Vesec Open 2022
Vesec Open in Liberec, Czech Republic is in the books and those who finished it can be truly proud of themselves. No matter the score. Conditions on this tournament showed what does the phrase “be as changeable as the weather, blow hot and cold” mean.
Vesec took place on the weekend of 9th – 10th April 2022. Throughout Saturday two rounds were played on a total of 40 holes. Course in Liberec is one of the most challenging courses in the whole Czech Republic and in tough conditions, it’s even harder. The weather during this weekend seemed like a bad joke, but it could have been worse.
The weather
On Friday morning was the weather nice, and those who decided to play their practice round by that time were lucky. Those who were still on the field after 4 p.m. were unfortunately forced to play in the rain, which then raged all night.
When the players came back on Saturday morning for the first round the ground was surprisingly covered in snow. It had melted during the first round, so the ground was wet and soggy, and so were the discs. The weather was changing constantly during the day, it was raining a bit or even snowing. During the day the sun has been appearing in the sky, which was making our day a bit better, though it was cold. The worst was the wind which was tough to play in especially on a course like Vesec with big slopes.
On Sunday the cold changing weather continued to play with us. Unlike Saturday, Sunday was much more about snow. It always started unexpectedly and ended after a while.
Fight for the first place
Now when you know how bad the weather was you might be probably asking yourself how did players deal with it. There was almost no one with a score under par after the first two rounds. Three players who managed to play under par were Matěj Vojtík (CZ), Stanislaus Amann (AT) and Petr Striegler (CZ). Matěj and Stanislaus fought in a tense fight for the first place. They played shot for shot in the last round. There was no more than a one-stroke difference between them through the last round. In the end, Stanislaus Amann won by one stroke over Matěj Vojtík, who finished second. Petr Striegler took home price for the third place.
How about FPO?
There was a fight for the podium in FPO as well. After the first round, 3 women standing above the field were Eliška Bártková in the lead, Katka Boďová in the second place and Antiona Faber in third. In the second round, the amount of fatigue played a big role. 40 holes are just a bit much for one tournament day. Antonia Faber was an exception. She played a clean second round which put her in solo first place with a sizable lead.
The final round was a fight for the second place. There were three women battling at the top – Eliška Bartková, Nikola Moravcová and Katka Boďová. Their positions changed multiple times during the last round, but in the end, Eliška finished second, one stroke ahead of Katka. Antonia Faber held the lead and won by 17 strokes.
What to take from this tournament?
Co si odnáším z tohoto turnaje? Asi: ,,Nebuď na sebe tak tvrdá, někdy prostě věci nejsou tak, jak si je The advice you should take from this tournament is not to be hard on yourself when conditions are tough. Because sometimes things just aren’t the way you would like them to be and there is nothing you can do. It’s hard to take a couple of bogeys in a row or to throw OB twice on the same hole. But the important thing is how you bounce back from those bad breaks.
You have to realise that you cannot change the past. The only thing you can do is to change the future. So don’t thing think about things you are not able to change. Forgive yourself and move on. The better days are coming for sure.
