Czech Open 2021 – final report

Czech Open 2021 - final report

October 16 – 17
Prague – Ladronka park
PDGA C-Tier

The eighteenth edition of one of the oldest disc golf tournaments in the Czech Republic is in the books. After last year’s forced break, players from all corners of the Czech Republic, as well as a number of foreign guests, gathered in one of the parks of Prague called Ladronka. Slovakia, Germany, Poland, Great Britain, Estonia, Finland and the USA were represented at the tournament.

The event basically started on Friday, when in sunny but relatively windy weather, most of the registered players went to practice the competition layout. The permanent nine-hole course was expanded to a full 18 holes for the purposes of the tournament. The layout has not changed since last year and the signature holes as “ the pit“ or „thermometer“ could not be missing. Overall, it is one of the more demanding courses full of traps in the form of OB or ubiquitous trees with insidious, often invisible branches. Proof of this is only 6 bogey-free rounds (out of a total of 243 played).

The first two competition rounds took place on Saturday. The weather conditions were almost ideal and the players were able to fully demonstrate their skills. In the junior category, as expected, the hometown brothers Michal and Filip Surjomartono climbed to the top. As the only two in their category, they managed to play under par. The leading trio was closed by Filip Míchek, mainly thanks to a solid second round (-4).

In the women’s category, the winner was decided by the end of the first round, in which the Estonian Maria Liivamägi kept a clean scorecard with four birdies and thus built up a comfortable lead of eleven strokes over the second Nikola Moravcová.

In the masters division (MP40), foreign guests ruled from day one. Estonian Sten Paavo played both rounds for -9 and recorded the best overall result of the first day. The British Matt Cuttler was breathing on his back only two strokes behind. Another Estonian, Gunnar Ersto, also remained in the medal game.

The MPO category was probably the most balanced after the first day, as the four best players were only two strokes apart and several other players remained in the run for the podium. The third round promised a quality match and we are glad that the guys from the Disc Golf Guide were there with the cameras. Thanks to them, we will soon be able to see the final round coverage of the lead card consisting of Tom Wendt (Finland), Marko Narits (Estonia), Matyáš Bareš (current junior Czech champion) and Bohdan Bílek (currently the second best Czech player according to PDGA rating).

Sunday also offered favorable conditions and overall better average results showed that the competitors had already learned the layout and knew exactly what to play.

There were no twists in the category of juniors and masters in the third round and the final ranking has not changed from the day 1 results. Among the women, Věra Heinzka from DGC Silesians Krnov caught up with Nikola Moravcová, but in the end she was two strokes behind, which was comfortably enough for third place.

The biggest drama was to be witnessed in the Open category. Unfortunately, Matyáš Bareš did not maintain the level of play from the previous day and Petr Masník from Nový Jičín and Filip Conk representing Disc Golf Club Prague moved up to tie for fourth place. The second and third place had to be decided in the playoff, in which the Estonian Marko Narits was more successful than the Finn Tom Wendt. Thanks to the best round of the tournament, 10 strokes under par, Bohdan Bílek took home the win and defended the Czech Open title from 2019!

– = MPO = –
1. Bohdan Bílek (-21; team Discmania and Albatros)
2. Marko Narits (-17; Estonia)
3. Tom Wendt (-17; Finland)

– = FPO = –
1. Maria Liivamägi (-4; Estonia)
2. Nikola Moravcová (+21; team Hunters)
3. Vera Heinzka (+23; DGC Silesians Krnov)

– = MP40 = –
1. Sten Paavo (-22; Estonia)
2. Matt Cutler (-12; United Kingdom)
3. Gunnar Ersto (-6; Estonia)

– = MJ18 = –
1. Michal Surjomartono (-9; Ultimo team, DGC Praha)
2. Filip Surjomartono (-7; Ultimo team, DGC Praha)
3. Filip Michek (0; DGC Praha)

Complete results on idiscgolf: https://idiscgolf.cz/turnaje/643
Detailed scores and statistics of individual holes: https://idiscgolf.cz/live-scoring/643/2001
PDGA results (and ratings): https://www.pdga.com/tour/event/54304

There are many thanks to be said so here we go. First of all, we thank all the players for participating – we believe that you enjoyed the tournament and will come back next year.

Thanks to all the volunteers who helped with setting up and taking apart the course and spotting during the tournament – it would not be possible without you.

Thanks to the guys from the Disc Golf Guide for the media coverage of the tournament – take a look at their photos below and look forward to a short edit plus play-by-play video of the final MPO lead card.

And a huge thank you to all the partners, without whom we would not be able to organize the tournament at such a level:

Related links:

Photo by Jakub Sedlak: https://www.fotonotes.cz/Akce-G/n-s67q2s/DG-CZECH-OPEN-2021/

Photo by Disc Golf Guide: https://www.facebook.com/discgolfguide/posts/352286469976949