Author: svbureau

Twelve days long, comprising of historical three separate tournaments and 150 000 euros of prize money – Sand Valley Spring Series has come to its dramatic ending with Norwegian Andreas Halvorsen taking the second overall win during the Series. For us in Sand Valley it has been an unforgettable experience and we are happy to inform that ECCO Tour is coming back in April 2024!

“You always learn something new in life and for sure the last two weeks have been just that – for both me and for our Team”, Paul O’Connor, Sand Valley’s Vice President and tournament director from the Resort side said. He added that “it was amazing to see how all the Pros really appreciated what we do here and it was also impressive simply to see how they play golf – after all, the course record was broken more than once! I also saw that this tournament woke up the whole Scandinavia and showed them that top level golf is also played in Poland – and to be honest, reaction from all over Europe not just Scandinavia to as far as South America has shocked us. For a course in Poland to be covered this far and wide is only good for everyone involved in Polish golf. Now we start our other season with Resort full of tourists this weekend – Can’t wait for ECCO Tour 2024 Edition!”

Full coverage according to ECCO Tour:

As the day of the finals progressed, it became more and more clear that the Sand Valley Spring Series Final – by ECCO would find its winner among two players. Norwegian Andreas Halvorsen, who won the first of the three tournaments in Poland, and Swedish Jesper Hagborg Asp, who went 11 under par in the second round and was millimeters from a 59.

When the two combatants stood on the 15th tee they were perfectly even. Asp was one under for the day, and Halvorsen two under. Both were then 13 under par overall and a full six strokes better than the next on the leaderboard. But none of them could find the necessary and decisive birdie on the last four holes, so a replay was required.

Here the first two holes (hole 18) were finished on a tie, but when they got to the par-3 hole 10, the tournament found its winner. Andreas Halvorsen holed his putt for birdie, while Asps sneaked just around the cup. The Norwegian thus took his second victory in Poland and sits comfortably in second place on the Road to Europe, which is still led by Charlie Lindh, who missed the cut.

Asp’s compatriot, Jesper Svensson, was the third man in the leader ball, but he started two shots from Halvorsen and three from Asp. He ended the day two over and had to settle for a shared third place. Sweden’s Martin Eriksson played his way to the front with a round in two under, and he shared third place with Svensson.

Where it was purely Swedish in third place, it was purely Danish in fifth place. Sebastian Wiis was the best Dane in the field until the very last hole, but a bogey on the last caused him to fall back to six under par. That was enough for a shared fifth place, shared with Alexander Frances from Møn.

More information at: https://eccotour.org/

Gebwell Championship was something new and interesting for Sand Valley Golf Resort – after all, we are largely a Finnish-owned golf resort and now we had a Finnish company being the titular sponsor of an ECCO Tour event.

President of Gebwell Poland, Dariusz Wellenger noted at the prize ceremony that “it was a logical move to sponsor a golf tournament as it is a sport that is closely linked to nature and Gebwell’s mission is to develop ecological heating systems that will help us in transitioning to greener forms of energy. More information about Gebwell at their web page: https://gebwell.fi/en/

“Everything went according to the script and we were also happy the get a podium finish from a Finnish player – Matias Honkala who finished on tied third place at -10. As always huge thanks goes to our staff went who made sure that everything was running perfectly. Day ended on a players party at the clubhouse and I think it’s also important to relax in the middle of such a marathon Spring Series of three back to back tournaments”. CEO of Sand Valley Antti Pohjonen said.

Full coverage of Gebwell Championship according ECCO Tour:

Swedish Charlie Lindh was able to lift a trophy for the first time on the ECCO Tour when he cruised to victory at the second tournament on Polish soil, the GEBWELL Championship.

Charlie Lindh is no stranger to playing for victory on the ECCO Tour, but the Swede had not yet managed to finish on top – until today. It could also indicate that there were some nerves from the morning, when Charlie, who started with a kind of lead, had to note a bogey on the 2nd hole. But the Swede quickly shook off his nerves and the bogey was followed by four birdies on the next six holes. From there it looked like the Swede switched on the auto par pilot and with 10 pars in the remaining 10 holes, Charlie Lindh was finally at the top of the podium.

