03 Oct 2015 at 19:01 | Published by: Hans | Views: 22881 | News search

The winning Uppsala and Mainz teams on the podium  (Photo by Lars Josefsson 2015)

Today the European Cup was decided on felt i Appelscha, the Netherlands. This is the same course where the EC was played in 2000 and also where the seniors played the European Championships in 2013. It is known to be a fairly easy course and the Swedish mens teams said upfront that you probably need to have sub 28 as team average to win.

Uppsala from Sweden was the reigning champions on the men’s side and Mainz was the reigning champions of the ladies side. Both teams were also favorites for this year.

In the ladies class it was quite early obvious that the German ladies from Mainz was not easily going to give away their gold. Already in the second round on Thursday they broke the world record for ladies 3-player club-team, with a 28-30-26 = 84 round. The old one, 86 strokes, was held by the Uppsala ladies from the indoor-arena Munktell in Sweden in 2007. And so the Mainz ladies continued. As only ladies team with only green and blue scores they were never close to not defending their title. In the end the win from Stefanie, Nicole, Alice and Anne was 35 strokes. Maybe most noteworthy is that the by far overall best lady player in the competition, Anne Bollrich, played substitute for Mainz all along the way. Anne, who played a 28,4 average, was actually 12 strokes better than the second best player, Stefanie Blendermann in the straight list.

The fight for silver was the thrill in the ladies competition. 3 teams were in second place during the competition but in the end the German ladies from Göttingen was the sharpest of these three. By winning the last round with 10 strokes over Austrian MGC ASKÖ Herzogenburg, they turned the bronze position to silver by a margin of five strokes. The Czech ladies from DGC Bystrice was for long also in the medal fight but in round 6 and 7 they made a bad 105 and 100 round and in the end the lost bronze position by five strokes. One more noteworthy achievement was made in the ladies class at the last round. Claudia Anderegg of Switzerland scored a 23, equalizing the one lap world record held by Sara Karlsson of Sweden.

Uppsala showed already in the first round that they would not give anything away. Lead by Carl-Johan Ryner, who played world class felt golf all three days, opening with a 22, Uppsala was all from start in the lead. The 22 by Ryner was an equaled world record over one lap of felt, and included actually a 3 on lane 15 (the lightning). But that was just the start for C-J and Uppsala. On all rounds except round five they broke the old world record for 6 player club team. In the end the lowest team round was made on Saturday (round 7), where the scored incredible 27-27-25-26-24-26 = 155. The six players from Uppsala were all in the top ten list individually.

In the end Uppsala won by 60 strokes which is the second biggest win of all times. Not really close to the 136 stokes margin of 2007 in Eskilstuna, but still a total crush. Uppsala now won for the sixth time in a row and has now won 8 of the last nine years. One might wonder who of Uppsala and Hardenberg that will be first winning their tenth title. Hardenberg is still in the lead with 9 titles but Uppsala is coming closer year by year.

Best of the all was the “King of Felt” Carl-Johan Ryner that played in a league of his own. His score of 22-28-24-25-24-27-26-24 = 200 gives an incredible average of 25,0. C-J also managed to break the world record for 5 (123) and 6 (150) rounds. If there was also a record for 7 and 8 rounds I guess they would also be C-Js now. On the 144 lanes played by C-J he aced 92, played twos on 48 and had to give in with three on 4 lanes. No doubt one of the best ever performances made on a felt course.

The team race for silver and bronze was for the most of the time quite clear. The second Swedish team of Skoghall was in the end too hard to beat for the German champions Hardenberg. Skoghall won over Hardenberg by 19 strokes for the silver position. The Germans where half way into the tournament seriously contested for the bronze by the Czech team of Olomouc, but the last 4 laps was Hardenberg the stronger of these two teams and could secure the bronze by a 24 stroke margin.

Five best ladies individually:

1. Anne Bollrich, MGC Mainz, 28,4
2. Stefanie Blendermann, MGC Mainz, 29,9
3. Alice Kobisch, MGC Mainz, 30,0
4. Claudia Anderegg, MC Burgdorf, 30,3
5. Natasja Klarenbeek, MGC Oirschot, 30,8

Five best men individually:

1. Carl-Johan Ryner, Uppsala BGK, 25,0
2. Filip Johansson, Skoghalls BGK, 26,5
3. Fredrik Persson, Uppsala BGK, 27,0
4. Filiph Svensson, Skoghalls BGK, 27,1
5. Andreas Cederholm, Uppsala BGK, 27,1

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