Salonen and Heinänen Make the 2024 European Disc Golf Festival Podium

Building a Festival Environment

The 2024 European Disc Golf Festival, held in Tallinn, Estonia, was more than just a tournament. The event featured late night performances, an array of vendors, food trucks, and more. Its central location in the heart of Tallinn made for easy spectator access in an area where disc golf is quite popular. This type of festival-style environment surrounding a disc golf tournament will increasingly become the norm as our sport continues to grow.

Team Innova’s European athletes made a strong showing on their home turf. Eveliina Salonen took 2nd place in a playoff, Joona Heinänen had his best DGPT finish yet, and new Team addition Väinö Mäkelä got another top 5.

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Salonen Continues Best Season Yet

Eveliina Salonen is playing the best season of disc golf of her career. She took 2nd place at last weekend’s European Disc Golf Festival, losing in a playoff to Missy Gannon. That marks five DGPT podiums so far this year, including two wins. She also won the PDGA Major Champions Cup and took 2nd at the 2024 United States Women’s Disc Golf Championship. Worlds is less than one month away and Eveliina remains consistently at the top of the field.

Photo by DGPT

Last weekend, Eveliina led in a number of throwing stats. She was 1st in Parked percentage, C1 Hits in Regulation, and Strokes Gained Tee to Green. She also shot the hot round on the final day at -8. Though she missed a relatively short putt to push the playoff, overall Eveliina’s putting in Tallinn was solid. She was positive in Strokes Gained Putting compared to the field and had a better C1 putting percentage than the tournament winner. This 2nd place finish moves Eveliina into 2nd place in the 2024 DGPT World Standings for FPO.

Hot-Round Heinänen

At last week’s European Disc Golf Festival, Team Champion’s Joona Heinänen had the best finish of his career at a DGPT Event or PDGA Major. He took 3rd place playing against one of the most competitive fields that a European Tour event has ever seen.

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Joona started out strong in the opening round and improved his score with each following round. On the final day of competition, he tied the hot score, shooting a bogey-free, 1082-rated, -12. Joona was 2nd in the field in C1 Hits in Regulation. This 3rd place finish is not only Joona’s first podium on Tour, but also his first Top 5.

Väinö Clicks with His New Discs

Väinö Mäkelä has had two of the top five best finishes on Tour of his career in the past month since joining Team Innova! Väinö took 5th place at the European Disc Golf Festival, beating out many of the best players from both Europe and the States. Väinö led the field in Scramble rate and was 3rd in Strokes Gained Tee to Green. It is a thrill to watch our newest Team member take to his new discs so quickly.

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Team Innova Top Performances

Team Innova had multiple FPO athletes who missed the top 10, but still played great disc golf. Henna Blomroos tied for 12th place and was 2nd in the field in C1 Hits in Regulation. Sofia Donnecke, who was recently promoted to Team Champion, tied for 14th. And Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste also tied for 14th and led the field in Scramble rate.

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Time for a Points Run

The DGPT is heading into the most important stretch of the season. From here through the 2024 USDGC, we have just one more regular Elite event, two Elite+ events, two Playoff events, and the 2024 PDGA Pro World Championship. With the point values for the World Standings weighted more heavily at most of these tournaments, players are still jockeying to earn strokes at the 2024 DGPT Championship. Catch coverage of all the remaining tournaments this season live on the Disc Golf Network. Visit Innovadiscs.com for tournament recaps, tips, Innova news, and more.

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