116 photos by 30 different photographers were nominated for the competition, by various discussers at our forum. Of these photos minigolfnews.com staff selected 20 photos for the vote. We hope that the style and emotion of these photos inspire photographers to take great minigolf photos also in the next year 2012.

May the best photo win!

» Go to vote Minigolf Photo of the Year 2011
» Forum discussion where photos were nominated
» Results of vote Minigolf Photo of the Year 2010
» Results of vote Minigolf Photo of the Year 2009
» Results of vote Minigolf Photo of the Year 2008
]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1277 01 Feb 2012 00:48:56 +0200 Supplied by Richard Gottfried

The 2012 British Minigolf Association season got underway with the BMGA Star City Open on Sunday 22nd January at the indoor Adventure Island Mini Golf complex at Star City, Birmingham. The three-round, 54-hole tournament was won by Birmingham’s Chris Harding following a sudden-death play-off against defending champion Michael Smith.

The top three places were all decided by sudden-death play-offs, as Harding & Smith had both finished regulation play on scores of 90 (-18). Harding managed to defeat Smith with a hole-in-one at the fourth extra-hole.

In the battle for third place Linton’s Adam Kelly defeated Cambridge’s James Rutherford in the play-off after both players had scored 93 (-15) over their three rounds.

31 British Minigolf Association (BMGA) Tour players competed in the event on the 18-hole indoor Lost Hut Trail Adventure Mini Golf course.

Other prize winners on the day were James Trubridge, who took the Category 2 Player winner’s prize, with Freddie Blackburn Shaw second and Ruth Burke third. In the Category 3 (Novice) contest Marina Breeden took first place with Richard Linden the runner-up. Seth Thomas won the junior title with Owen Johnson runner-up. The Aces Champion was Marc Chapman with 17 holes-in-one across the competition.

BMGA Chairman Sean Homer said “Thanks to all who played at the event, and also to Marc Chapman who ran the event and John Whitehead and his team at the course for their superb hospitality. The BMGA Tour is looking forward to returning for the 2013 Star City Open next January.”

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1276 24 Jan 2012 18:59:31 +0200
This edition showed 45 pair with really strong players coming from all Europe: Sweden, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Finland, Czech Republic, Norway, France and Portugal. Of course, almost all the best Italian players didn't miss the chance to compete in this real big event of the minigolf winter.

The world champion Filip Svensson and many other European top players made the challenge in Vedano really exciting with some very good results.

The team from MC Aponense, Gino Ferri - Antonella Flamini took their second victory in this tournament (the first in 2007) thanks to a very outstanding perfomance by Gino that played 6 rounds in blue average (24.00) with this fantastic serie of rounds: 24-24-27-24-24-21.
The total score of the winning team is 252 strokes (25.2 average)

No one could keep this rhythm, the winner from last edition Pinton-Marchiani could just save the podium after losing a playoff with the team Boris Arzuffi - Omar Maggi, that scored an ace at lane 4. Both team ended 6 stroked behind the winners, with 258 (25.8 avg) .

The best foreign tema is Jana Nakladalova - Günther Inmann which get a very good 5th place with 263 strokes (26.3 avg) . Günther got the same result last year playing with Katherina Tietzova.
Other two foreign teams could manage to reach the top 10 place: 7th the Norvegian team Lars Kvael - Kjell Nihus with 265 strokes, 8th the Swiss team Reto Sommer - Bruno Ruch with 266 strokes.

No Swedish teams in the top 10 but a very special result by the "old" evergreen class player Jan Strandberg that could able to equalize the course record on one round with 21 strokes (2 at lane 2, 5, 16).

These are the top 10 teams of the tournament:

1 FLAMINI - FERRI 252 25,2
2 ARZUFFI - MAGGI 258 25,8
3 PINTON - MARIANI 258 25,8
4 CARDALANA - ALEMANNO 261 26,1
5 NAKLADALOVA - INMANN 263 26,3
6 CRESPI - CICERI 265 26,5
7 KVAEL - NIHUS 265 26,5
8 RUCH - SOMMER 266 26,6
9 DELLASEGA - MORANDI 266 26,6
10 PORTA - BELLUCCI 267 26,7

The individual results has been really excellent with 50 blue rounds, the best 10 single players of the tournament has been the following:

1 Gino Ferri ITA 24 24 27 24 24 21 144 24
2 Massimiliano Ciceri ITA 26 25 23 24 27 125 25
3 Antonio Di Bella ITA 25 29 26 23 24 127 25,4
4 Paolo Porta ITA 25 27 24 26 26 25 153 25,5
5 Omar Maggi SUI 27 25 28 25 23 128 25,6
6 Jan Stranderg SWE 27 25 28 21 27 128 25,6
7 Cristian Pinton ITA 26 27 25 26 25 129 25,8
8 Roberto Mariani ITA 28 25 23 27 26 129 25,8
9 Lars Kvael NOR 27 27 28 24 23 129 25,8
10 Emanuele Prestinari ITA 26 26 25 27 26 130 26

The tournament in Vedano is becoming year by year one of the most important and prestigious events of minigolf winter, thanks to Alberto Pirovano and his organizing staff.
]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1275 23 Jan 2012 21:50:39 +0200

There are also more news about the Championship. The new course of beton was finished and the first tournment was already played. The green and blue averages continue to be an achievable reality.]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1274 22 Jan 2012 23:52:56 +0200
After 12 out of 24 rounds Lars and Peter was in the lead with as low as 19,4 in average on 233 strokes. In second position were Pierre Zetterlund and Peter Eisenschmidt (both new in Askim last fall) with 240. Third were Patrik Eliasson and Mikael Samuelsson of Tyresö together with Johan Andersson (Djulö) and Patrik Wass (Haga) on 242. So at half time everything was as expected, yet another win for the Uppsala Team.

