The second German Hickory Championship was played on Saturday, August 7th 2010 at 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 permitted. The event commenced on Friday, August 6th 2010 with a hickory golf clinic by Iain Forrester, German Hickory Champion 2009, 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 a professional presentation match over three holes between Andrew Gauld (SCO), Davey van Mulken (NED), Iain Forrester (SCO) and Perry Somers (AUS). The Bad Wildungen GC had kindly sponsored this match with prize money. 

On Saturday, August 7th, 2009 players from Australia, England, the Netherlands, Scotland, Sweden and of course Germany enjoyed a day with plenty of sunshine and full catering at Bad Wildungen Golf Club

After 18 holes played on a sunny day the winning score in the men’s division was 74 shots (Par 70) by Perry Somers (AUS) He was followed by defending champion Iain Forrester with 78 strokes.

Boris Lietzow playing out of GC auf der Göhrde south-east of Hamburg was the leading Amateur in the clubhouse with 83 strokes, followed by Michael Edin from Sweden and Hans Lichtenberg from Krefeld, both with 84 strokes.

The German Ladies Hickory Championship 2010 was again won by Britta Nord from Sweden with 93 strokes. Britta’s plays out of Bro-Bålsta GK near Stockholm which is also home club of world famous professional player Annika Sorenstam.

Ralph Weyda from Aalen (near Stuttgart) and Ivonne van Mulken from the Netherlands  won the respective net price competition for the “Dr.-Jürgen-Kienle-Preis”.

You'll can find more information about Hickory Golf on the Society of Hickory Golfers homepage: http://www.hickorygolfers.com/

Photo of C.Meister's golfbag,   courtesy of    Jiri Martinka, Praha

Photo    courtesy of    Jiri Martinka, Praha

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