Merry Forester 2023

Merry Forester is a one-day tournament that will be played on Saturday December 23rd in two 14-hole rounds. The tournament is played in a festive atmosphere, and is characterized by a final reception and gathering of players with the traditional "Secret Santa" gift exchange.

The planned program of the tournament is as follows:

In the evening, there is a possibility to continue socializing at the Varaždin Advent - Christmas market.

Registration
The event will be played in the following categories:
 • MPO (open for men and women)
 • FPO (open women)
 • Red (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 900)
 • Green (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 850)
 • Purple (players of both genders PDGA rated up to 800)

Any player can register for a competition in a higher category (eg all players can register in MPO), but you can only play in a lower category if your rating allows it, eg 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 have played PDGA tournaments and the last 6 rounds (or less if they have not played 6 rounds) are not worth more than 800 rating points on average. If those rounds are worth more than 800 to them, then they can play the Green, Red or MPO / FPO category. A player who has no rating and the last 6 rounds (or less if 6 rounds have not been played) is worth more than 850 rating points cannot play the Green category but can play Red or MPO / FPO.

The number of participants is limited to 72, that is, the competition will be played in a maximum of 18 groups of 4 players.
The registration fee for the MPO, FPO, Red and Green categories is €20, and the registration fee for the Purple category is €10.
The registration fee includes the organization of the tournament, a fee to the Croatian Flying Disc Association, a small trophy for the best players in each category and raffle prizes.

The registration fee must be paid to the Lagoda bank account before or after the tournament:
Lagoda j.d.o.o., Varaždin, HR6323400091110550349
If you do not pay the registration fee in advance, it will be possible to pay in cash at the tournament.

To sign up for the tournament, open a separate registration page.
Competition results and live results will be published on the PDGA website.

Concept of play
The competition will take place in the following format:
Round 1 - groups will be formed with mixed categories and strength groups determined according to 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 game they can socialize with players they don't see regularly.
Round 2 - groups formed by result, without mixing categories.

Secret Santa
Registered participants will be invited to participate in the Secret Santa gift exchange. Everyone who decides to participate will be "in the hat" and 5 days before the tournament we will draw one person for whom they need to buy a gift worth around €7 to €10. More details about this will be sent to registered players via e-mail.
We introduced this giveaway for the first time at Merry Forester 2021 and it was well received and a nice detail for the end of the disc golf season.

The Course
You can currently download the 2021 Merry Forester course map on the site, and the 2023 plan will likely be similar.
The course is located next to Arena Varaždin (google map location)

The 14-hole course is set up in the forest next to sports hall Arena Varaždin and combines shorter, technical forest holes with open fairways.
Disc Golf Park target baskets are used for the game.
Tee pads on all holes will have artificial grass carpet.

Weather
You can follow the weather forecast for Varaždin on the Yr.no page. According to previous years, we hope for dry and cold weather, but with temperatures above zero and pleasant for playing.

Ace Pool
All players who wish to do so can pay €1 in cash, which is placed in a special 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.
A player who wants to participate in the Ace pool must pay €1 before the start of the first round. If a player hits an ace and has not paid in the ace pool before the start of the first round, then he is not entitled to the prize.

CTP – Closest to the pin
On one hole, we will organize an additional competition in "who threw the disc closest to the basket", and it will take place during the game in all three 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 smallest 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 a photo from the distance shown on the meter to the official tournament WhatsApp group and indicate the distance in centimeters to the basket.

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

In order for a player to be able to claim a raffle prize, he must:
1. Be present at the Players meeting (when we read your name at the beginning of the meeting you should be present)
2. Pay the registration fee for the tournament in advance or during the tournament (no later than the beginning of the Winners ceremony)
3. Play all rounds of the tournament
4. Register on time (mandatory check-in) if this is stated in the tournament schedule
5. Be present at the Winners ceremony

If the player is drawn in the raffle, but has not met all four criteria, he cannot claim the prize, the next player is drawn.

The same player cannot win a raffle prize in two consecutive tournaments.
In the Merry Forester 2023 tournament, the prize cannot be won by players who won it in the Chasing Crows 2023 tournament.