20 Jun 2022 at 13:49 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 40232 | News search

Aki Sillman  (Photo by WMF)

Kuopio, Finland - Home course advantage was certainly at play in the 2022 World Adventure Golf Masters (WAGM) as Finnish putters not only did well in all the categories but came out on top of the big three – overall, teams and mixed pairs. This wasn't too different than the last time the WAGM was played in 2019, where Sweden took the advantage of hosting the tournament.

In particular it was a winning weekend for Aki Sillman who took the men’s general class title through 7 rounds by 7 strokes, before waiting out the rain and coming out victorious in the super-final 8th round to capture the overall title by 3 strokes over countryman Tom Ahlberg. As conditions continued to deteriorate, Aki paired up with Mia Vuorihovi in the mixed pairs finals and with impressive rounds of 29 and 28 in the weather went on to win his 4th category of the weekend by 3 strokes in that competition.

“It was quite a guessing game which ball to use,” Aki mentioned in his post-round interview, talking about the changing conditions throughout the weekend. Sillman was no stranger to the course at Bellanpuisto though, as mere weeks before WAGM he also took the overall championship of the Finnish Adventure Golf Masters on the same course. He bested his 29 average in that tournament by almost a full stroke down to 28.1 for the 8 rounds at WAGM.

Rounding out the overall podium were Fins Tom Ahlberg, who also won the men’s seniors category and Tommi Lantta who secured silver as part of the teams competition. They both ended with a 230 to Sillman’s 225. In the teams, Finland took one-two with the first team dominating by 30 overall strokes. Sillman and Ahlberg were on that team along with Marko Nuotio and Eetu Ikola.

The female and male youth categories both saw close competitions and in both it wasn’t the Fins who took the top spot. In female youth, Kristina Komar from Slovakia edged our fellow countrywoman Karatine Belkova by 3 strokes to secure gold. Lina Lennstal from Sweden took the bronze. Sweden would find the top spot in the male youth side though as Anton Eriksson rallied in round six with an impressive 25 (one shot off the course record) to win by 2 strokes over Fins Kasper Kammonen and 12 over Oliver Mäntylä. Sweden would keep the run of golds up as Carolin Svensson won in the women’s general class over Anna Koldova from the Czech Republic and Jenny Erlandsson from Sweden. Aki’s win in the men’s general class marked a 3 Fin podium as Lantta took silver and Ikola grabbed the bronze, just narrowly defeating Seve Kukileka from the UK. Finally, in the seniors’ categories it was another Finnish sweep in the men’s with Ahlberg finishing over Marko Nuotio and Mikko Oinenen who squeaked out a close one over Rick Baird from the US. Tom charged to the top in the last round by setting the course record 24. Annelie Lundell repeated her gold medal run from 2019 (the last WAGM), securing a bit 11 shot win over Sandra Walker of Finland who just edged out Vanette Block of the US who took bronze.
The mixed pairs, which is only it’s second year after debuting in 2019 in Sweden, is an alternate tee-off, alternate shot competition over two rounds. Eight teams qualified for the finals after their individual round scores, with the team of Baird and Block of the US being the only non-Scandinavian team. It was a Finnish sweep here as well as the team of Walker/Nuotio took the silver and Lantta and Tuula Mörck won the bronze. You can find pictures and videos of the event, along with the medal ceremony , over on the WMF Facebook page. The recorded live stream of the super-final round and the mixed pairs final rounds can be found here.

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