But on the next 8 rounds before the final something strange happened. Peter and Lars didn’t play any blue rounds at all and had an average of 21,5 ending in 172 strokes. Pierre and Peter continued their performance or even sharpened it and had 157 on these 8 laps. All of a sudden they were 8 in front of the Uppsala team. Also the Tyresö team played good in this night hours and was giving Pierre and Peter an even fight with 157. Now they were in second position two strokes behind and Lars and Peter from Uppsala was only in third.

Then Lars Brown found his play again with 18-18 in round 21 and 22. And with only one round to play Lars and Peter was 4 strokes behind, still in third place though since Patrik and Mikael was 2 strokes from the lead.

Lars Brown started up with 15 aces in the last lap and was with 3 lanes to go only one stroke from the lead. But a 2 on the flat loop gave Pierre the margin he needed to secure the win by 8 after ending 1-2-1. Patrik Eliasson had the worst lap this final lap and with 26 they were in third place.

So the winner was the surprise team from Askim, Gothenburg, Pierre Zetterlund and Peter Eisenschmidt.

Best individually on the rather easy courses of MunktellArena was Lars Brown (19,6). Two more players did also manage to get a blue average, Peter Eisenschmidt (19,8), Mikael Samuelsson (19,9).

In total 54 couples played the 24 hour marathon this year.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1273 22 Jan 2012 22:00:13 +0200 http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1272 18 Jan 2012 20:14:10 +0200 http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1271 17 Jan 2012 06:06:08 +0200
Please send your nominations to staff@minigolfnews.com or post a link in our forum thread Photo of the Year thread


We will select maximum 20 photos to participate in the poll. You may nominate as many photos you wish but new this year is that each photographer is allowed to compete with maximum 3 photos (instead of one last years). The poll will start in early february and therefore we need your nominations by the latest 31st of January.

Lets see if anyone can beat the winner of both 2009 and 2010 Miroslav Čibik this year.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1270 16 Jan 2012 11:57:15 +0200
This year the competition is played in the challenging indoor eternit of Olofström in south of Sweden. The location in the south was not surprisingly a big advantage for the teams in the close neighborhood with much experience on the courses.

On Saturday the 21 Teams was ranked and divided into 4 group’s playing for positioning in Sundays 16 Team-Cup three.

Group A was won by last year’s winners Södertälje in the tightest of the groups with 3 Elitserie Teams. Just like last year the group was won by Södertälje after having beaten Kungälv in the group final.

In Group B the favorites from Uppsala only managed to grip a third place. The young home team of Olofström played very well and won all their matches with the second best team average in the qualifications 23,2. In second position came Askim that has a interesting young team upcoming with the new players in Peter Eisenschmidt and Pierre Zetterlund (not playing in Olofström though) in the squad.

In Group C the second team from Sjöviken managed to win the group final against Jönköping to win the group. In group D the Sjöviken first team won by performing the by far best team average in the qualifications with 21,8. Second was Tantogården in a close race between them and Kulladal and Växjö (all on 4 points).

On Sunday lots of tough matches were played as expected. Jönköping won against both rivals from elitserien Uppsala and Södertälje to reach the semifinals. There they meet a better and better performing Tantogården and had to surrender to the Stockholm team for the final qualification.

On the lower half there was an open road for the Sjöviken 1 team that where playing on the same high level as on Saturday winning their matches quite easy (6,5 and 8 strokes). The semifinal was against the surprise team of Kulladal.

The final was not much of a game since the Sjöviken Team made their best match of the weekend and Tantogården didn’t have the best of rounds. Final score 84-100 and Sjöviken were once again like in 2010 the winners.

The bronze match was won by the young and hungry team of Kulldal against the merited team of Jönköping.

Top 10 individually was:

Daniel Källström, Sjövikens IF, 21,0
Jan Åke Persson, Sjövikens IF, 21,1
Martin Sjöberg, BGK Jönköping, 21,4
Filip Johansson, Sjövikens IF , 21,8
Björn Dinau, Kungälvs BGK, 22,0
David Gustavsson, Askims BGK, 22,0
Peter Eisenschmidt, Askims BGK, 22,2
Mats Olsson, Sjöviken, 22,3
Marcus Nilsson, Sjövikens IF , 22,3
Marcus Larsson, Uppsala BGK, 22,4

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1269 09 Jan 2012 19:43:40 +0200
On the ladies side two young players with many ranking point still counting from successful juniors days are in the two first positions. Still ranked in the top position is Karin Heschl of Austria. Karin managed to hold on to her first position from the spring by a rather successful Championship in Stockholm with one bronze and one fourth place.

The only lady with a better result from Stockholm is of course Bianca Zodrow who raced up on the rankings from 22nd position to end up on bronze position.

In second position Czech Republic’s Jana Nakladalova that had a fairly good championship in Stockholm with 9th position. Together with her good merits from 2009 and 2010 she I still on the silver position.

