’t finished though as she cut the lead down to just a single throw after carding another birdie on hole 11. She also birdied hole 12 for her sixth birdie of the day, but Catrina Allen matched that birdie to maintain her thin lead. The two ladies matched each other on holes 13-15 to set up the final three holes with only one throw separating them.

On holes 16, 17 and 18, Hokum played aggressively in an attempt to overtake the lead but it didn’t work out well as she ended up taking bogeys on all three holes while Allen kept it in the fairways and carded pars. The final margin was a 4 throw win by Catrina Allen over Sarah Hokom to win the 2015 Scandinavian Open and add another PDGA Major title to her impressive resume. Valarie Jenkins #17495 took third place to join them on the podium.

Paul McBeth #27523 entered the final round in the lead with a fairly comfortable 6 throw margin over Jeremy Koling #33705, with Nikko Locastro #11534 and Nate Doss #11794 one and two strokes behind Koling, respectively. The contenders knew they would have to have a record round to catch McBeth or they would be playing for second. This feeling of hope didn’t last long though when McBeth shot 7-under on the front nine which included 5 birdies and an eagle on the par 5 eighth hole, while none of the others on the lead card could muster a serious challenge.

Just ahead on the second card, Will Schusterick #29064 was making some noise when he birdied the first five holes to put the lead card on notice that they had better not forget about him. Schusterick would go on to birdie five additional holes but a bogey on the par 3 tenth hole left him at 9-under for the round and sitting in the clubhouse in second place.

Koling and Locastro were battling hard with each other all day as the two always seemed to be within a throw or two of each other on the front nine. This head-to-head match got more interesting when a course scoring update put them on notice that Schusterick had overtaken them for second. On the back nine neither could get on track as Locastro would birdie only one hole while Koling bogeyed two holes. Locastro would finish at 6-under on the day to finish in third place, just a throw behind Will Schusterick, who finished the event at 33-under par. Nate Doss started out slow shooting a 1-over on the first five holes before getting on track with six birdies on the remaining holes to finish at 5-under on the day and good enough for fourth place.

Paul McBeth finished the day at 10-under par and an astounding 44-under par for the event to win the 2015 Scandinavian Open ten full throws clear of the field. The par 67 championship course at Discgolf Terminalen is normally very challenging and was even more so this week due to the wet conditions. Paul McBeth averaged an amazing 11-under per round in some pretty tough conditions. Yet another reason he is considered by most to be the best disc golfer in the world.

The top 3 finishers in both divisions were presented with beautiful stainless steel cutouts of the Scandinavian Open logo from tournament director, Tomas Ekstrom #4573. PDGA Executive Director, Brian Graham joined with the players in thanking Tomas and the Skellefteå Disc Golf Club for overcoming the early weather challenges that plagued the tournament, to host such an outstanding event. He also thanked Skellefteå’s own Latitude 64º for being the presenting sponsor of the event.

Many of the players will be crossing the Baltic Sea tomorrow to travel to Nokia Finland for the President’s Cup matches on Wednesday between the United States and Team Europe. This will be followed on Thursday–Sunday of next week by another PDGA Major, the European Open. Once that concludes it will be time to end the European swing of the tour and head to the United States to begin preparations for the PDGA Professional Disc Golf World Championships which begin in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the end of the month. Safe travels to all players!