12 Aug 2017 at 15:35 | Published by: PatPenguin | Views: 17598 | News search

German Male and Female Team Winners  (Photo by Deutscher Minigolfsport Verband )

Cheb, Czech Reublic - The European Senior Championships were held from August 2 -5, 2017 on the concrete and miniaturegolf courses in Cheb. In total, 129 players (92 male and 37 female) represented 14 different countries in the individual play. There were 13 full country teams in the male division and 9 teams in the female division that competed for the team title. Originally scheduled for 8 rounds, the team portion of the competition was cut to 6 rounds due to the high number of players and was played over the first two days. The final two days saw the remainder of the individual stroke play competition and the individual match play competition.

There were many similarities between this tournament and the youth tournament being held in Sweden. Rain also played a factor here as several of the rounds had to be interrupted because of weather. Also similar to the youth competition, the male and female team divisions saw one country sweep the gold medal position. Here it was the German teams who both took commanding wins.

In the male division the German team won by 27 strokes, averaging 24.8 for the 6 rounds. The Czech Republic team took second place by a small margin averaging 25.6 to the Austrians' 25.7 average. In the female division the German margin of victory was 16 shots as they averaged 26.0 for the 6 rounds. Again the second place competition was more close with the Swiss team averaging 26.9 over Sweden's 27.1.

The German domination carried over in the men's individual stroke-play competition as they swept the podium. Markus Janßen seized the top spot with a 236 over Roman Kobisch and Robert Kullick who both shot 240, and then took their positions after sudden-death playoffs. In taking first place, Markus showed great consistency, finishing with the best average on both the courses. In the female individual stroke-play competition the German's slipped a little with Ellen Galleinus securing the bronze with a 257. The top spot this time went to Katrin Nydegger of Switzerland after a great performance on concrete and shooting a 251 overall. Second place went to Eva Kadlecová of the Czech Republic with a 255

In match-play it was an all German final in both the male and female divisions and both divisions saw the third place stroke-play finalists take the gold in match-play. With a few close matches Robert Kullick worked his way through the male field and then put on a dominating performance in the last round, topping Dirk Otten. Pierre Köstinger of Switzerland took third place with a convincing win over Roland Klarenbeek of the Netherlands. In the female division Ellen Galleinus won a relatively close match over her countrywoman Alice Kobisch. Eva Reiländer of Austria took third place in a close match over Joy Wielink of the Netherlands.

The event is promoted by the European Minigolf Sport Federation (EMF) , which is the umbrella organization of 36 Minigolf sport associations Europe-wide. It is part of the World Minigolf Sport Federation.

The World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) is the umbrella organization of 63 Minigolf sports associations worldwide with Continental Associations in Africa, America, Asia, Europe and Oceania. Over 1,000 championships courses are approved for official competitions and over 1,500 international minigolf tournaments are held each year. Millions of players all around the world like to play minigolf as a private leisure activity and in public competitions.

SHARE Share Tweet