The five best ladies of 2011 according to WMF are:

1. Bianca Zodrow, Germany 2632 points
2. Sandra Wicki, Switzerland 2133 points
3. Eva Andersson, Sweden 1992 points
4. Bianca Utzig, Austria 1962 points
5. Karin Hescl, Austria 1832 points

Noteworthy is that the top five ladies all have higher ranking points now than the leader one year back which was tied between Elisabeth Gruber and Rebecca Weber with 3.848 points.

At the men’s side Walter Erlbruch, Germany is found in top as was also the case one year ago. Walter was 2011 leaving the competition in the rankings with little to hope for. After a very successful year with the gold in Stockholm to top he broke the one year ranking record held by Anders Olsson from 2008 (3454 points) with over 175 points ending the 2011 season with 3629 points.

On second position almost as successful as Walter is the WMF nr 1 from this spring Filiph Svensson of Sweden. Also he had a very good year this year with 2720 points in 2011. Even if Walter was very successful Filiph is only 90 points behind him in silver position.

In third position and up 19 positions from a year ago we find Austrias Gunther Inmann. He was the second best player in 2011 with 2947 points. And since he didn’t play in 2008 he can now fully count his 3 years in the ranking and that means a third place overall.

The five best men of 2011 according to WMF are:

1. Walter Erlbruch, Germany 3629 points
2. Gunther Inmann, Austria 2947 points
3. Filiph Svensson, Sweden 2720 points
4. Harald Erlbruch, Germany 2506 points
5. Marcel Noack, Germany 2403 points

On the juniors girls list Germanys Anna Bollrich has taken over from Anna Nitschke, who was not playing in 2011. Second is Lara Jehle of Austria taking one step up from third an new on third from last year’s 12th is Sara Karlsson of Sweden.

The best girl player of 2011 is Katharina Benn of Germany with 3376 points, but since she has not been playing 3 full years internationally she is only in 7th position.

In the boy’s category Robin Hettrich, Germany has overtaken the lead from last year’s leader Swiss Nicolai Bhend. Nicolai is now in second position and Lorenzo Levis of Italy is new on third.

Best player of 2011 is though Germanys Philipp Lau with 3160 points followed by Jan Anderegg of Switzerland with 3149 points.

On the seniors list Germanys Andrea Reinicke has overtaken the lead from last year’s leader Austria’s Maria Fuschelberger. On second position we find the 2011 overall best player by far, Germanys Gaby Rahmlow and third are Czech Dagmar Hirschmannova.

On the senior mens list Reinhard Schuster of Austria has overtaken the top position by being the best player of 2011, from Karl-Heinz Gerwert of Germany now in silver position. Third and up one position is Italy’s Franscesco Leuci.

Best nation in all categories are Germany.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1268 08 Jan 2012 23:13:53 +0200
Interview with Riku Pennanen (RP), Finland, Media Manager of the Lahti 2013-15 Organisation.

This interview was done the 2nd of January 2012. Interviewer is Hans Bergström (HB).

HB: Can you tell us a little bit more about the Town of Lahti and the arranging club?

RP: Lahti is a city located 100 kilometers from Helsinki. It is one of the most famous sport cities in Scandinavia and has the biggest amount of international sports events amongst all cities in Finland. With over 100 000 inhabitants, Lahti is the 4th largest city in Finland. The city has always been very welcoming when it comes to sports. For example the plan for building the Minigolf Center was received very well in 2005 and got itself a great place only 1,5 kilometers from the center, and an area of 10 000m2 and a permit to build on 3 500m2. Entrepreneur and a national team player Rolf Bergström is the owner and builder of the Lahti Minigolf Center. The operations were started first with the felt course in 2006, the fun course was ready in 2007 and the eternite in 2011. The minigolf club for Lahti was founded in 2007 having now 11 active members and is growing next year to over 20 active members or more.

Rolf Bergström is responsible of organizing all the competitions. He has more than 30 years of experience in building minigolf courses and has been representing the Finnish National Team for about 20 years. He has collected experience in many international competitions and has learn how to arrange this kind of a competition.

HB: If you succeed can you tell us about what your ambitions of the arrangements are?

RP: Finnish Minigolf Association together with Rolf Bergström and I have agreed that I take care of all the media relations such as events, press, social media and TV. Our aim is to make this competition in an unprecedented media event. Rolf Bergström has good relations for example in radio and TV because he has also been a singing artist in Finland the past 20 years. As an entrepreneur also myself (Riku), I work daily in social media, have experience working with media and have a lot of business relationships etc. that will help to generate visibility in Finland.

HB: How are the courses? New/old? Easy or hard?

RP: The felt course is five years old and right now is quite easy. Few years ago I won the Finnish Championships on felt with an average of little under 30. The tracks are quite long, all together 236 meters and in good shape. Of course before the competitions we will check that the course and the obstacles are challenging enough.

The eternite course is new and completed in 2011. We have experienced only one competition on eternite and the scores were average. We have made some changes and believe that the scores will be better in future. It is easy to follow the competitions from the terrace, which makes it great for the audience.

The Minigolf Center itself completed in summer 2011. There are all together three courses in the area: an easy and fun course for public, professional felt and an eternite course. On the terrace (cafeteria and grill), you can order beverages and food. There are about 200 seats outside at the terrace and 40 on the inside. Next to the course there is a popular family park that has more than 130 000 visitors every summer that also drives players to the course. The whole area is surrounded with fence and all the players tents will fit into a closed area. We have been planning many of these things in advance to make it easier.

