2023 Birdie Open | R1 F9 | Johansen, Horst, Hammersten, Chace | Gatekeeper Media

Gatekeeper Media Presents The Birdie Open, Supported by Innova. This is a PDGA A-Tier event that was held June 16-18, 2023. We are at the historic Iron Hill DGC in Newark, DE. Get ready for 3 rounds of very challenging woods golf.

Round 1 Feature Card:
Michael Johansen
Dylan Horst
Matt Hammersten
Harry Chace

Music by:
BirdieFest

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CHAPTERS
00:00 INTRO
01:03 HOLE 1
05:36 HOLE 2
09:06 HOLE 3
15:00 HOLE 4
19:00 HOLE 5
23:10 HOLE 6
27:10 HOLE 7
29:49 HOLE 8
34:28 HOLE 9
38:20 OUTRO

#discgolf #gatekeepermedia #birdie

What is up disc golf fans and welcome to a very special tournament for us here at gatekeeper media the 2023 birdie open presented by yours truly and supported by Inova we’re at Iron Hill Disc Golf down in Delaware and we have been filming and we could really say this is

One of our home courses here for gatekeeper and it is such a pleasure to present it every single year uh here for the birdie open my name is Chris German we have Derek skull and we are bringing you round one front nine coverage yeah that’s right Chris I would

Say that this is probably one of my favorite courses that I’ve ever been to and to have it in our backyard uh with us being you know having the pleasure of sponsoring it for another year here um you know it means a lot so thanks for

Tuning in we got a lot of familiar phes here some locals some more of the traveled folks we’re going to start here on hole one 625 ft par 4 right out of the gate really great starting hole as a righty uh player you’re definitely going to want to just beat that turn right

Anything in the middle of there is where you want to be if you push too far forward you’re going to be in jail if you saw it off on the right you’re going to be in jail so really it’s just hitting your lines nice gradual backand here for

MJ it hangs a little further straight and as you could see pretty pitched off in there yeah Michael Joe has been coming to this event for so many years uh so it’s awesome to still see him coming here for the a tier yeah uh quite a name here in

Pennsylvania known for the powerful forehand that he is showing us right now I’d say can’t really get much better than that yeah perfect shot he has such a good forehand and does really well on the touring side when he does go out and play uh placing pretty well at some disc

Golf prot tour events Matt hamerson here may recognize him from last year’s coverage where him and our Andrew fish went neck and neck yeah team Prodigy spotter getting the flag down there and then we have Harry Chase so he took down uh Philly open last year in 20122 so pretty

Local it’s a good shot as well as long like you said as long as you get around that bend and that last tree there sets up for a good second shot and so you know that the course is testing when it gives MJ a forehand his second throw of the

Round yeah this course is really good at making you hit your lines the lines are right there to hit uh if you end up off the Fairway it can get a little tricky uh but it does allow you to try to progress down the Fairway it’s very fair

In that sense it’s not too too rough where you have to pitch out every time which I think creates really good aggressive play we do have OB there to the left closer to Hol two’s te area oh great shot from Harry buttery turnover he’s going to be

Putting for birdie I don’t know if you could have even placed the disc in a much better position of what what Dylan had oh and he’s giv it a bid for the two wow oh that was awesome I don’t I don’t really have any words for that he just

Based his approach that’s crazy yeah this hole sets up perfect for him two four hands in a row MJ will try to get up and down for par same with Matt Harry’s in great start to your tournament on The Chase car putting down a birdie on whole

One and shout out to the local Club who puts in so much work at this course as I remember a couple years ago tree falling down over on this basket and they pushed it up and it wasn’t a par four for one of the years uh but they really took the

Time and effort to make it look great pitched up there yeah being a part of this event for so long and really seeing the maturing and development of the course it’s just really such a beautiful piece of property that I’m I really do feel

Lucky to have that be so close I I’d say it’s if you ask most people nationally you know because this was a Tour event for some years um you know a lot of people would probably agree with it being a destination course of theirs Dylan able to get in for his

Birdie as well after hitting the basket pushed him out to about 20 ft but a couple birdies couple pars good start for the card is we’re going to move into hole two par three not many par 3s on this course 380 ft we’re going to have a slight Bend to the

Left these guys are going to probably throw their distance drivers maybe something that’s going to flip up push long but still have a good finish to the left there’s a couple different lines you can take there’s a right and a center that’s pretty common I would say yeah

Using using the honestly the rare groundplay opportunity here at Iron Hill Harry looks to be going the more outside oh I think that slipped a little yeah luckily he drops right there on the Fairway still has some work to get up and down for par this looks great from MJ you could

