Sept. 30, 2017
Feldafing GC, Lake Starnberg
42 players from Austria, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, and the U.S. competed in the ninth edition of the German Hickory Championship which this year was played at historic Feldafing Golf Course on the shores of Lake Starnberg, some 30km south of Munich.
The Championship started on Friday with a four ball best ball net match play – Germany vs. Rest of the World. Unlike in previous years Germany was this time rather impolitely on the winning side as the result was 6:2 with two halved matches and only one match won by the “Ausländer” (=foreigners). The Austrian team of Andreas Karacsonyi and Dr. Stephan Juriga secured the only full point for the visiting team. Deal W. Hudson playing with the former Austrian, Polish and Czech hickory champion, Dalibor Prochazka, from Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad), halved their match playing long-time BGCS member and former English Hickory Champion Toni Kammerer who was paired with Alexander Huchel, a local single handicapper.
After the championship dinner on Friday evening we thoroughly enjoyed a presentation given by John Ott from the Netherlands introducing us to the future plans of the already existing Dutch Golf Museum in Blejenbeeck (Netherlands).
Following an inspiration by Dutch Golf Historian Robin Bargmann, the captain of the German Hickory Golf Society, Christoph Meister, donated early Dutch golf postcards on behalf of the Society to the Dutch Golf Museum. John Ott was happy to receive these historic cards , which feature images of now-defunct golf courses at Den Haag and Nordwijk next to the North Sea coast.
On Saturday the German Hickory Championship was played over 18 holes and a rather long course off the yellow tees at 5,700m for the gentlemen. Christian Althaus, a German golf architect and amateur golfer playing off a +0,7 Hcp, won the championship with 80 strokes, compared to the course’s historic hickory par of 78. He played a MacGregor Duralite set supplied by German golf professional Rolf Kinkel, and a driver supplied and renovated by former PGA professional and club maker Roger Morton of Shifnal, England.
There were five pros playing including Rolf Kinkel from Berlin who finished second in the championship with 81 strokes.
Angela Moser from Augsburg GC, a young German golf course architect, often working for Tom Doak, won the German Ladies Hickory Championship playing off a 7.5 Hcp with 92, and that while playing hickories for the first time ever. She played an original pre-1930 set of Maxwell irons and just one brassie. It will be interesting to see Angela compete in the future against Britta Nord, the five-time German Ladies Hickory Champion from Sweden, who unfortunately this time was unable to compete in our event.
We are currently in discussion with historic golf courses in the center of Germany and we are very much looking forward to next year’s event. Also for us it was a great experience and pleasure having two U.S. players, Rob Ahlschwede (a returning visitor to the German Hickory Championship) and Deal W. Hudson, with us and we sincerely hope it was the same pleasure for them.
Auf Wiedersehen!
Christoph Meister, Captain German Hickory Golf Society
Auf Wiedersehen!
Christoph Meister
Captain German Hickory Golf Society
All photos are courtesy of German Hickory Golf Society e.V.
The 2017 German Hickory Champion Christian Althaus is at center with host Christoph Meister on the left, and Olaf Dudzus, Hon. Sec. German Hickory Golf Society, on the right. And just to the far right is a face familiar to many in the U.S., Rob Ahlschwede of Olympia, Wash.
Deal Hudson, left, and Dalibor Prochazka at the 2017 German Hickory Championship.
Austrian player Dr. Gertraud Hofer.