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Ville Piippo wins 1st
Italia Open
Ville Piippo receiving the "Tropheo
Leonardo da Vinci"
Finally,
70 player made their way to the Tuscany to play the 1st Disc Golf
Italia Open at the Montecatini Golf Course. It was a Premiere in
Europe, that a disc golf tournament could be held on a golf course.
Most of the players arrived already on Friday to practice the course.
After a couple of small adjustments the course was ready to be played on
Saturday. Two 18 holes rounds could be held as scheduled and all
players were excited about the course layout and the absolutely beautifull landscape. Except some mist on Saturday morning, the weather
was perfect for disc golf (14-15°) and, even the daylight ends already
around 5 pm at this time of the year, the 2nd round could be finished
in time too. The 3rd and final round on Sunday then was played with
golf-start under very comfortable conditions.
After the first day, Jussi Meresmaa from Finland had the lead in the
Open Pro division, but with only one stroke on Ville Piippo, also from
Finland and Sylvain Gouge from France. Also in the leader-group
positioned was the youngster Simon Lizotte from Germany. The Amateurs
Open division was fully in the hand of the Finish player, with Lauri
Nieminen in the lead after the first day. Lydie Hellgren from Sweden
finished the day as leader of the Pro Women's division, followed by
Anne-Birgitte Nilssen from Norway and Elsa Nummelin from Sweden. While
the pro division of the women were in Scandinavian hands, the Amateurs
division from player of the "south" leaded by Isabella Priester from
Austria.
The official player's dinner was held at the Hotel Villa Cappuggi,
where also many players stayed over for the event.
Participants, Staff and Sponsors of the 1st Disc
Golf Italia Open
As mentioned, the 3rd round was played with golf-start, teeing-off
every 10 minutes from tee 1. Regularely members of the golf club
watched the players trowing long drives over the lake and were amazed
about the technique and the "other" style of playing their sport.
With the best round of the tournament (48) and a hole-in-one on hole
17 (up-side-down!), Ville Piippo grabbed the lead and was the first
player who then could hold the beautifull "Leonardo da Vinci Trophy"
in his hand at the price ceremony. Jussi Meresmaa ended 2nd, Sylvain
Gouge 3rd and Simon Lizotte 4th.
The positions in the other divisions did not change, except in the
Amateurs Open division, where Matti Havanka from Finland played the
best round of the Amateurs (60) and won the tournament with a two
stroke lead on hos colleagues Lauri Nieminen and Heikki
Korjula, who
needed to play a short sudden-death to decide about which trophy each
of them will get. Lauri won the play-off and ranked 2nd; Heikki 3rd.
Trophy Winners
Open Pro
1. Ville Piippo, Finland
2. Jussi Meresmaa, Finland
3. Sylvain Gouge, France
Pro Women
1. Lydie Hellren, Sweden
2. Anne Birgitte Nilseen, Norway
3. Elsa Nummelin, Sweden
Amateurs Open
1. Matti Havanka, Finland
2. Lauri Nieminen, Finland
3. Heikki Korjula, Finland
Amateurs Women
1. Isabella Priester, Austria
2. Doris Rubin, Switzerland
3. Waltraut Brunner, Austria
For the full rankin list, click here!
For the first set of photos click
here!
Thank You!
We would like to express a great "Thank You" to the Montecatini Golf
Club to open the door and heart for their little brother and letting
us play our golf on their course. A special thank goes to the
President of the golf club, Cesare Dami and all his staff, who
supported us with all services available. Not to forget are the
various sponsors, who supported the event financially, with services
or goods. Visit their website!
Last, but not least, we thank you the players, who came from all over
Europe and made the event a great presentation for our sport in Italy.
We hope that this first ever event, will have a great impact on the
further development of the sport in Italy.
We already have the commitment by the Golf Club that they would love
to host the 2nd Italia open again at the golf course. It is planned to
hold the tournament a little bit earlier of the year (end of October). As soon as
we have news, we will ring the bell.
If you have made any photos, please share them with us, by sending the
link to the respective photo-page to
discgolf@bluewin.ch.
We will post all under "media" here.
Have a relaxing winter break and see you at the 2nd Disc Golf Italia Open in
2010.
Renita Cameron
Tournament Director |
Paul Francz
TD & Course Pro |
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Provincia di Pistoia
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