See the disc gliding jinx them there Hammer’s going really wide almost he’s going to get caught up this course is very interesting in the sense that the par 3s usually play harder than the par fours you don’t have that extra stroke uh to get up and down

As we see right here with Harry he has a long Circle two look for his par save I’d say of the places for Matt to kick this is the more favorable of the two when you hit that you really run the risk of really going anywhere

So yeah should be able to get his with that good approach MJ just catching one of the last trees yeah if you look that one right in front of him that he hit where he’d be close to Bullseye if not for that and again very common for a disc to

Kind of fade out a little early based on the line you take and a lot of people end up where Harry is right there just give yourself a good Circle two bid Dylan from Circle two for par and he’s goingon to be giving that birdie right back you hate to see it

Still early in the round Matt cleans up the par what is is there a technical term for when you birdie and then bogey kind of the opposite of the bounceback oh that’s a good question yeah I don’t know put it in the comments if you guys know

Uh any terms locally that you have that would be the opposite of a bounceback all right hole three another par 4 for us at 760 ft you really just kind of want to land anywhere in the vicinity of where the Drone is now to give yourself an easy approach because behind this basket

Is a lot of danger we got sharp sloping green on the back side there so really you’re going to see you’re going to see Dylan really try to push a flex right at it so that it hooks up here but it just kind of stabled up on him a little too

Soon yeah you do not want to end up to the right over there it is jail if you turn one over and don’t get around that band conservative shot from MJ should be able to get up and down for par yeah I think he wasn’t expecting that to be so

Such a high shot um that definitely aided in pushing him further to the left this looks pretty textbook great shot from Hammer exactly where you want to be is this is probably the most open we’re going to see the course uh aside for maybe whole four as well but it’s you

Got to enjoy the blate of the disc while you got it here in the open as Harry ends up where where I was talking about uh it is jail over there it’s going to be very tough for him to to get up and down this one gets flexy here for MJ missing

Everything wow he’s long putting back up that was definitely tough in there it’s funny I was just talking about how the this course lets you progress and then this is one of the few spots here where you ain’t getting through that stuff well I mean with the

Wide open Factor like you just mentioned wow wow these guys are on it to start yeah I mean it’s really the importance of where your t-shot lands right that’s going to be the make or break for you you see Dylan finds himself too far to the right so not ideal placement and

He’s struggling with his approach whereas his whole one ideal placement ideal approach here he’s going to get caught up he’s going to have another Circle two look try to save his par oh Dylan just clipping one little Branch leaves a lot more meat on that especially with

That slope behind the basket is very scary like this here it’s just layup or semi run I guess and it’s still sliding down the hill yeah you want it to land flat and soft just no if Sands or butts he knew he had to he was taking a bogey there oh yeah

Hammer on the board big what a putt for birdie yeah holy cow sick let’s see if MJ can replicate just maybe a couple feet closer it’s honestly not the worst Landing down there unless that happens MJ now for par oh boy and just like that putting for birdie taking a bogey

This course shows its teeth right here first blemish for Michael Joe but I’m sure we’ll see plenty of green throughout the rest of this round tough start for Harry already looking at two Over [Applause] N moving into hole four another par 4 675 ft this one has a slight Bend to the right and then on the second approach shot it’s nice little tunnel you can get sneaky on either side but preferred line nice and straight right to the basket

You do have OB road behind the basket uh this really sets up for a roller if you have it you see a lot of people lay those down or a big turnover really want to get far right Dylan shows his forehand power and this is looking great it’s perfect

MJ getting caught up a little early still can get creative to get up and down for birdie as long as you kind of get to those trees you can give yourself a chance and here’s the roller the aggressive play we’ve seen it work yeah shout out to Andrew fish last

Year cing the eagle first time I’ve ever seen any Eagle on this hole and I think anyone I think that I think that was the first time had been done MJ hits his line skips up he’s going to have probably a 60 to 80 foot putt a little further right than I think

Anticipated but should have an open look from there no problem yeah pretty lucky you didn’t hit any of those trees there it’s pretty common if you miss your line you get caught up on those trees on the right as Harry pushes too far forward and Dylan in a great spot to

Throw a touchy little forehand like I was saying the guy is known for the forehand it’s definitely the strongest part of his game yeah with frisbee background wow Michael Johanson back on the board with the rewind that’s what we expect right there from MJ running it in oh that’s so sick

Hammers just inside the circle maybe circle’s Edge looks like he was a little outside and he’s able to get the bird as well two for two now that’s crazy Harry missed all those things and actually went long OB you don’t see OB long I I brought it

Up uh but you don’t see it that often because you kind of have that ditch there that the disc funnel into he’s able to save his par though good on him oh boy oh no that was his chance to erase the bogey whole five our par five here at 78 ft