The players who should have made it difficult for Charlie, including Danish Alexander George Frances and Axel Boasson, did not seem to threaten much early in the round. But birdies on the 12th to 15th holes from the latter brought the Icelander within a stroke, and looked to create some tension before the final holes. Unfortunately, a bad drive and some clever tricks cost Axel, who had to write 6 strokes on the par 4 hole 16. This gave Charlie three strokes to play before the last two holes, which the Swede certainly took advantage of.

Axel Boasson (-11) thus finished in second place, followed by Matias Honkala, Marcus Garfield Hansen and Alexander George Frances, who all three finished in third place at -10 for the tournament. The best rounds of the day were made by Rasmus Holmberg and Jesper Asp Hagborg, who both made rounds of 67 (-5).

With the victory, Charlie Lindt climbs back to the top of the Road to Europe ranking, followed by compatriot Christofer Blomstrand and with Finnish Matias Honkala in third place. We have to go down to eighth place to find the best Dane, Søren Broholt Lind.

The next tournament on the ECCO Tour starts tomorrow, when we play the Sand Valley Spring Series Final – by ECCO.

More information at: https://eccotour.org/

ECCO TOURS Sand Valley Spring Series consists of these three separate tournaments:
– Sand Valley Polish Masters – by Upgame 9-11.4.2023
– GEBWELL Championship 13-15.4.2023
– Sand Valley Spring Series Final – by ECCO 17-19.4.2023

The historic Spring Series of three separate tournaments started last Sunday 9th of April and we have found the first winners. Sand Valley Polish Masters – by Upgame (9-11.4) was won by the 26-year-old Norwegian Andreas Halvorsen. He has lived in the USA for several years and tried his hand at PGA Tour Canada and PGA Tour Latinoamerica without making his big breakthrough.

This week, it all clicked for the Norwegian. He shot both of the first two rounds in 67 strokes, and that was enough to share the lead with Sweden’s Oliver Gillberg before the last 18 holes. Halvorsen quickly took the lead when he birdied the first hole, and he followed it up with another one on hole 5. He was two under after the first nine holes, and on the back nine he added two more birdies on holes 13 and 14, and then led by a comfortable four strokes. The victory ended in three strokes when Halvorsen made par on the remaining four holes.

Sweden’s Christofer Blomstrand took the second place with strokes behind the winning Norwegian. Iceland’s Axel Boasson had the best score of the final round with five shots under par and he was thus able to climb his way up to the third place. Fourth place was shared by four players – the two Danes Andreas Hillersborg Sørensen and Sebastian Wiis and the two Swedes Oliver Gillberg and Jesper Svensson.

There was also another kind of winner during the last day of the tournament – Icelandic Sigurdur A. Gardarsson broke the 9 year old course record of 66 (-6) shots by Berni Reiter with an impressive 65 shots, or 7 under the PAR. This was not to last for another 9 years though, as only 2 days later the Danish Mathias Gladbjerg broke the record yet again by hitting an impressive 64 (-8) shots today – during the first day of GEBWELL Championship tournament (13-15.4).

Gladbjerg is naturally leading the charts with -8 after the first day and three players are following him close by at 6 under PAR; Björn Åkesson and Charlie Lindh from Sweden and Alexander Frances from Denmark. Next two days will be exciting!

“Players seem to have enjoyed their stay so far and I have to say our greenkeeping staff has done amazing job at getting the course ready for the tournament! This is a new type of event for our Team and being 12 days long – we really need to keep our full focus all the time so that everything runs perfectly till the end” says Antti Pohjonen, CEO of Sand Valley.

We asked some of the players what they thought of Sand Valley after the first rounds. It’s a rather special course. I have not seen one like it before”, says 19-year-old Jens Kristian Thysted – “I think it’s cool. It requires precision and creativity, as the greens are raised and there are lots of runoffs, he continues.”

Let’s keep playing, more information to follow shortly!

More information: https://eccotour.org/

Sand Valley has the honor of hosting the ECCO Tour series this spring, the groundbreaking format of a three-event series played back to back at Sand Valley Golf Resort will be here from April 7th-19th with a total prize fund of €150,000. The ECCO Tour consists mainly of Nordic golfers and the best players of the series qualify for the Challenge Tour.

It is the first time the ECCO Tour will be hosted in Poland and we will see future stars of the PGA European Tour battle it out over three tournaments in a 12-day festival of golf.