The Lahti Minigolf Center has agreed the rent contract forever and has a plan to build the fourth course and a gourmet/entertainment restaurant during the next few years. This means that we can all expect new applications from Lahti for international competitions also after 2015.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1267 02 Jan 2012 11:04:53 +0200
We are still quite proud of what we have together have achieved this third year with Minigolfnews. It has also been a year of lots of troubles. During 4 months in the middle of the most active season the site was only able to function with limited functinality due to a hacker attack in May. We now hope we have been able to secure the site from this kind of attacks in the future and hope that 2012 will be a year where we can work as we want the full year.

We are 953 registered users today (120 more than one year ago), of which many is actually visiting us several times each week. But we also know we have lots and lots of unregistered users.

In total during 2011 we have had 76.000 visits reading 225.000 pages on the site (4 months in the summer not counting).

Our readers have been from 102 countries where the following are top 10:

1. Sweden 15 677
2. Germany 9 194
3. Italy 7 448
4. Netherlands 5 557
5. Finland 5 449
6. Austria 4 704
7. Switzerland 4 483
8. Czech Republic 4 119
9. United Kingdom 3 126
10. Denmark 3 082

We (myself, John, Erik, Paolo and Martin) would especially like to thank the following for a really interesting second year.

Our sponsors:

NIFO
City-Golf
FunSports
Game n Fun
Olympisky Dagomys
Reisinger
Dish Network

Our reporters:

Manuela Bamert
André Campos
Richard Gottfried
Karsten Hein
Vincent Huus
Mathias Jagschitz
Omar Maggi
Grégoire Mangier
Astra Miglane
John Mittler
Karel Molnar
Paolo Porta
Patrick Sheridan
André Silva
Jeffrey Smith
Michal Švehla
Erik Tiekstra
Piet Tiekstra
Katerina Tietzova
Norbert Wagenhofer
Lubo Zontag

Our bloggers:

Oskari Vihervaara
Carl-Johan Ryner
André Campos
John Mittler

And lastly of course all our readers. A warm welcome back in 2012!
]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1266 23 Dec 2011 18:39:19 +0200
The video was recorded with several cameras during the Championships and has afterwards been edited to a 15 minutes highlight of the games.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1265 23 Dec 2011 13:02:38 +0200
At the moment it includes only material of Porto and some film about how to play the eternit course. Accommodation information and more other information will be added soon it’s stated on the site.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1264 23 Dec 2011 12:55:21 +0200
Interview with Filip Svensson (FS), Sweden and Skoghalls BGK

This interview was done the 22nd of December 2011. Interviewer is Hans Bergström (HB).

HB: First of all congratulations to a great Stockholm Championship of 2011 resulting in two gold medals? How do you rank this Championship experience compared with your previous merits?

FS: For me this is hard to describe in words. By far the biggest experience in my life so far and I doubt I will ever experience something similar again.

HB: What were your goals before the Championship?

FS: My ambition before the Championships was to reach the final cup on Saturday and take it from there. I knew I was strong in match play so this was my main target before. It later showed that I was totally mistaken here and my success came surprisingly in the stroke play instead.

HB: What was your reaction when you got the news that you where ranked as nr 1 on the WMF ranking list?

FS: At first when I heard about this I assumed there was a mistake been done. But when I realized that it was true I was very happy and felt like a victory in some way already.

HB: How did the preparations and training rounds go in Stockholm? Were you as sharp there as you where in the competition?

FS: The practicing rounds was OK but not on the same level as in the tournament. It’s a bit typical for me that I often play better and mentally sharper when it’s the real thing, when the match starts.

HB: Can you describe the final lap in the stroke play final?

FS: My goal before the last round was to achieve the best round I could, both for myself but also for the big audience. But in the beginning of the round when I lost some strokes to my competitors I began to think “silver again”

Then the turnaround for me came when I aced both lane 7 and 8 and I knew I was back in the game again. At that moment I had the feeling that nothing could stop me.

And with the support of my team mates and the audience it became quite “easy to play” to put it mildly.

And when I aced lane 17 I actually began to understand that this was leading all the way. That was a totally magic feeling.

HB: What were your thoughts on lane 18 knowing that an ace meant gold? Nervous?

FS: I would lie if I told you I was not nervous. I had missed that lane once before, but at that moment I felt like someone needed to break my leg for me to miss (ha-ha).

HB: And maybe you can share how it was playing for team gold at home ground with a home audience?

FS: When you have the audience with you everything is so much easier. You get the feeling that you sort of floats upon their support. So it was a really nice experience to play with this audience and it’s also nice that we could deliver a good result.

HB: When did you understand that is was going to be gold for the men’s team.

FS: Before the last round on the eternit I think we were in the lead by 20 strokes or so, and many believed this already clear, but for me I waited until about half of the round before started to feel more secure :)

HB: Can you tell us about the celebrations in the men’s team after the gold was secured?

FS: It was almost like a chock for the team that we actually made it so the mode in the team became a bit crazy. Calle didn’t really believe that we could do it so to see his reactions afterwards made was really funny for the rest of us.

HB: And on Saturday morning you lost the first game in the match play finals, normally your strongest part of the game. Was it hard getting the right energy and focus for the match play finals on Saturday?

