19 Sep 2011 at 07:35 | Published by: mindthegap | Views: 21609 | News search

The Cobigolf Champion Sebastian “Brezel” Heine from Wesel.  (Photo by Willi Hettrich 2011)

The German Cobigolf Championship took place in Hamm from the 11th to 13th of August. As the cobigolf system is a minor minigolf system in Germany I’d like to introduce it briefly. The system seems to be unknown in other countries than Germany, and even in Germany we have only very few clubs with Cobigolf home courses. So it’s a small community of minigolfers where everyone knows virtually everyone. Some players of other minigolf systems (for example of the clubs Bergisch Land and Wesel) regularly play Cobigolf tournaments as it is an interesting and challenging system enriching the minigolf sport.

There are two different kinds of cobigolf courses - the small ones similar to eternit courses and the big ones similar to concrete courses, but both with completely different obstacles than on other systems. The general difference to all other minigolf systems is the gate in front of each obstacle. You generally have to pass the gate before passing the obstacle. If you pass the gate but fail to pass the obstacle you have to continue your game from the secondary tee off behind the gate. This can make the game more difficult on some lanes but mostly the gates are wide enough that it’s no problem to pass them. On the other hand the gates reduce the number of possible options to play a lane as shots with the front border are very rare. The obstacles on big and small Cobigolf lanes are the same. The order is arbitrary like on eternit courses. On big Cobigolf lanes there are two gates in front of each obstacle, so there is an additional third tee off behind the second gate.To get an impression how Cobigolf lanes look like have a look on the photos:

» Photos big Cobigolf course Baltrum
» Photos big Cobigolf course Hamm
» Photos small Cobigolf course Essen-Vogelheim
» Photos small Cobigolf course Kellmünz (Bavaria)
» Photos small Cobigolf course Essen-Stoppenberg
» Photos small Cobigolf course Rauschenberg (near Marburg)

Some names of the lanes are very strange and partly special German terms not easy to translate. A good example is the lane called Mensch-Ärgere-Dich-nicht in German which I would translate to Man-don’t-be-annoyed. Further examples are:

Germanenpott - Teutons pot
Doppeldüse - Double jets
Hochkrone - High crown
Hochtunnel - High tunnel
Käfig - Cage
Hammerbahn - Hammer lane
Waschbecken - Wash basin
Hochpassage - High passage
Dreierablauf - Threefold drain
Treppe - Stairs
Doppelbalken - Double beams

Back to the competition. Hamm was a good host for the German Cobigolf Championship, tradionally arranging a good supporting programme with some events like game evenings and offering a very good catering. The Cobigolf course in Hamm is probably the most challenging and difficult one in Germany. With a course standard of 42, the highest of all German Cobigolf courses, scores below 36 are very good.

The first day of the tournament was very windy but dry. On the second day it was raining almost all day and only one out of the planned 3 rounds could be played. With an earlier start time the missing rounds were played on the 3rd day. So 7 rounds plus one final round for the best 3 of each category were played. The team competition was decided after 7 rounds.

Nicole Warnecke from Cuxhaven (an eternit club) won the womens category with an average of 38.7, 9 shots ahead of Melanie Willfroth. The fight for the 2nd place was exciting until the end as Melanie Willfroth and Stefanie Tomkowitz, both playing for the Cobigolf club on the North Sea Island Baltrum, were equal before the final round. With a 36 in the last round Melanie reached the 2nd place just one shot ahead of Stefanie.

The 2009 Cobigolf champion Sebastian ”Brezel” Heine from Wesel (a concrete club) won the title back in the men’s category with an average of 35.75, 5 shots ahead of Mathias Tomkowitz from Baltrum who came 2nd. Gerno Grapengeter from Bergisch Land (an eternit club) lost the fight for the 2nd place in the last round and ended up on the 3rd place only one shot behind Mathias.

The winner in the male kids category was Jeremy Reinhardt from Essen-Vogelheim followed by his club mate Samir Barke and Jan van Eickelen from Essen-Stoppenberg. The other youth categories had only one participant each, so Björn Wirtz from Essen-Stoppenberg is the junior man champion, Katrin Wilms from Hamm the junior woman champion and her club mate Jessica Südhoff the female kids champion. There was only one youth team from Hamm being the champion of course.

In the senior men’s category one of the favourites, Ralf Schmidt-Hess from Grötzingen, won with an average of 36.75, 2 shots ahead of Willi Hettrich from Castrop (an eternit club) followed by Heinz Feichtinger from Wesel. Willi Hettrich lost the victory in the final round after being 3 shots ahead before that round. Ralf Schmidt-Hess then played an incredible final round of 33 which was one of the best rounds played in the championship. Only three 32’s were played in the tournament showing how challenging, actually difficult, the course is.

The favourite Heike Spiekermann won her category, the senior women’s, with an average of 41.38, followed by Erika Wiesmiller from Krumbach and Helga Lohmann from Hamm.

Ingeborg Schmitz from Essen-Stoppenberg was the only one in the senior women’s category II finishing the tournament, so she was the winner.

The winner of the senior men’s category II was Fritz Voss from Hamm with an average of 40.75 followed by Wolfgang Schlenstedt from Grötzingen and Hans-Jürgen Walther from Essen-Stoppenberg.

The men’s team competition was again decided between the two non-Cobigolf clubs Bergisch Land and Wesel. This year Bergisch Land won in a convincing manner 49 shots ahead of Wesel. The team from Baltrum reached the 3rd place.

The best women’s team was that of Baltrum followed by Hamm and Essen-Vogelheim.

The first two senior teams, Bergisch Land and Grötzingen, were very close together after round 5, but Grötzingen won 9 shots in the 6th round, and Bergisch Land couldn’t catch up in the 7th round. So Grötzingen won 5 shots ahead of Bergisch Land. Hamm ended up on the 3rd place.

Links to results and reports, all in German language:

» full results
» full results youth
» introduction to the championship
» report 1st day
» report 2nd day
» report last day

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