New year but the same old League - Finnish Winter League continued!
22 Jan 2017 at 17:05 | Published by: Ida | Views: 14224 | News search
Miko Tuominen, Eetu Ikola and Aapo Siurola (Manse) (Photo by Ida Hiltunen )
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On January 7th, 41 players competed in Rahola in the next round of the Finnish Winter League. The new minigolf year got the very best start!
The one who started the overall competition fastest was last time's top woman Sandra Walker, SMGK, with a 21 and 20 in the first two rounds! Starting so strong might however lead to a little meltdown in last rounds. After the safe and stable start, Manse players Eetu Ikola and Jukka Reunavuori began to improve their playing and overtook Walker. The old hand Jukka Reunavuori held on his steady performance and won the first competition of the year by five shots! In recent years Eetu Ikola has suffeerd a bit from inconsistent play. This time it happened only twice in last round but unfortunately, that was enough to drop him to the sixth place. Markku Sillman, Manse RG, was placed second after great ending where the magical 18 was more than near - the last lane, Pipe, decided not to share good luck and threw the ball over the hole. The result was still quite nice 19!
"It felt great to play today. Winning in Rahola is not an everyday thing although I've been often near to the top. I felt relaxed and confident all day long. Weak moments stayed away and even the famous little margins were favourable, especially in the last round. Thank you again to all nice players!" said the winner Jukka Reunavuori.
The battle for third place continued to the sudden death which was between talented young Aapo Siurola, Manse, last time's winner Aki Sillman, Kungälvs BGK, and Riku "The Business" Pennanen, TuRGS. First lane, Pyramids, was passed without problems. On the second lane, Diablo, happened something not so typical: Sillman started with a miss and got two and after this, he took his club and balls and left the course indignantly though the replay was completely unfinished! It was Pennanen's turn and unexpectedly he scored three. Siurola got also two and so it was Sillman's time to humbly pick up the club and return to the game. The duo Siurola-Sillman continued for a good while. Next miss happened as late as on the lane number 9, Dubble hill, when Siurola's shot scratched the hole. Sillman used his chance and aced the lane taking the replay win and the third place on the competition. Aapo Siurola ranked fourth and Riku Pennanen was fifth. E1-class' top 6 was expectedly the top 6 also in overall competition.
At some point it was pretty close that the class E2 would have been dominated by MG-Aces players once again. However, Jari Haapanen, TuRGS, came and showed his skills and took the win from the redshirts with six shots! In the second round Haapanen was really close to score historical 18 but the last lane wasn't favourable to Haapanen either. So, Club 18's membership is still waiting for Haapanen. Three MG-Aces players where neck and neck when it was time for last round's last lane - Juha-Petri Kujansuu led with one shot and was followed by Tero Vaahtio and Kari Kivimäki. Vaahtio got one, Kujansuu and Kivimäki both two. Kivimäki was placed fourth while his teammates started the sudden death. Lane 2 turned out to be fateful to Vaahtio and Kujansuu celebrated the second place.
Right from the Christmas holidays couple Smeds from Norrvalla Minigolf returned to E3's top 2. This time it was Kenth Smeds who narrowly took the victory over Carina Smeds. Juha Suomela, TaRGS, played also red average and completed the podium.
The team competition was all about Manse1's superiority. With stunning 27 shots Manse1 won the SMGK. The third team was TuRGS this time. After three events, Manse1 stays on top of the leaderboard, with SMGK in second and MG-Aces in third.
Thank you to Ida Hiltunen for this article. » Overall competition » Team competition » League table after three events
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