FS: I think I had the energy and was ready for it, but maybe mentally I was already quite satisfied with my results. So my mental attitude was maybe not the real killer I can be at my best.

HB: Now tree months later which memories are the strongest from Stockholm?

FS: When Calle aces lane 18 on the final team round on the eternit is a moment I will never forget :)

HB: And when arriving home you did it in style. Can you share what happened back in your home town Staffanstorp?

FS: When I arrived home to the central station in Lund my whole family was waiting. They had flags and lots of hugs for me and when we came out on the parking lot there was a limousine waiting to take me home to Staffanstorp. This ride was a nice experience with good music, good company and some Champagne.

At home we had a nice dinner that my family made and of course I had to tell those that couldn’t be in Stockholm personally over and over again what had happened in Stockholm.

HB: How has your success been noticed by media and people around you?

FS: I have been called for short interviews by some newspapers. Also my boss at work arranged some attention that ended up in a one-pager in a local news magazine.

And now in the end of the year I was awarded and won the “Sport achivement of the year 2011” in the town of my club (Hammarö Kommun) which of course is a great honor.

HB: What is your opinion about the way the Stockholm championships were played with 2 days team, one day stroke play and one day match play?

FS: I haven’t reflected that much about it since I was pretty successful. But maybe it’s not optimally without analyzing too much.

HB: Your club, Skoghall BGK, was for the first time also playing in the European Cup. Can you tell us about that experience?

FS: This was extremely fun even if the result was not what we had hoped for. But it was such great fun so we would really like to be there also next year and will fight to achieve this.

HB: What happens next for you in Minigolf?

FS: In January I will travel to Italy to take part in a night marathon together with the ”young elite group” of the Swedish Federation. This will be lots of fun I think.

HB: Again a big congratulation to the double gold medals in Stockholm and good luck in the future.

FS: Thank you very much. Let’s hope our small sport can be seen in the Olympics in the future. ]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1263 22 Dec 2011 10:49:20 +0200 Supplied by Richard Gottfried

The 2012 season promises to be another excellent year for the British Minigolf Association tour and the BMGA are delighted to announce the details of all the Major tournaments for the forthcoming year along with a number of other competitions that will be taking place throughout the 2012 tour.

The season tees off with what has become the traditional season opener over the past few years, the BMGA Star City Open on Sunday 22nd January at the indoor Adventure Island Mini Golf complex at Star City in Birmingham. The event will consist of three rounds but for the first time the competition will be taking place on just one course (the Lost Hut aka the upper course). This season opener has been a key event over the last 2 seasons with the winner ending the year as Great Britain’s Number One Player (Chris Harding taking the honours in 2010 and Michael Smith in 2011).

The first outdoor event of the season, the will be the BMGA British Masters taking place on Sunday 22nd April, and is being held for the first time at Splash Point Mini Golf in Worthing. The course made its debut on the BMGA tour in 2010 when it hosted the BMGA British Matchplay Championship in 2010 and makes a welcome return in 2012. Taking place two weeks after the Augusta Masters, the event will take place across four rounds of strokeplay, with the winner picking up the title along with the coveted BMGA British Masters Jacket.

Course Owners Peter Emmerson and Anthony Pope said “Splash Point Minigolf are delighted to announce that they have been selected as the host course for the 2012 BMGA British Masters. The Worthing seafront course is one of the toughest in the country and will no doubt prove to be a real test for the best that British mini golf has to offer. It’s the first strokeplay competition to be held at the course and it should be a great day’s competition, offering local crazy golf enthusiasts and sport lovers a chance to see how some of the country's best players rise to challenge.”

The two day BMGA British Championships will be contested at the Pirate Course in Hastings across the weekend of the 23rd & 24th June. As well as the overall British Champion being crowned, the event will also see the British Senior, Junior and Women’s titles being fought out across the two day, seven round event.

On the 14th & 15th July the BMGA will be taking part in the Oswestry Games, a multi-sport community event which will take place in and around Oswestry, Shropshire in the weeks leading up to the Olympic Games in 2012. As well as a Pro-Am Doubles/Team event we will be offering a mix of fun events including Coaching, Demonstrations and Have a Go activities.

The Lost Island Encounter Adventure Golf Course at Sidcup will be hosting the BMGA British Matchplay Championships taking place on Sunday 22nd July on the Explorers Course. Featuring 32 players in eight groups of four followed by a Knockout stage this promises to be another nail biting Matchplay event. All end of season 2011 Category 1 players will get invites shortly then the event will open up to all members.

The weekend of September 22nd and 23rd see’s the BMGA British Open return to Strokes Adventure Golf in Margate. The course has previously hosted the event in 2007, 2008 and 2009 and is regarded as one of the best courses in the UK, a fitting venue for our premier event of the year.

Course owner Matt Wood said “I am extremely pleased that Strokes will be the host venue for the BMGA British Open 2012. We originally held the competition in 2007 and 2009 was the last time we hosted the British Open and I can honestly say we have missed this event. All three times we have held the Open conjures up fond memories. Karsten Hein, normally being the 1st foreign participant to arrive early in the week, then the Swedish boys on a Wednesday. The best round I have ever seen would have to be Tim Davies in 2009, for its brilliance and its implosive nature, to take our course apart all the way through to hole 16 (at this point on for a round of 26 I believe) and to blow up so spectacularly on three easy holes takes some doing. Björn Dinau and Nick Chitty joint course record holders with scores of 30 were special moments. Most of all though for Strokes, is the general vibe and feel of the course for the whole week, having the pleasure of the foreign players over here and the British players all of them great characters and we can’t wait for the week to begin. As always we’ll make sure the course is in absolute tip top condition, we will also throw in £50 for the first player to go sub 30, during a British Open round.”

