Estonia's first professional golf tournament tees off

Professional-level golf comes to Estonia for the first time this week, as a stage of the HotelPlanner Tour, the Infortar Estonian Challenge, gets underway in Jõelähtme.
Estonia will become the 52nd country to host a tournament of this caliber and 156 golfers will take to the course, including 8 Estonian professionals.
"This is a huge deal for Estonian golf, the youth, club players, everyone," said European Team Championship silver medalist Carl Hellat. "It is massive that an event like this has come to Estonia. We have got a bit of a home-course advantage, too. Let us make the most of it."
Organizing a professional tournament allowed Estonia's top golfers to compete in professional tour events abroad. The team, who won silver at the European Team Championship two and a half weeks ago, believe that without an event like this, taking the next step in the golfing world would be significantly harder.
"The Estonian Golf Association and sponsors have given us the opportunity to play in Estonia and seven additional tournaments abroad. We have been given a great chance to launch a professional career," golfer Mattias Varjun said. "It would be hard to find a better opportunity. The chance is there, and we are trying to make the most of it."
Varjun, who was crowned the Estonian stroke-play champion just a week and a half ago, said that his preparations for the tournament have gone well.
"We will play a practice round and see what the course conditions are like. For instance, the greens are definitely a bit firmer and faster than they were a couple of weeks ago. There is less water on the course, and all of that affects how it plays," he explained.
"Otherwise, we will go through our usual routines and processes on the practice areas and the course, just as we have done before."
As many as 14 of the top 20 golfers in the tour rankings are participating in the Estonian leg. Competitors are arriving from every continent: Brazil and Peru, Australia and New Zealand, the USA and Japan, Malaysia and South Africa, not to mention European nations.
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Editor: Elisabeth Ristmets, Anders Nõmm










