MPO

Sensational!

PDGA Euro Tour stop number 7 on Åland Islands has been just that so far and nothing less. Everything you might have heard about the disc golf heaven is true and some more here on the archipelago between Sweden and Finland. If you are ever planning for a disc golf holiday, this must be on top of your list.

But enough is said about the beauty of this place, we have more important things to do now... we are eagerly following Eagle McMahon, Niklas Antilla and other top pros smashing their way throughout the course at Vesterkalmare Disc Golf Park and if you missed first round live on Disc Golf Network, make sure that you check out the post produced coverage on MDG Media YouTube channel and for sure tune in to DGN Friday for moving day because this is a SHOW.

After morning battle between Heidi Laine and Silva Saarinen, we have been witnessing tough battle in MPO as well. Hjalte Jensen, 2023 Dannish Champion set up the pace early in the day with -10 hot score and was sitting on top of the leaderboard until Eagle McMahon caught him up with his -10 through 14 holes, also thanks to a smashing eagle on 400m long hole 11 (yes, tap-in eagle after two throws that carried all the distance).

To give us some early excitement, Eagle then managed to double bogey hole 15 only to raise up back to lead on 17 and bogey 18 to tie for second place and eventually have Hjalte take the solo lead after round 1.

Eric Oakley had a decent round on the main feature card only until a throw in eagle on 16 made it a great round. And it is always hard to forget to mention Scott Stokely when he plays a good round. In his 50s, he could teach a lot younger a lesson (in fact he does that quite regularly with his "Scott Stokely Method" -try it out), keeping up the pace with the best shooting 9-under, managing to get on a lead card for round two tying second place with Eagle.

Miro Ryhänen

But we are in Europe and having USA stars here is always a bonus, but we can not forget "our boys" either. If Eagle McMahon thought he would grab an easy win in Europe, well, he must very well know by now that aint going to be as easy. Hjalte has the solo lead now and a Fin, Miro Ryhänen, is the last card mate for round two, tied with Eagle and Scott at second place.

We can then see 8-under next to the Czech superstar Jakub Semerád, but also next to Noah Smithson from Great Britain. A young Brit is definitely capable of repeating a great first round being backed up by possibly the most experienced coach -the first European Disc Golf Hall of Famer, none other than Derek Robins. Chase card will then be complete with pair of Norwegian friends, Knut Valen Håland and Øyvind Jarnes, both sitting at 7-under.

Heidi Laine

FPO

Heidi Laine continues to maintain the momentum of the last European Open and climbs to the first position of the PDGA Euro Tour — Åland Open 2023 presented by Discmania with an excellent 5-under in the first round!

The great favorite after having won in her three events on the Euro Tour, the also Finnish Silva Saarinen, is by no means out of the fight for the victory as she is second at three strokes.Sweden's Hanna Jansson takes a step forward compared to her last tournaments, achieving the third position in the leading card that closes the sensation of the last PCS Open, the very young Norwegian Ida Emilie Nesse.

Disc Golf Development on Fast Forward

By Bogi Bjarnason

The Fokker hit hard, and flair skipped off the tarmac fairway of the Aland islands much like the dozen discs I watched skip onto the island green of 16 in Nokia these last few days, before hopping from the mainland feature attraction that is the European Open towards the archipelago upstart event that is the Aland Open. The propellers slowly wound down and as I alighted the plane, I was welcomed by the embrace of Rickard Sköld, a Swedish disc golf entrepreneur, who, like me, was introduced to the magic of these islands through the unifying powers of the sport we both love.

As Covid covered the world in travel restrictions during the summer of 2020, I was somehow drawn towards this mysterious enclave of tiny islands that guards the Gulf of Bothnia like trees protecting a green. This Puerto Rico of the North is a territory that pledges fealty to Finland, yet geographically, culturally, and foremost, linguistically, hews closer to the realm of the Swedes. Just as they once ruled European disc golf, the Swedes once ruled these islands too. Both roles have now been assumed by the Finns.

The next morning, I watched the first ever player tee off in an A-tier on these islands and minutes later I witness Krister Valtonen hit his first career ace off that same tee as he launched his first throw in the MP55 division of the ETM#2. I then left the championship course, a tour ready pay-to-play that sprang out of the fertile soil of Vesterkalmare in a matter of two years since inception.