On announcing the pre-season events this weekend which will also visit the fantastic PGA Catalunya ECCO CEO Flemming Astrup had this to say.

I am of course pleased that we have managed to increase the number of pre-season events. It is always a pleasure to start the season at PGA Catalunya, and we are looking so much forward to visiting Poland and Sand Valley Golf Resort for the very first time

Sand Valley President Antti Pohjonen & vice president Paul O’Connor also gave their thoughts on the big news.

First and foremost we are delighted to host the ECCO Tour at Sand Valley it’s a proud moment for all of us at SV to have a series on this scale from one of Europe’s top tours. To be hosting one event with the largest prize fund in Polish golf history is great but three back-to-back really is something special.This is a fantastic opportunity for Sand Valley GR and for the whole Polish golf scene -Sand Valley CEO Antti Pohjonen.

We have thousands of tourists from Nordic countries every year, so it’s amazing that the best players from those countries will now come and play Sand Valley. Most of them will get to play Sand Valley for the very first time and that should be a good challenge for them – we might even see the course record broken come next April – the current course record is 66 shots by Berni Reiter – says Paul O’Connor, the Vice President of SVGR.

Preparations are well underway at Sand Valley to have the course and resort perfect for this historic event and for all visitors to SVGR next season, See you all soon!

Link to ECCO Tour news: Click here 

Winter is here, but preparations for the 2022 season are in full swing!

I am proud of our Team and what we have achieved during this pandemia. We have not stood still and only concentrated on serving our visitors this year. Sand Valley has added more than 70 beds, a new pool club area, apartments, and much more – all a good sign for anyone who wants to come and visit! We are also seeing a huge interest from the Scandinavian market and some 2022 weekends are starting to be already fully booked even when there is more than 200 beds on offer – that’s simply amazing!

Paul O’Connor – Sales Director

Sand Valley GR has launched the 2022 Stay & Play Packages that offer the best value for money for our visitors. If you are on a budget and love to play unlimited golf we recommend you to take our April / October 2022 where you get a 30eur discount on all of our packages. Also, if you opt on coming during the weekdays (Mon – Fri) you can play the second round free of charge – Saturday and Sunday you will anyways receive a 50% discount on your second round green fee when buying one of our Stay & Play packages – You can’t beat that!

For our old friends and first-time visitors, a lot has changed during the last year. We have finished the amazing Pelican complex that offers new 2, 4, and 6 people apartments. Pelican Pool Club also includes a large jacuzzi and sauna complex for after-round relaxation. Furthermore, we have added Jacuzzis to many of the existing Villas so you will be sure to enjoy your stay in one of our 30 onsite units on offer. For more information about our accommodation: CLICK HERE

The important thing to note is that all of our packages include VIP transportations from and to Gdansk airport that has several direct flight connections from all over Europe. Once at Sand Valley, we also offer you and your friends a complimentary 3-course arrival dinner so you can feel right at home. For more information about our 2022 Stay & Play Packages: CLICK HERE

For a quick quote please feel free to contact me at:

Paul O’Connor
Commercial Director
0048 668 897 632
paul.oconnor@sandvalley.pl

Sand Valley has been named as the 68th best golf course in Continental Europe, once again cementing our place as Poland’s best golf course, the list which selects the Top 100 premier layouts in Europe has placed us ten places higher than two years ago. We are delighted that the investments in the course & the fantastic work of our greenkeeping team during the past two seasons are being recognized.

This design by Lassi Pekka Tilander, with later input from Tony Ristola, is now a fixture in our Top 100. Some of Ristola’s greens are funky to say the least, but we love the routing and the old-style architecture of Poland’s No.1. The 2nd hole would sit among the elite of this list. – Chris Bertram, Golf World Top 100 Editor

The accolade was awarded by Golf World UK which is the original, most respected, and trusted golf course ranking guide in Europe. The competition in the category was immense so congratulations to Morfontaine (FRA) on their 1st place and all other courses making the list.

It is a great honor for Sand Valley and all those who have worked tirelessly over the last 12 years to make it such a special place. The credit of course goes to Lassi-Pekka Tilander, Tony Ristola, and Kai Hulkkonen for their vision that was clearly ahead of its time. Also, this is a very proud day for Polish golf where we will continue to be at the forefront in spreading the word that Polish Dream Golf really does exist – said Antti Pohjonen CEO of Sand Valley.