Frisbeegolf: The World Cup boom is over – the biggest tournament of the year, the Heinola Open, is sadly small

Frisbee golf i.e. a giant boom last summer, when the World Cup competitions were historically organized outside of North America.

Through TV and video streams, the athletes got an audience of one million and more than twenty thousand people to come to Nokia and Tampere.

Although there has been talk of a strong desire to grow in sports circles, that kind of carnival will not be seen this year – on the contrary.

The biggest Finnish frisbee golf competition of the season, the Heinola Open, will be played on a smaller scale than expected.

Open class is seven competitors shy of full, which is unusually empty for the elite competition of the Disc Golf Pro Tour.

The top women in the world will not be competing in their own division as the four-day US Women’s Championship tournament takes place in Salt Lake City, Utah, next week. So the home audience has to cheer for other than their superstars Silva Saarinen and Eveliina Salonen.

Top throws are still guaranteed, because the cream of the men is included. A Finnish favorite Niklas Anttila challenges the US tops Gannon Buhr, Calvin Heimburg and Anthony Barelan.

Placing in the top ten is easier than the usual elite competition, because the lion’s share of US professionals have missed Heinola. It saddens the operational manager of DGPT Mikko Wikman.

“However, it’s not a big disappointment, because there was something to look forward to. The calendar is like this, but it’s definitely better than no race at all.”

DGPT landed in Europe in mid-June, when the European Open competition was held in Tallinn. The previous two weeks have been spent in Sweden.

Finnish professional pitcher Väinö Mäkelä understand their US counterparts.

“They have the opportunity to take three weeks off. I might do the same if it were the other way around. That’s a long time to be on the other side of the ball away from loved ones.”

There are almost 20 elite competitions of the DGPT in the Competition Calendar. If cancellations due to the coronavirus are not counted, one of the four major tournaments of the sport was organized in Finland in the six previous years.

That is why the Heinola Open is the biggest tournament in Finland, smaller than usual.

“I miss a major-level competition in Finland. Of course, we are used to maybe a little too good”, Mäkelä reflects.

Nokia had earned the European value tournament with a permanent feeling, but the new swimming hall is encroaching on the track area. Therefore, Estonia’s Tallinn and Sweden’s Nol near Gothenburg have grabbed the keys to the continent’s number one competition.

Europe has had to bow to the respect of the American professional tour in order to compete in a big way on this side of the Atlantic. This summer is the first time that the DGPT will be played in an uninterrupted period in Europe.

Both Mäkelä and Wikman think that it is in line with the value of Finnish frisbee golf that a big international event is organized here every year.

Wikman points out that responsibility cannot be placed on one place.

“These are such big projects that there have to be gap years. That’s why Finland would need three to five possible places.”

HeinolaTampere, Turku and Sipoo are on Wikman’s tour list.

Finland’s DGPT elite competition was held in Turku last time, but now lunch in the coastal city was refused.

“Kippis” was supposed to be a gap year from mass events, but Pohjankoski thought DGPT’s offer was too good in the end.

“We got our own financial risk removed when DGPT rented the area from us and we provide the volunteers. Here, with a smaller contribution, we get to practice the atmosphere of a bigger event.”

Read more: Heinola gets millions in income from frisbee golf: “A truly international tourist destination”

Pohjankoski with its club activities has turned the Heinola frisbee golf center into an international tourist destination, which has brought millions of dollars in revenue to the city.

Tahtotilai is not only to create a paradise for every frisbee golfer, but also to organize the sport’s biggest competitions. Major is only possible at Kippis in the 2030s, says Pohjankoski.

“We have a ten-year horizon for our operations. Crowd control is a new thing in frisbee golf, and our course wasn’t originally built for it. That’s where we can improve the most.”