Putting the Team on Her Back
Team Innova is on a tear this season and it is being led by Star Team member Eveliina Salonen! The Team has taken home a title at half of the Tour events so far in 2024. We can thank Eveliina for three of those, including last weekend’s playoff victory at the Copenhagen Open. With Eveliina going back-to-back in the last two events she has played, and Vinny coming off his win at the DDO, Innova is on pace for another historic year.
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Clutch Putting Leads Eveliina to Victory
After going into 2024 nearly four years without a win on tour, Eveliina Salonen has already taken down two Disc Golf Pro Tour events and one PDGA Major in the first three months of the season. At the 2024 Copenhagen Open last weekend, Eveliina won in a nail-biting playoff against Estonia’s Kaidi Allsulu.
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After a slow opening day, Eveliina found herself 7 strokes behind Kaidi with only two rounds to play. But Eveliina came out in round two on fire. She shot the hot score of the weekend at -10 to jump eight spots up the leaderboard. She was moving in the right direction, but still had four strokes left to make up on the leader.
After Eveliina started her final round with a triple bogey, her chances seemed slim. She proceeded to birdie five of the following seven holes to get back into the mix. Down the stretch of the final round, Eveliina clutched up on the putting green in a way we’ve never seen before. She made a C2 putt on hole 18 to take the only Eagle on the hole of the entire weekend and to force a playoff. On the 2nd hole of the playoff, Eveliina stared down a putt a similar distance to the one she just drained on 18. Deep breath in, focus locked, and a dead-center step putt to take the birdie. Kaidi missed her putt and Eveliina was crowned Champion for the third time this year.
Photo by DGPT
Eveliina led the field in Parked percentage, C1 Hits in Regulations, and C2 Hits in Regulation – no huge surprise there. But the difference this weekend was Eveliina also led the field in Strokes Gained C2, with the 3rd best C2 Putting percentage in the FPO. She capitalized on her long looks and ultimately those two C2 putts on hole 18 and in the playoff were the deciding moments of the tournament.
With this win, Eveliina widened her lead in the Pro Tour Points Standings to a commanding 135 points over Kristin Tattar in 2nd place. That means Kristin could win a Pro Tour event that Eveliina did not play and Eveliina would still maintain first place. She also jumped up sevend points in the May ratings update and is now the third highest-rated FPO athlete at 984. At this point, Eveliina is the clear front-runner for 2024 Player of the Year.
Team Innova’s Anneli Tõugjas-Männiste took 7th place in Copenhagen at her first-ever DGPT event. She was 2nd in the field in C1x putting. Even though she is new to the Tour, Anneli has already been tested against the best players in the World at the European Open where she took 6th place in 2023.
In the MPO, Innova’s Niilo Hongisto took 24th place at his first Disc Golf Pro Tour. Jakub Knapek tied for 26th place with World Champion Gregg Barsby.
West Coast Swing
For players still in the States, the Disc Golf Pro Tour is heading West! Three of the four next weekend’s will have a Pro Tour event held in California or Oregon, including the 2024 Beaver State Fling presented by Innova. Back in Europe, the next Pro Tour event will be held in Turku, Finland giving our champion, Eveliina, a home course advantage. Tune in to the Disc Golf Network to catch the action live. Visit Innovadiscs.com for tournament recaps, tips, Innova news, and more.