Serpentine slightly uphill with a mounded green full of rocks lot of trees as you can see here and this doesn’t really do it any justice uh in years past it was at the other side of the road so they did add a little more distance over the years um essentially

The stock play is something just nice and straight finishes right there at that first Bend and try to give yourself as much footing as possible so you can really hammer it up the rest of that Hill yeah Hammer did a pretty good job there uh you want it to finish left it’s

Nice when you kind of hug that right side MJ doing it even better putting it right in the middle as when they pushed this back it kind of got rid of the eagle opportunity uh but still challenging hole and you have to execute your shots as this is the first hole where

You start seeing where you might think you throw a good shot but you still end up behind a tree and not in the best not have the best lie yeah so this is great maybe a little more to the left would be like that much more ideal um but that

Was that first Little Bend to the left that I was talking about oh stopped up by rude or something there that that probably was good for him it looked like that was going to skip into the trees or at least kind of give him a pinched look Hammer drifted

Off to the right a little bit and as you could see it pinched him off there he really just kind of didn’t have a lot of run up didn’t have a lot of area to he just kind of had to swing at a little bit more of an angle so that really

Takes a lot of the speed out of it MJ gets caught up near the end of the flight is Harry in a perfect spot but like you said just maybe a little right Mis relase there oh man that had a beautiful shape on it would have been right there in

That bowl right before the mound but now he finds himself off to the side with a little bit of obstruction much better lie here for hammer for his third shot but it’s hard to penetrate that like if you go too high you have those branches to deal with I mean this is you

Know uh early summer so the foliage is quite full where that’s the perfect height you beat that Hill you beat the Rocks Dylan’s not going to have to worry about putting on this one as that is is a great birdie to take MJ should be able to give himself

A chance for birdie about circle’s Edge Harry giving it a good strong bid from there too it looks like MJ was a little farther than I thought oh oh man was looking good Hammer from a similar POS position to MJ just a little low great pars from Harry after catching

That tree on his second shot as we should see a couple cleanups and Dylan with the lone birdie taking a stroke on the card ho six another Par Four coming in around 625 ft this one’s a nice little s shape we’re going to have a slight

Little Bend to the left you want to get about right where the Drone is now and then you have a slight Little Bend to the right for the green it’s very easy to get out of position on this hole you can push it too far right then you get

Pinched off or if you end up too far left you saw there it’s kind of a wall of trees over there slightly early release there this may be too straight and it does funnel right back onto the Fairway it’s a good shot there from hammer that’s the

Line as long as it misses that tree and it does he might have kind of like a flex forehand there that might have pushed a little too far left but if you do get left it does set up for a more straight shot as opposed to the left to

Right that should be with plenty of clearing in front of it yeah I would say that is the ideal Landing Zone oh and it had some fight in it but just couldn’t beat that last one yeah this whole was very fun haven’t seen many changes it’s stayed the same for

Years tree prevented That Swing yeah MJ in that really tight spot where he needs to get straight little bit of a right finish does not finish right for him but he does get down there at least putting for birdy wow Harry getting so sneaky there all right good job from

Dylan should be able to save his par with that one this is pretty pretty common dis usually funnel to cirle Edge down this hill here if you’re not able to push high enough as MJ through the two trees it’s it was kind of hard to really tell from that

Angle but that was framed up by those two skinny trees from that angle from this angle they don’t look all that skinny now that I’m seeing it again o another low putt from Hammer just needs to get it up a little be putting a couple more birdies

On his card this Harry’s able to erase one of his blemishes from earlier maybe I need to save one for the next drive time delay dude that’s a a courtesy violation that’s a stroke you’re down by three now potty [Applause] M all right hole seven par three 370 ft

Downhill real tight one of my favorite holes here on the course the way that the Drone is going is a traditional forand route for a lot of folks if you turn it over as a backhand player a little ear there is another line there farther to the right that filters over

To the path and can get you to circle’s Edge as well but really something nice floaty and flexy or the forehand play yeah a lot of Danger on this hole coming in as the second par three on the course that filters a lot wow yeah it’s always interesting if you just throw it

Straight you kind of end up where Harry is and you have a putt where a lot of people think they need to get really far right it’s Dylan this is looking great wow beautiful shot from Dylan and see like looking at it from the te you’re

Like I there ain’t no way I’m getting down there but it it’s a lot more deceiving and that’s what makes it so fun something that you can just really overthink a lot Hammer gets close to where uh MJ is however oh no sorry I meant Harry MJ getting caught up by the rock

Great Rock for him his hammer was very close to parking the shot I thought his line was the best of the group and it doesn’t matter he gets the birdie yeah I was going to say that putt had enough height good step through there Hammer three down on this front

