Seniors European Championship in Künzell
20 Aug 2011 at 22:08 | Published by: mindthegap | Views: 12273 | News search
Winners of the Seniors European Championship. (Photo by DMV 2011)
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The Senior’s European Championship took place in Künzell near Fulda from the 10th to 13th of August. The competition was played on the eternit and concrete courses. The local club Putter Künzell was a perfect host, well known and liked in Germany. The courses are always in a very good condition and allow excellent scores, proven again during this tournament.
There were 8 rounds to play in the qualification. The best 9 women and 15 men (plus equals) qualified for further 2 final rounds. This all was strokeplay, and then the matchplay play-offs for the best 16 women and 32 men followed.
The senior women’s category was dominated by last year’s winner Gaby Rahmlow who was on the top after 10 rounds of strokeplay. With a total score of 232 (average of 23.2) she had the best score of all participants. Alice Kobisch followed 6 shots behind and came 2nd. Another 2 shots behind Sweden’s Linda Lundberg reached the 3rd place. As a sign of the German domination of the strokeplay part of the championship she was the only one of the winner trios in the men’s und womens category not coming from Germany. Ute Rothermel, last years silver medal winner after strokeplay, ended up on a 9th place. Last year’s bronze medal winner Dagmar Hirschmannova reached a 12th place.
The trio of leaders in the senior men’s category was very close together. Philip Busche was the winner after strokeplay, with a total score of 233 (average of 23.3), 2 shots ahead of Markus Janssen and Karl-Heinz Gerwert (as mentioned before: all from Germany) who came equal. Karl-Heinz Gerwert caught up to Markus in the last 3 rounds after he lost the victory with a 27 on eternit in the 6th round. So the 2nd place needed to be decided with a sudden-death play-off which Markus won. Last year’s leader Bernhard Kreutter from Germany reached a 13th place. Italys Francesco Leuci, who came 2nd last year, ended up on a 27th place. But Swedens Jan-Åke Persson again showed his skills and was on an excellent 6th place. Udo Rathje, the recently crowned new German seniors champion, couldnt continue his dominant game from Mainz but reached an excellent 7th place only 5 shots behind the leader.
The team competition was finished after 6 rounds. The German teams also made use of their home advantage. Germanys womens team won in a convincing manner, with a total of 431 (average of 23.9), 36 shots ahead of Sweden followed by Austria another 10 shots behind. But there was an exciting fight for the second place. After being 2 shots behind Austria before the last two rounds, with the best team round on eternit Sweden won phantastic 15 shots and put themselves on the second place. But the performance of Germanys mens team was even more remarkable. They won in an absolutely convincing manner, with a total of 860 (average of 23.9), leading from the beginning on, winning every single team round. At the end they were 23 shots ahead of Sweden followed by Switzerland another 15 shots behind.
The individual champions were crowned in final matchplay play-offs. As there were 7 men and 4 women from Germany in the finals almost everyone expected at least one German player on the top. But as like it needed to be proven again, matchplay play-offs have their own rules and are unpredictable. There was no German winner at the end. Most of the Germans were even thrown out in the first play-off. The womens category was won by Switzerlands Heidi Stricker, on the 7th place after strokeplay, who won her final against Gaby Rahmlow. Alice Kobisch lost her quarterfinal against last years matchplay winner Antonella Flamini from Italy who was then thrown out in the semi-final by the later winner Heidi Stricker.
The matchplay finals in the men’s category didnt work out for the Germans either. Only Udo Rathje and Dirk Czerwek survived the first play-off, but even they couldnt reach the final. Austria’s Reinhard Schuster could defend his title and won the final against Swedens Jan-Åke Persson.
All in all it was a championship with terrific results, dominant German teams, and excellent results of many players from different countries like Sweden, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the Czech Republic coming closer and closer to the Germans - and the experience that Germans are not born to play matchplay play-offs.
List of the winners on the photos (from left to right each):
Top left: Mens team (GER) (Top row: Coach, Markus Janssen, Dirk Czerwek, Coach, Bernhard Kreutter)
(Bottom row: Hans-Rolf Wageck, Karl-Heinz Gerwert, Philip Busche, Udo Rathje)
Top right: Womens team (GER) (Coach, Andrea Reinicke, Alice Kobisch, Ute Rothermel, Gaby Rahmlow)
Bottom left: Alice Kobisch (GER), Gaby Rahmlow (GER), Linda Lundberg (SWE)
Bottom right: Markus Janssen, Philip Busche, Karl-Heinz Gerwert (all GER)
Links to results, reports and photos, most in German language:
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full results strokeplay individuals and teams
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matchplay play-offs individuals
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report Philip Busche 1st day
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report Philip Busche 2nd day
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report Philip Busche finals and review
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photos of the winners (DMV website)
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photos Dormagen-Brechten club
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photos DMV facebook website
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