20 Dec 2011 at 19:54 | Published by: Hans | Views: 9151 | News search

BMGA News Report
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.

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