The ever popular Planet Hastings Crazy Golf Club Open will be taking place on Sunday 14th October across the three Hastings seafront courses and is always a great warm up for the next event on the tour.

2012 sees the 10th anniversary of the World Crazy Golf Championships at the Seafront Crazy Golf Course in Hastings taking place across the weekend of 27th & 28th October. The format will remain the same as for the 2011 event (with a rolling start) and the BMGA is hoping to open up the event to an increased field. As has been the case for the past few years, entries will open up initially to BMGA Tour Pro’s only and we will be confirming full details of the entry process in the forthcoming weeks.

The traditional strokeplay season closing event, the Kent Open, will be taking place at the Lost Island Encounter in Sidcup on Sunday 11th November. Following on from the success of the 2011 event, all players will once again use the official ball of the Kent Open (due for release in October 2012).

More events will be announced as the season progresses, notably the BMGA British Doubles and BMGA British Club Championship, along with the London, Midlands and Cambridgeshire Minigolf clubs all likely to hold their Open tournaments across the season – 2012 may also see the arrival of a Scottish Minigolf Club and another Open North Of the border.

There will also be some exciting news regarding the WMF World Adventure Golf Masters released over the next few weeks.

The BMGA Tour consists of Minigolf ranking events that take place at Minigolf, Crazy Golf and Adventure Golf courses across the UK. After 22 ranking events in the 2011 season (including Club Invitational competitions, the BMGA British Doubles and the BMGA British Club Championships) a total of twelve players lifted BMGA Tour titles, with a further four players lifting BMGA Titles in non-ranking events.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1262 20 Dec 2011 19:54:25 +0200 This year 102 players, including two coming from France (Philippe Lheritier and Alexandre Pellettier) took part in the event, which offered 3 rounds for all participants, plus 2 more rounds for the best 50% of each category and a last superfinal round for the best 3 players of each category.

All categories had very nice results but the best came for the youth category, that had the best two overall players of the tournament.

Emanuele Prestinari (GSP Cusano) and Lorenzo Levis (GSP Vergiate) played a top level tournament for all 6 rounds: they both started really well (Emanuele 23, Lorenzo 24) and continued with excellent scores: after 3 rounds, they were equal with 76 strokes, then Emanuele with other two excellent rounds got 3 strokes advantages before the last round but Lorenzo tried everything to catch him back and in the end they finished just 1 stroke far each other. Emanuele got the best overall result with 152 strokes (25.33 avg) and Lorenzo the second with 153 strokes (25.5 avg) .

This was the last match between the two youngster because this was the last tournament as a youth player for Lorenzo: this is the closing of a great careeer in the youth category, with two 4th place and a silver medal in european/world youth championships.
Emanuele has indeed still three years as a youth and will be able to make the same path as Lorenzo in the future.

Third overall score, and winner of the senior and elite men categories are Antonio Di Bella (MT Amatese) and Alberto Pirovano (MC Monza), that both ended with 155 strokes (25.83 average)

Great result also for Anna Bandera (GSP Cusano) in the ladies elite category, with a total of 156 strokes (26.0 avg) that easily won on her team-mate Sara Marchiani, that finished second 9 strokes behind but had the satisfaction of equalizing the female course record on one round with 22 strokes.

The senior ladies category has been won by Emilia Prina (MMC Paderno) with 163 strokes (27,2 avg).

GSP Cusano dominated the team event, also setting the new course record on 3 rounds: 306 strokes, 25,5 avg (the old one had been made by German team during the Under 23 event in March 2010 and it was 309 strokes).
The team made by Emanuele Prestinari, Anna Bandera, Pierluigi Marchiani and Claudio Santopietro gave no chance to MT Amatese (12 strokes behind) and the home team of MC Monza (10 strokes behind).

As always it has been a tournament with very low scores, 24 "Blue" rounds and a couple of 22 (made by Sara Marchiani, Antonio Di Bella and Gino Ferri).

The italian season is now over, it will start again from Vedano al Lambro on 22nd January with a very special edition of the 10 rounds pair marathon because this year many good teams from abroad are expected.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1261 19 Dec 2011 21:12:41 +0200
The Finnish Minigolf Federation has applied to arrange also 2013 WC Juniors and 2014 EC Oldtimers on the same courses.

The arranger has announced that they would not like to arrange a Nations Cup due to the likely low amount of players. Instead they would like to arrange a open international tournament.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1260 17 Dec 2011 10:28:57 +0200
Interview with Michael Smith (MS), Great Britain and Kent Minigolf Club

This interview was done the 13th of December 2011. Interviewer is Hans Bergström (HB).

HB: First of all congratulations to a splendid 2011 season and the UK nr 1 ranking position. Are you satisfied with your season?

MS: Thank you very much. I’m thrilled with my season. I won 10 titles in the UK, was 2nd in four other tournaments and finished as the top British player in the three WMF tournaments. The big target I set myself at the start of the year was to end the season as the British number 1 and I am really happy to have done it.

HB: What would you say was the season highlight this year?

