Chasing Sparrows 2023

Chasing Sparrows is a one-day tournament that will be played on Saturday February 18th 2023 in Varaždin, in the format of two 18-hole rounds. This tournament is the perfect opportunity for all beginners in disc golf to try a more "serious" competition, because the holes are rather short (45 to 65 meters), there are practically no bushes where discs could be lost, and in each round the same 9 holes are played twice, so it is easier to learn the course and improve your throws. One round of competition lasts up to 90 minutes.

You can follow the weather forecast for Varaždin on the Yr.no page.

The tournament program is as follows:

Registrations
Divisions open for competition will be MPO (open to male and female players), FPO (open female), Red (players of both genders with PDGA rating up to 900), Green (players of both genders with PDGA rating up to 850) and Purple (players of both genders with PDGA rating up to 800). Any player can enter a competition in a higher category (e.g. all players can sign up for MPO), but you can only play in a lower category if your rating allows it, e.g. someone with a rating of 801 cannot play Purple).

Players who are not PDGA members and do not have a rating can play the Purple category only if they have not played PDGA tournaments so far, or they have played PDGA tournaments and the last 6 rounds are not worth more than 800 rating points on average. If those rounds are worth more than 800 then they can play the Green or MPO / FPO category.

Given that the competition is played on a 9-hole course, the number of participants is limited to 45.

To sign up for the competition, open the registration page.

The results of the competition will be published on the PDGA website, and scoring will be done through PDGA live.

The registration fee for the tournament in the MPO, FPO, Red and Green categories is €14, and in the Purple category €7, and includes the organization of the competition, a fee to the Croatian Flying Disc Association, a fee for using the course, smaller prizes for the first three players in MPO, FPO and Green, a smaller prize for the winner in the Purple category and the Tournament lottery after the Winners ceremony.

The registration fee shouldbe paid in advance to the bank account of the organizer:
Lagoda j.d.o.o., I. Cankara 9, Varaždin, IBAN HR63 2340 0091 1105 5034 9

In case of extremely bad weather forecast (very cold weather, strong wind combined with rain) there is a possibility to change the date of the competition. In this case, players who have paid the registration fee and cannot participate in the tournament on the new date have the right to a refund minus bank fees.

Concept of play
The competition will take place in the following format:

Round 1 - groups will be formed with mixed categories and strong-groups determined by PDGA rating. We will try not to put players from the same clubs / countries in the same groups in the first round, so that through the play they can socialize with players they do not see regularly.

Round 2 - groups formed by result, without mixing categories.

Course
The course of 9 holes is arranged at the location along Vodovodna Street, and in each round all 9 holes will be played twice. The course is suitable for beginners and the holes are 45 to 65 meters long.
You can download the course map on this page in PDF format.

This course layout has been played in 7 PDGA tournaments so far, and the current course recordi is 39 (-15) played by Martin Doerken (Germany, round rating 1021), Zack Bevelacqua (Slovenia, round rating 1014), Derek Robins (Great Britain, round rating 1014) and Bato Sudžuković twice (Croatia, both rounds rated 1010).
Record for female players is 42 (-12) which was played by Wiebke Jahn (Germany) twice in the tournament "the Wedding of Tina & Dinko" (rating rounds 976 and 968).

You can find a list of the best results on the field at the bottom of the page or in the attached PDF document.

Parking
Participants can use the parking lot of the Varaždin City Cemetery (Bus Parking Varazdin on google maps), which is about 250 m away from the hole 9
GPS location of the parking lot (from google map) is: 46.308110, 16.327241
Please DO NOT park at the Vodovodna street.

Toilet
As there is no toilet at the course, we suggest going to one of the two nearby cafes located at the opposite end of the parking lot of the Varaždin City Cemetery - Caffe bar Aleja or Gossip bar (400-500 m on foot), or to Konzum shopping Center at Gustava Krkleca 1 (on foot 700 m, by car 1 minute).

You will be able to use toilett at the place where we will meet up for lunch.

Photos and social networks
All the photos we take at the tournament will be added to the Google Photos Album at the end of each day and you can download them and use them for social networks.
When posting on Instagram, preferably use #discgolfvodovodna #varazdin and tag Lagoda Disc Golf @lagoda_disc_golf

Ace Pool
All players who wish to do so can pay €1 in cash, which is placed in a special piggy bank. From the last Lagoda tournament, there is already €25 in the Ace Pool piggy bank.

The player who hits an ace in the tournament becomes the winner of the entire prize fund of the Ace pool. If two or more players hit an ace in the same tournament, they share the ace pool. If no player hits an ace, the ace pool is carried over to the next Lagoda tournament, and so on until the ace pool is paid out in one tournament. Ace pool will not transfer to Euro Tour Pro Forester.

A player who wants to participate in the Ace pool must pay €1 before the start of the first round. If the player hits an ace and has not paid the ace pool before the start of the first round, he is not entitled to the prize.

CTP – Closest to the pin
On hole 4/13 (48 m), we will organize an additional competition in who threw the disc closest to the basket, which will take place during the game in the 1st and 2nd rounds. There will be a meter next to the basket post, and the player whose disc comes to rest near the basket can measure the distance from the post to the disc. The player whose disc has the shortest distance from the basket after the completion of the second round of the competition wins the prize.

For the result to be valid, the disc must be 5m or less from the basket, and you should send the photo from the distance shown on the meter to the WhatsApp group.

Prizes and Tournament respect raffle
At the tournaments we organize, only smaller prizes are awarded to the best three players in the MPO, FPO and Green categories who pay the full registration fee, and a prize to the winner of the Purple category (who pay a reduced registration fee), while we additionally reward all players through a raffle. The raffle is held at the end of the tournament, after the Winners ceremony. The usual top raffle prize is a disc golf backpack.

In order for a player to win a raffle prize, he must:
1. Be present at the players meeting
2. Pay the registration fee for the tournament in advance or during the tournament (no later than the beginning of the announcement of the winner)
3. Play all rounds of the tournament
4. Join all rounds in time - mandatory check-in if this is stated in the tournament schedule
5. To be present at the winners ceremony

If a player is drawn in the raffle, and has not met all five criteria, he cannot claim the prize, so the next player will be drawn.
The same player cannot win a raffle prize in two consecutive tournaments.
In the Chasing Sparrows 2023 tournament, the prize cannot be won by players who won it in the Frosty Hills 2023 tournament - Balint Kazai, Tina Šimenc, Aki Vucković, Adis Isanović, Nino Đurak, Aron Bognar, Anđelko Zrinski, Alexander Regenfelder, Matic Blaž i Tomislav Frković.