18 May 2014 at 20:59 | Published by: Hans | Views: 15635 | News search

Oleg Klassen watching the ball go in the hole on lane 8  (Photo by Hans Bergström 2014)

Oleg Klassen from Germany won the individual title in the fourth WAGM, played in Gothenburg Sweden for the first time outside Hastings, UK.

The tournament was held in perfect and sunny conditions, 20 degrees and almost without any wind. 53 players from seven nations participated and overall it was high class on the participants.

In the youth competition there was a fight to the end between UK Adam Kelly and Sweden’s Marielle Svensson. In the end it was only one stroke in favor for Adam after a real thrilling ending where Adams ace on the difficult lane 17 was the winning shot.

In the senior ladies it was an equally close call where the Linda Lundberg won with one stroke over Annelie Larsson. In the senior men’s class it was a more convincing victory by Jens Bergström, who in the end won with 8 strokes ahead of Reine Niord.

In the men’s class we found 8 of the top ten in the straight list after 6 rounds, so this was by far the toughest class. But even so the winner in the end Oleg Klassen was pretty much in the lead all along the way. With only green rounds and one blue round he was in the lead for with 3-5 strokes most of the competition, but in the end it became a thrill after all. Filiph Svensson was only two behind before the last round and was only one behind after 15 lanes. But on lane 17 Filiph made his first shot a few centimeters too loose and came back to the almost impossible first bunker shot. After a shot back to tee he made his third shot to hard and ended up with a five. Oleg managed a two on lane 17 and could easily secure the win by 4 strokes.

The seventh round was the team’s final and it was Sweden one in the lead by 9 strokes in front of Germany. But you should never count the Germans out. And quite soon into the final round it was clear that they managed to come closer and closer and was making this an epic battle. And when Danny Hense playing against Filiph Svensson aced lane 17 and Filiph made his second 5 in a row on that lane it was actually the Germans in a three stroke lead. But Lars Brown aced the last two lanes and gained two against Gerrit Below and the anchorman Pierre Zetterlund aced lane 15 to make it all equal again.

So when the two anchormen’s Achim Braungart Zink of Germany and Pierre Zetterlund should start playing the so decisive lane 17 it was all equal. Achim aced and then Pierre could also manage his nerves and aced too. Achim made a two on the last lane and Pierre could win for Sweden by and ace, not an impossible task since he already had 4 out of six aces on this lane. But this time he didn’t ace and instead he got a long putt on this tough green to putt on. With a missed putt the victory was Germanys by one stroke.

The last team round of the Germans is actually quite impressive. Only two 3 on four men (both made by Gerrit Below) and 22 aces is really sharp on the course. The team record was lowered from 129 to 124.

In the individual super-final for the 18 best players Oleg Klassen had a comfortable lead and was never in much danger of losing it. Chasing the most was Filiph Svensson and Lars Brown, and actually Lars was closest after 14 lanes he was 3 behind Oleg. But a 3 on lane 17 made Oleg win by 5 strokes and also Filiph could come up equal to Lars. Fourth came Peter Eisenschmidt another 3 behind Lars and Filiph.

There were three blue rounds in the competition. Two 29s made by Oleg Klassen and Gerrit Below. But the new course record was set already ion the first round by Michael Smith of UK with an incredible 28. Michael tied fifth position overall with Jens Bergström and showed once again that he is the best player in the UK.

Competitions newcomers Spain and Kosovo contributed much enthusiasm but were forced to see themselves still a bit behind the leading nations. But still Spanish player Alvaro Rosillo and Santiago Paramo had 3 sub-40 rounds each and showed that they can become a nation to count on for the future.

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