22 Oct 2007 at 22:54 | Published by: JJM | Views: 7801 | News search

Playing system makes a difference in international competitions: each country performs best on course types that are most common in the country.

Sweden plays awe-inspiring scores on felt courses, while Germany has been controlling beton competitions. On eternite the competition has been tight between several countries.

Eternite and Open System courses create very small score differences between players, while the greatest score differences are seen on felt courses. Quite good players may lose 10 points per round to the winner of a felt competition.

Below are listed the ten best countries on each playing system. The statistics are based on the results of men’s team competition in Canegrate 2007, Geldrop 2006, Bad Münder 2003 and Vaasa 2001.

Eternite (2006-07): 01.  21.54  SWE 02.  21.67  GER 03.  22.23  SUI 04.  22.46  AUT 05.  22.65  ITA 06.  23.17  CZE 07.  23.33  NED 08.  23.33  FIN 09.  23.88  BEL 10.  25.63  DEN

Beton (2006-07): 01.  27.63  GER 02.  28.02  SWE 03.  28.29  AUT 04.  28.40  ITA 05.  28.52  SUI 06.  29.19  NED 07.  30.73  FIN 08.  31.04  BEL 09.  31.29  CZE 10.  31.42  HUN

Felt (2001-03): 01.  29.25  SWE 02.  31.31  GER 03.  31.92  AUT 04.  33.03  SUI 05.  34.03  FIN 06.  34.53  CZE 07.  35.08  NED 08.  36.22  DEN 09.  37.61  BEL 10.  37.72  ITA

Open System (*): 01.  32.49  USA 02.  32.55  SWE 03.  32.88  GER 04.  33.14  AUT 05.  33.40  SUI 06.  33.95  NED 07.  34.05  FIN 08.  34.26  CZE 09.  34.32  ITA 10.  34.71  DEN

* The statistics for Open System are more fiction than fact, as these countries have never played against each other on Open System courses. United States was ranked on top position because of strong performances in US Masters and US Open competitions. The data of other countries is a scaled average of felt and beton scores. These statistics only include countries that had a full men’s team in the years covered by the statistics.

The secret superpower of minigolf: USA

In World Championships on eternite and beton, players of United States have been inside top 100 of men’s competition only once in history — in Studen 1997, when the competition had less than 100 players. Elmer Lawson reached 92th rank among the 96 competitors.

Americans have done a bit better on combination of felt and eternite: in Vaasa 2001 United States had 5 players inside top 100, Bobby Ward leading the crew with his 65th placing, the best rank of all time for an American player in World Championships.

However, don’t let these statistics mislead you to believe that Americans are easy to beat in minigolf. They are not, when the competition is played on Open System courses.

European players are in big trouble against Americans in yearly tournaments like US Open or US Masters. The only European players to ever win these competitions are Anders Olsson and Hans Olofsson of Sweden — both of them are medalists also in WMF major tournaments. The very best talents of European minigolf have a hard time when competing against top-class Americans on Open System courses.

Germany and Sweden are usually the two biggest favourites in competitions played on eternite, beton or felt. But on Open System courses there is a third superpower, quite unknown to many minigolf fans: United States.

These guys may not know much about special balls warmed in socks: they play with authentic golf balls only. Most of them use a steel putter without a rubber in the club-head. No chalked walls to play from — there’s just the man, the putter, and the ball rolling into the hole with perfect force, dead center.

» Daniel McCaslin, US Masters winner 2007, 2003 & 2001
» Rainey Statum, 2nd in US Masters 2007
» Jay Klapper, 3rd in US Masters and US Open 2007
» Greg Newport, US Open winner 2007

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