MS: I was lucky enough to represent Great Britain three times this year which was a huge honour, but my personal highlight was being one quarter of the Kent Spitfires team which won the British Club Championship a few weeks ago.

Unlike many countries we only play in our club teams once a season. All the matches were played over just 12 holes which put a huge amount of pressure on every shot. To come through and win the tournament was a wonderful experience, particularly as we had a terrific final match against The Green, who played superbly and pushed us all the way. It was the best possible way to end the season for myself and the Kent Minigolf Club.

HB: Can you tell our readers little about yourself? Who is Michael Smith?

MS: I’m a freelance writer. I work on various non-fiction projects including occasional minigolf reports and I’m in the final stages of finishing a part fantasy, part coming-of-age novel. It is my ambition to be a published novelist.

I played my first minigolf tournament in January 2010 and was hooked on the sport from within the first 5 minutes of that event. I really enjoy minigolf and have been very lucky to make a lot of new friends. But I am unbelievably competitive when playing tournaments and set very high standards of myself. I get pretty mad when I don’t play as well as I think I should.

Away from work and minigolf, I relax by spending time with my partner, reading, and watching sport on television. I’m a lifelong Blackburn Rovers supporter for which I receive a huge amount of stick in the UK!

HB: Let’s go back to Stockholm in August. What were your personal and the UK team goals before the Championship?

MS: All seven of us had one simple target: we wanted to beat our previous best 8 round totals on the concrete and eternit courses. For four of us, that meant bettering our scores from the Nations Cup two months earlier. For the other three players, it meant bettering their scores from when they had represented Great Britain in 2005 and 2006. I’m pleased to say we all achieved that goal.

HB: You started off in style in Stockholm. You were actually leading the whole Championship after acing 7 of the 10 first lanes on concrete. After a slow finish you still made 27. Can you tell us about this round and the reactions afterwards?

MS: I have never felt more excited playing minigolf than this round. As I was the first player on the course for Great Britain, I had a lot of my team-mates supporting me and it was just an incredible feeling, especially when I scored 5 consecutive aces on lanes 2 through 6. It was very difficult to control the adrenaline and not get too excited.

Afterwards I was a tiny bit disappointed not to ace lane 18 but overall I was incredibly proud of my round. 27 was a new Great Britain record score on Beton which was a nice bonus and hopefully my round provided the rest of my team with some positive momentum as they embarked on their opening rounds.

HB: It seems like you were more comfortable on the concrete course where you had a sub-30 average than on the eternit. Is this correct?

MS: Yes that’s right. Personally I enjoy the challenge of concrete a lot more than eternit and that showed in my scores. It was a similar situation for the rest of the Great Britain team as the team found it easier to adapt to the concrete but struggled a little on the eternit course.

HB: So after your first two international appearances in the Nations Cup and World Championships what is your opinion about Minigolf on International level? Is it any fun?

MS: It is fun but extremely challenging at the same time. It is almost like playing a different sport from what we play in the UK. We have no concrete or eternit courses in Great Britain so when our players travel to events such as the Nations Cup and the World Championships, it is really difficult for us to adapt. But overall, it was a great experience, and minigolf is always fun, especially when there are lots of aces flying in.

HB: Now three months later which memories are the strongest from Stockholm?

MS: Three things in particular stand out. One is the sheer fear of stepping up to play the Jump with net lane on the eternit course.

The second was the phenomenal standard of play from the top Nations. It was a joy to watch the best players and nations in the world battling it out over the four days.

But the biggest memory from both tournaments in Sweden is how proud I am of my team-mates and coaches. Marc Chapman, Emily Gottfried, Richard Gottfried, Chris Harding, Marion Homer, Sean Homer, Tony Kelly, Scott Lancley, Ted McIver, Brad Shepherd, and coaches Björn Dinau and Eirik Seljelid were all heroes. Their fantastic attitude, skill, and the spirit in which they competed in made me proud to be British. It was an honour for me to play in the same team as them.

HB: Your came third only three strokes from the title behind two German players in the first ever WMF World Adventure Golf Masters. Can you tell us about that competition?

MS: Entry numbers to the competition were understandably a little low as it was the first staging of the event, but the competition was a big success and great fun to play in.

The German team that came over was very strong and they played some fantastic minigolf to deservedly win both the team and individual titles. A lot of the foreign players who traveled over really enjoyed playing an adventure style course and hopefully this event will become very popular over the coming years.

HB: This season also saw a first ever win by an UK player in the British Open (Marc Chapman). Here you were on second position only two strokes behind. Can you tell us about this competition and if you are satisfied with the results you achieved?

MS: I have mixed feelings on this tournament. On the one hand I am very proud of the way I played, particularly over the first 5 rounds which was as good as minigolf as I’ve ever played. And 2nd is a great result as there was about 20 very good players at the event.

But as I was level with Marc after 125 holes and then scored a 4 on the last hole, I was very disappointed to lose out in those circumstances. I wasn’t strong enough mentally to win and I felt that I had let myself down. However I was delighted for Marc because he is a great player who had not won as much as all his good play deserved in the year preceding the tournament. By scoring 33 aces over the seven rounds, I felt he had taken British Minigolf to a new level, and if I had to lose out in a tournament at least I lost to a player who played brilliantly and will undoubtedly hit the number 1 spot very soon. Only those players who played in the tournament can appreciate just how well he played to score 33 aces on that course.

