The Battle at Bluebell Woods
The first Euro Tour event in Scotland is in the books! All in all 5 Champions had to Battle 52 players from 8 nations to hoist the trophy on Sunday.
Congratulations!!! to Tobias Ostling for taking the Mens Pro Open Division and the €387 top prize. To kick off the weekend 15 players competed to qualify for Friday Skins, sponsored by ReBoot Disc Golf. At 3pm the top 6 scores drew cards to form 3 doubles teams in 9 holes of Best Shot Doubles, each hole with a £40 Skin. There were many pushes and some fantastic disc golf from all involved (including 'Dark Horse' qualifier Gary O'Malley) but after 1o holes the team of Hamish Blair/Seppo Paju took the entire purse of £360 from the other two teams of Paju/Paju and Charity/O'Malley. The Battle
As all the competitors gathered Saturday morning for players meeting the sound of bagpipes echoed over the lake. Fellow disc golfer Gavin Black made an entrance and treated us to music that will not be soon forgotten.
This years installment of The Battle at Bluebell Woods took place over a par 56, 6616 foot (2017 meter) course set to challenge the best disc golfers in Europe. Reboot Disc Golf Course may be young but it is proving to be one of the best examples of disc golf in the UK, challenging players with every throw of the disc. The course is made-up of many natural narrow off camber fairways with dramatic elevation change that when added to the prevailing Scottish wind only assist in allowing the best players to remain at the top. The skies were grey and the winds were howling at 25 mph as everyone took to their starting tees. Similar to last year the top wind gusts reached 50+ Mph and never relented, most players were happy to reach the wooded sections of the course. After the first 36 holes on Saturday A trend was starting to appear in all but the Mens Pro Open division. Sue Underwood (Birmingham) produced steady play and combined with the ability to clear the water on Hole 1 opened up a gap of 10 strokes over Hanna Hugossen of Bergen Norway. She never looked back and handily took the Female Pro Open Title and the £87 purse. Mens Pro GrandMaster division was 6 strong with Derek Robins (Lemington Spa) taking an insurmountable 7 stroke lead over Terje Rormark of Norway after the first day. He held off the charging Ivan Bromage (Birmingham) on Sunday for the win which paid £124. In the Amateur Division it was Edinburgh resident Calum Peterson that prevailed in impressive style over the MA1 division of eighteen. Calum took the low Amateur score in all rounds but the 3rd which saw Neal Clifton (Surrey) better his score by 1 stroke. There was some stellar play in the Junior Division by Oddbjørn Molvik of Norway who's score would have placed him high in the MA1 division as well. Each Junior player received a double players pack and trophy for tackling a course prepared to challenge the best in Europe. The Mens Pro Open division was decided on Sunday. After two hard fought rounds on Saturday Andreas Dackander (Sweden) was in the lead by by one stroke over Tobias Ostling (Sweden) and two strokes over the defending European Champion Seppo Paju (Finland). After Saturday 1. Andreas Dackander 110 2. Tobias Östling 111 3. Seppo Paju 112 4. Tomas Rosenqvist (Sweden) 115 5. Jeppe Ask Sørensen (Denmark) 116 6. Ola Brunes Stakkeland (Denmark) 116 On Sunday the weather changed every hour and continued to flip flop from clear skies to rain and then wind. But as the Final 9 finished Sunny Dunny found its groove. The same could be said for Tobias. He followed a day one 1022 rated round with two equally impressive 1016 rated rounds on Sunday. There was pressure from Seppo and Tomas but Tobias kept a cool head and won the day by finding the fairways in the narrow gaps of the final 9 and consistent putting throughout the weekend. Final Scores 1.Tobias Östling -2 €387 2. Seppo Paju -1 €262 3. Tomas Rosenqvist +2 €198 4. Jeppe Ask Sørensen +6 €159 5. Andreas Dackander +7 €124 6. Ola Brunes Stakkeland +11 €96 7. Seonaidh Charity +12 €83 8. Steven Dodge +13 €72 9. Anders Haugen +14 10. Daniel Ryan +16 Full Results We had a ton of fun hosting this event and hope to see you all next year. Thank You! to all the players and the volunteers that helped put this wonderful event together. The photos by David Conroy will have to tell the rest of the story. |