As I wandered back towards the capital of Mariehamn I passed by an assortment of the amenities that this idyllic holiday haven has to offer ferry bound families of all stripes and colors. A beach caught my eye, and as I ambled along the gently breaking waters, echoes of frolicking youth carried towards me over the shallows that penetrate deep into the horizon. Beyond the beach, a pair of chestnut stallions stood forever motionless in a small enclosure. In the next enclosure over, a young family father was playing catch with an extremely energetic dog, best described as a base line greyhound breed. He tells me how he got caught up in the Covid disc golf explosion, but now that the dust has settled, he, like many others, has only played a total of two rounds this year.

Passing through the din of 1950s American muscle cars that dot downtown Mariehamn, I made my way up the hill of Norra Gatan towards Lions Club Mariehamn DiscGolfPark. This little nine-hole pitch and putt tees off in a park setting overlooking the Mariehamn ferry harbor, before climbing up a bonsai beset cliff face draped with views galore, and then descending the rocky outcroppings again to finish back in the embrace of the park.

Every hole here is ace-able with a putter, and as I ́m scouring the cliff face above hole 4 for an AWOL R-Pro Pig, a trio of pre-teen boys clad in the loud orange Dri-Fits from their Aland Open player packs launch a bag emptying barrage of ace runs in the general direction of the basket. I immediately set my phone camera to record, and moments later a forehand flung by a Harry Dönner comes crashing into the chains. Harry showed no reaction whatsoever, and later told me he’s “aced” every hole on this course already.

As the unflappable youths turned their attention to cubby ace-ing the next hole, a backup started to form behind them. It was noon on a Monday, and this circumstantial evidence calmed my mounting fears that the post-covid slowdown had hit hard here as well.

Mats Adamczak is a funny fellow who fears no OB line and believes progress can only be made from the hazard area. He is a man that played up from AM to Open before even pressing purchase on his PDGA membership and envisioned a course in each municipality and a stop on the EuroTour circuit from the basis of a single nine-hole pitch and putt back inthe spring of 2020.

The Aland Disc Golf Island is his brainchild. Commissioned by the government of Aland to come up with innovative ideas to aid the ailing tourism sector through the economic onslaught of the pandemic, installing 16 courses, one per municipality, was his solution. This aimed to draw tourism that had turned from global to local as travel restrictions swept the land, from the three surrounding countries, Finland, Sweden and Estonia. Three countries that also happen to be Europe ́s biggest disc golf countries.

Weeks later I arrived in Mariehamn and met with DiscGolfPark’s Pasi Koivu, Juho Rantalaiho and Jussi Meresmaa to launch eleven new courses in one day with the aid of a helicopter, various boats and a Tesla.

As the pandemic hit its lowest depths in ‘21, opportunities for travel were few and far between. But with the relaunch of the dormant European Open in 2022, I made the trip over again. This time our posse consisted of characters such as Avery Jenkins, a socially awkward hermit who travels only very reluctantly, European Birdies owner Josef Berg, podcast host Rickard Sköld, disc golf entrepreneur Michael Bui and UDisc editor Alex Williamson. In the jacuzzi of Silverskar, drunken plans were hatched late at night, and in the cold harsh light of day, they somehow came into fruition.

Aland was incorporated into the storyline of The Magic of Disc Golf documentary series. UDisc Release Point launched a cover story, and the TD duo of Sköld and Bui came together to shoulder the responsibility of hosting the Aland Open.

As I sit idle in the lobby of Pommern Hotel, preparing for an interview that fails to materialize, a heavy downpour fills the skies outside. Adamczak is busy shuttling disc golf dignitaries Anttila and McMahon around. Sköld is stuckin traffic with a blown out rental car. And Bui is somewhere in the ether attending to the myriad entailed with running three overlapping A-tiers in the space of a single week.

I hit send on an interview that ́s morphed into a travel piece, close my laptop, and reflect on the three days of AM play that await me among the gorgeous cliffs of Geta from Wednesday to Friday.