Pomp and ceremony highlight 2019 German Open Hickory Championship

Sept. 10, 2019

Christoph Meister reports:

Fifty-seven players from 10 nations accepted the invitation of the Fürstlicher Hickory Golf Club Reuss and the German Hickory Golf Society to take part in a special championship weekend at Gera Golf Club in Harth-Pöllnitz. The tournament was kicked off with the traditional fourball bestball match Germany vs. Rest of the world. The visitors had their revenge for last year’s defeat taking home a clear 6:3 victory over the German side. In the evening, the participants had the pleasure to follow the invitation of Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss at his hunting lodge, Waidmannsheil, near Saalburg where champagne and food was being served and we all had the opportunity to welcome old and new friends in a true 1920s style. 

On the next morning the official tournament was opened by his Highness Prince Heinrich XIII Reuss, honorary chairman of the Fürstlicher Hickory Golf Club Reuss, firing the cannon “Feodora.” The third Reuss Hickory Golf Open played on Saturday also counted as first round of the German Open Hickory Championship 2019.

The Silverspoon, a 19th century Longnose-Spoon, for the winner of the 3rd Reuss Hickory Golf Open was won by BGCS member Alexander Huchel from Munich, who played the relatively short (5,097 meters) but tricky course with 78 strokes using original hickory shafted clubs as replicas were not allowed. In the ladies net category the first prize went to Maria Vrijmood-de Vries from the Netherlands. Vitèzslav Hoffmann from Golf Club Ypsilon in the Czech Republic played the golf of his lifetime with only 60 net strokes – a score he will probably remember for a long time.

On day two, Sunday, the players, still inspired and impressed by the events of the days before, found very good playing conditions and the leaderboard immediately got in motion. At the end, Brian Gee, an English Golf professional based in the Netherlands, prevailed with 146 strokes (75, 71) against German professional Rolf Kinkel from Berlin, who was playing well on day two, adding a 73 to his 79 from the previous day. German-based British professional Glyn Morris defended his third place against the four-time German Hickory Champion and 2010 World Hickory Champion Perry Somers from Australia.

A curious and rare event even in hickory golf took place when Gustavo Barrios Rivas, a Mexican-born golf professional from Amsterdam finished his second round with only three intact clubs. Give these circumstances his 74 on Sunday and a total 5th place are most respectable. There was a total prize money of 5,000 euros for the professionals, gratefully received by them and surely a reminiscence to the prize money of 5,000 gold marks played out during the first German Open of 1911 at Baden-Baden.

At the same time, 32 men played out the German Open Hickory Amateur Champion title. Winner was Alexander Huchel with 161 strokes (78, 83) which got him the “Tanfani di Montalto Cup,” a rediscovered amateur cup played out during the 1912 German Open at Baden-Baden. In 1912 the Italian baron had given the trophy to a young British officer named Hugh Gardner Worgan Bradley as an honorary prize.

After 36 holes Huchel was eight strokes ahead of Libor Jirásek, our Czech hickory friend from Karlsbad, followed another five strokes behind by Markus Kümmerle, the two-time German Amateur Hickory Champion, from Schloss Langenstein near Lake Constance. Vitèzslav Hoffmann (Czech Republic) took home men’s net classification with a net result of 123 for 36 holes (60 and 63 strokes) though winning a 1931 German Open plate which will now reside for 12 months at Vita’s Czech Golf Museum in Liberec. At the same time Tatjana Thoss from Wiesbaden took home the ladies net title with 152 strokes. 

The 12th German Open Hickory Championship will be played from 14 to 16 August 2020 at Kallin golf course on the outskirts of Berlin. We will again hope to see many international guests.