Nine it’s good start on this course Harry follows it up gets him out of the basement there and back to even I think one of our earliest gatekeeper rewinds was on this hole if I’m not mistaken yeah there’s been a lot of great moments from here if you had never seen the

2019 Delaware Disc Off challenge final round that was actually spoiler alert our first Chase Card win one of the best rounds of golf I ever watched from Matt Bell so if you’re looking for some old coverage let’s type in 2019 Delaware so we move into the second par

Five whole eight 780 ft this one is uphill and this is really where the name iron comes from I think there are so many rocks so many trees so much danger very very tough hole and then basket raised here on the green and it’s really up there folks

Like the pitch of this hill is definitely something serious so just even traversing it with all the rocks and loose footing is going to add so much extra to going into your back nine just because this is kind of an exhausting hole and you have to throw so much more

On it to cover that distance yeah I really liked Dylan’s idea there going with the forehand yeah push it a little farther to the left at first so that it finishes kind of more into the center where that small opening is because that’s the other thing is these angles you know you

Want to be a little further to the left here here on this initial yeah it’s kind of a similar shot to Hole five uh just much more uphill but you just want a slight finish to the left I would say this is a pretty good spot to be this isn’t the worst and

Then you just have to get around these trees that’s pretty good I mean from there you should be able to get your birdie just need to execute one more shot but yeah the footing the run-ups that was looking pretty good they basically go away on this whole yeah run-ups are not really a

Thing um you will see people get pretty creative in some degree where if you do find yourself far right um we have seen plenty of players in the past be able to progress entirely on that right side to get up and down for their par so you had

Mentioned earlier you know there’s a lot of opportunity for progression if you take advantage of what you have um so like you see here Dylan this is his third and there is a kind of an opening there up top ahead of him yeah I like this whole it’s fun it

Makes you throw creative shots and it’s very easy to be scrambling this I guess we’ll all find out where that one’s going to be oh man MJ just finding all the trees here this course is really just a game of inches and feet is Hammer oh oh

Man put a tough angle being right up against that tree if he was one foot to the left it would have been worse one foot to the right he has a perfect shot so great shot from Harry oh yeah putting that right inside the circle well Dylan must have been good

Because we haven’t been back to him yet um yeah so has a has a textbook approach here if it sits oh what the heck but yeah I mean essentially getting up and down yeah now you just got to put faith in your putt on the raised basket he does even putting from the

Right side yeah he he played the whole ho on the right yeah Harry’s starting to pick it up it’s back to one under that’s a turkey for him and a couple pars for the rest of the crew whole 9 is another one of my favorites here 555 ft par 4 really tight

Here on the initial and then a pretty good dog leg to the right with a tree smack dab in the middle of this line all nestling down into a little Bowl here um quite honestly another really fun hole if you saw it off go too far

Right too early that’s kind of a mess you can push too far straight and still have an angle for an approach you can even be a little further to the right um in that clearing and have another shot as well this looks great Dylan’s getting aggressive here holy

Cow yeah if you get around that corner I mean you can end up to the right and it might be a tricky approach but getting around that corner is the first most important goal here so yeah like you said like if you don’t push far enough before you

Turn and it’s very thick there on the whole right side at that turn of the dog leg and see this is oh my god get sneaky oh should be right on the edge I mean not a lot to yeah not a lot to work with yeah this is par

City yeah great shot there placement all day Harry’s in the junk as well yeah if you have a forehand from there I think it gives you a little bit more opportunity to play more aggressively um this is a great shot yeah Hammer little turnover and then it

Hit the tree and put him right in a spot where you just looking right at the basket unfortunately could not take advantage hitting early left MJ just putting it right to the Bowl should be an easy par for him Harry with a flex forehand forcing one over and luckily

That tree stops him up he’s going to be looking for par as well well and really good angle control from Dylan yeah it’s a pretty fast green actually uh you have to be a little touchy it slightly slopes to the right it’s one of the less inhabited

Greens of rock like yeah so it’s very easy to just kind of slide that extra 15 feet 20 feet but taking par on this is totally fine par for Harry great way to bounce back on this nine after looking at two over after just the first three

Holes Dylan gets himself to 3 under for the round so far R good showing from him MJ one under as well couple birdies couple Bogies Hammer also stringing a couple birdies there looking at three under so that’s going to finish up this front line as we take a look Dylan and

Hammer sitting at the three MJ and Harry sitting at the one but this back nine is going to get good DK oh yeah super excited for everybody to check out and you really shouldn’t be any stranger to this course but to watch these players in action is always a

Treat so thanks for tuning in and we look forward to seeing you on the back nine