HB: Very close to the titles in two of the biggest competitions in the UK this year. Is this a bitter thought looking back upon it now?

MS: No, not at all. I played really well at the World Adventure Golf Masters. I beat all the British players and some very good foreign players too. I’m very proud of my -42 total. It was a great learning curve playing all my rounds with Sebastian Kube and being in the final group on day 2 with Sebastian and Martin Stoeckle. Full credit to Martin for winning and Sebastian for finishing as runner-up, but I was extremely proud to claim the bronze medal.

The British Open was different. I was incredibly depressed in the two to three weeks following the tournament. I did feel a little bitter but I resolved to bounce back and finish the season on a high. I was able to win my next two tournaments, the Weymouth Open and the Planet Hastings Open, and then I won the World Crazy Golf Championship. Although that tournament is an event where all players play with just a standard course ball, for a lot of players it is the biggest tournament in the UK and it featured 18 of our 20 highest ranked players at the time. To come back and win such a big tournament, especially as I had to ace the last 2 holes to make it into a 3-way sudden-death play-off which I won with an ace at the 2nd hole, was very satisfying. Any regrets about the British Open disappeared with that victory.

HB: Can you comment on the development of the sport in UK?

MS: We have a major problem in the UK in that minigolf is not officially recognized a sport which means we receive no government funding. This makes it difficult to send teams to the big international tournaments and develop the sport and the British Minigolf Association as much as we’d like to. Until that situation changes or we receive some significant sponsorship, we are always going to be far behind the top minigolf nations.

But it’s not all bad news. Marc Chapman has taken over the Development role in the BMGA and I’m confident that with his passion for minigolf and his track record in fencing, good times are ahead of us. We’ve got some very good junior players coming through including a future British number 1 in Adam Kelly, which is great news for the future. A lot of people play minigolf in the UK for fun, the challenge is to encourage greater numbers to take up the sport competitively.

Sean and Marion Homer have played a huge role in the development of the British Minigolf Association. They are about to step down from their roles and on behalf of all minigolfers in the UK, I’d like to say a big thank you to them for all their hard work, dedication and success over the past few years.

HB: What are your season planning’s for 2012?

MS: It’s a little early to say right now. I’ll be playing a bit less minigolf than this year but look forward to playing on the BMGA tour in 2012 starting at the Star City Open in January.

HB: So what happens next in Minigolf for you?

MS: I’m enjoying a nice break from minigolf. Over the Christmas holidays, I’ll conduct a thorough analysis of all the tournaments I played in this year. I’ve had a great season in 2011 but I know I have a lot to improve on. My rivals will all get better and I face a big challenge to stay ahead of Marc Chapman, James Rutherford, Sean Homer, Adam Kelly, Andy Exall, and the rest of our top players next year. My target is to finish as the number 1 player at the end of 2012. It’s going to be incredibly difficult but I look forward to the challenge.

HB: If you could recruit any player in the world, as long as it’s not an Englishman, to play for your club Kent, who would you pick?

MS: I’m going to have to cheat on this question. Björn Dinau and Eirik Seljelid were the most fantastic coaches for the Great Britain team in Sweden this year and are two of the nicest guys you could ever wish to meet. It would not be fair to only pick one of them.

HB: Again a big congratulation to strong 2011 season and good luck in the future!

MS: Thank you. I wish everyone in the minigolf world a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. ]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1259 16 Dec 2011 07:45:51 +0200
After the 30 hours tournament earlier this fall the IHM was the second tournament in Kloten this winter. A lot of good players made it a high level tournament in almost all categories.

On Saturday four rounds were played and on Sunday first two rounds and then two rounds for the best 50 percent. In the ladies category all Swiss national team players participated in the tournament. Last year’s winner Reby Weber, European Champion 2010, played the same score than last year, but this time that was not enough. This since the stroke play world champion Stefanie Kern, playing first time in Kloten, beat her by 3 points. One and two point behind Reby Jacqueline Arlitt and Sonja Viatte got the third and fourth place.

In the men’s category there was the same winner as last year. The winner of lots of tournaments in Kloten, Vitus Spescha was beaten by the 2005 world champion Michel Rhyn. After six rounds Vitus had a comfortable lead of five points but in the last two rounds Michel played 49 and Vitus only 55. Also Gerhard Leitner on place three was a surprise after place 13 last year.

The junior’s winner of the last year and number three in 30 hours tournament Beat Wartenweiler was this year beaten by the German juniors champion Thomas Höfler. In a hard fight Thomas was leading by two before the last round and then both played 24 in the last round.

In the female juniors category the first three from the Swiss championship where beaten by two young German girls, who got second and fourth position in the girls category (younger than juniors) of the German Championship. Lena Hengstler won by one point, because in the last round she played 26 and Sarah Schumacher played a 37. Then there was a big gap of 15 points to Tamara Nydegger, who got the third place.

Heinz Fischer, runner up last year, got an easy victory by five points before Hans Stolt in the senior’s category. After a 23 in round six he had a comfortable lead and with two times 27 nobody else had a chance. In the female seniors, the European matchplay champion Heidi Stricker played a solid 27.0 tournament, but was beaten by Esther Wicky, who played a very good 25.6, only one point more than the winner of the men’s category.

]]> http://www.minigolfnews.com/index.php?id=1258 14 Dec 2011 13:35:56 +0200