FPO

It was a battle until the last hole and more at the PDGA Euro Tour — Åland Open presented by Discmania!

Heidi Laine was keeping her lead throughout the last round, but Silva Saarinen never gave up and, with birdies on 15, 16, 17 and 18, she put a pressure on Heidi, who had an eagle putt, but missed and had to go to a tiebreaker with Silva.

Playoff holes were 17 and 18 in a loop, Silva had first drive and ended just outside of C2. Heidi bombed her backhand and it seemed she might be long, but stayed in bounds for outside of C1 putt. Silva gave it a bit, but ended under the basket, so Heidi had second chance to take it down... but missed her C2 putt, just barely low, hitting the cage. On Hole 18, it was Heidi to go first and she went for a long drive, trying to get past the OB area for a possible eagle look again. Her drive started fading a bit too early, ending up in OB. Silva opted to lay up, but her drive was almost too long, stopping just shy of the OB line. Heidi then tried to go as far as she possibly could, landing in C2 area, while Silva played smart, crossed OB safely and made her upshot on the long side of C1. Heidi had to make the putt to have any chance, but missed, while Silva drained the last putt of the competition and claimed her fourth victory on Euro Tour and the first Åland Open Euro Tour title as well as the 2350€ first prize.

Jenni Karppinen took the championship Sunday by a storm and sprinted to a third place finish from a chase card with an outstanding -4. Hanna Janson is 4th and Amanda Lennartsson tied with Ida Emilie Nesse on 5th. Congratulations to winners, this was an amazing experience in a true disc golf heaven.

MPO

What a show! We need one more round of this, or more! PDGA Euro Tour #7 -Åland Open presented by Discmania was an event to remember and the MPO champion is Miro Ryhänen!

This was 100% deserved win that came from fierce battle. A battle that narrowed to three men, where Miro Ryhänen and Niklas Anttila quickly caught up Eagle McMahon, who started pretty slow, but then put the pedal to the metal not giving up his hopes to win the event.

Miro Ryhänen

On eleven, Eagle wanted to repeat his round one effort and decided to not lay up and go for an eagle shot, which unfortunately landed OB. After Niklas missed his short putt, they both went away with a par. And there is an old Czech saying, which says something like "when two battle, the third is smiling"... and that was Miro, who took a conservative route and a birdie, which then resulted in one shot on both his contenders.

Miro was keeping his lead on both Eagle and Niklas, especially when Eagle took a bogey on 12 after OB teeshot and Niklas gave up one stroke on 15 with a par, but then Eagle showed his triumphs on 16, assembled all his skills and birdie for Niklas and Miro was not enough because Eagle stood up to his name and carded a lone 3 on the par 5.

With two to go, Miro was still up by two. All three carded birdie on 17 and Miro was certainly in a driving seat. But can the 18 year old hold his nerves in the battle against the sport titans? A quick change of disc on tee of 18 suggested that he will go super conservative and the super safe hyzer shot landed exactly where it was meant to — center of fairway — leaving no one in doubt that he will hold the trophy after this hole.

We got few more beautiful aerial shots on Disc Golf Network, where drone was feasting on the picturesque of the archipelago of Åland Islands all weekend before players took their fairway drivers to their hands to deliver their final hyzer shots onto a guarded green of 18. Eagle and Niklas landed in bullseye and Miro just outside, he used his two shot advantage for a layup under the basket to secure his well deserved win.