The first German Hickory Championship was played Wednesday, August 5th 2009 on Bad Wildungen Golf Course in Central Germany. Golf was first played in Bad Wildungen in 1907 by British Spa Guests and today’s course is a 1930 MacKenzie-Hoffmann-Fahrenholz design. Charles MacKenzie was the brother of world famous golf architect Alister MacKenzie who designed courses such as Cypress Point, Augusta and Royal Melbourne.
Only original pre 1935-equipment was played and among the 35 competitors there were seven ladies. The event commenced on Tuesday with a golf clinic by Randy Jensen, eight times National Hickory Champion (U.S.), who after a brief introduction to the history and development of the golf ball and the golf club let us have some share of his wide knowledge on how to play golf with hickories. The clinic was then followed by practice round and informal dinner.
On Wednesday players from Australia, Czech Republic, France, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden and of course Germany enjoyed a day with plenty of sunshine and full catering by the Bad Wildungen Golf Club
C.N. Meister and German Hickory Champion 2009 Iain Forrester (photo: Frank Pont, NL)
After 18 holes the winning score in the men’s division was 73 shots (Par 70) by Iain Forrester, a Scottish professional, living in Belgium and teaching in the Netherlands. Perry Somers, an Australian professional based in Germany, became second with 77 strokes followed by Randy Jensen from Omaha, Nebraska with 78 strokes
Markus Kümmerle from the Lake Constanze region playing out of GC Schloss Langenstein was the leading Amateur player with 85 strokes, followed by local player Christoph Lohstätter (86) and Toni Kammerer (90) from Garmisch-Partenkirchen.
The German Ladies Hickory Championship 2009 was won by Britta Nord from Sweden with 88 strokes. Britta’s plays out of Bro-BålstaGK near Stockholm which is also home club of world famous professional player Annika Sorenstam.
David Houska from Prague and Irene Beleke from Hanover won the respective net price competition for the “Dr.-Jürgen-Kienle-Preis”.
All participants felt that the event was a full success and we are looking forward welcoming you and any other interested hickory players for the German Hickory Championship 2010.
C.N.Meister 10/08/2009
You'll also find more information about Hickory Golf on the Society of Hickory Golfers homepage: http://www.hickorygolfers.com/
Please also check the report about our championship on the largest Dutch Golf Web-site
Photo of C.Meister's golfbag, courtesy of Jiri Martinka, Praha
Photo courtesy of Jiri Martinka, Praha
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German Hickory Championship 2009 Bad Wildungen 
Photo of C.Meister's golfbag, courtesy of Jiri Martinka, Praha 
Photo courtesy of Jiri Martinka, Praha
