MSometimes success just comes as a surprise. Just like last Sunday, when Alexander Cejka, one of the well-known veterans of German golf, made a stir in the 50+ category and Sophia Popov also made a pleasant headline in women’s sports.
The 50-year-old Cejka won his second major title at his fifth tournament start on the PGA Tour Champions by winning the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship by four strokes. The 28-year-old Popov only lost to the American Ally Ewing in the final of the Bank of Hope Match Play on the LPGA Tour in the USA.
At the same time, Stephan Jäger (32), who started playing golf at GC München Eichenried, leads the ranking of the Korn Ferry Tour junior series in the USA, while the 23-year-old Matthias Schmid from Maxhütte qualified for the US Open for men a week ago .
So Germany’s golf scene is soaring? Has the “sleeping giant”, as the officials in the British golf institutions of the R&A and the European Tour Germany like to call, pulled itself up to pull golf out of its niche and present it to the general public as a successful model?
Increasing numbers
Much points to an upswing in this country: The number of golfers in Germany has risen again for a long time last year, especially among children and young people. In the professional sector, new names made headlines. With the Porsche European Open, which starts on Saturday at the Green Eagles Courses in Winsen an der Luhe near Hamburg, and the BMW International Open, which starts three weeks later in Munich, Germany is present on the European Tour with two events and is rising In addition, in September, he will again be on the secondary Challenge Tour with a tournament.
On the other hand, the event business is not easy in golf at the moment. There are plenty of stories to be told about this these days in the Porsche European Open organization team. Most recently, the classification of Great Britain by the federal government as a risk area – due to the Indian virus variant – caused a stir.
The consequence for the major golf event in the Hamburg area: The start date had to be postponed by two days in order to allow a large part of the field of participants and the staff of the European Tour to quarantine ten days before entering Germany. At the same time, the tournament was shortened from four match days to three in order to ensure that the professionals can continue their journey to the next events.
Lots of water, thick rough – the course in Winsen is one of the most difficult on the tour
Source: Getty Images / Christof Koepsel
The organization of a high-class field of participants has become a Vabanque game under pandemic conditions. In view of the difficult travel conditions, a large part of the European elite has withdrawn from the American PGA Tour over the past twelve months.
No matter if the world number three Jon Rahm from Spain or the other Europeans among the top 20 in the world, Rory McIlroy, Tyrrell Hatton, Victor Hovland and Matthew Fitzpatrick – none of them played a tournament in Europe this year.
The European Tour is the big loser of the Corona crisis, relegated to the second division behind the PGA Tour. In this respect, the participation of the Mexican Abraham Ancer (“the place is an absolute beast”), currently 17th in the world rankings, as well as that of the British Paul Casey, ranked 21st at the Porsche European Open, should be valued highly. Getting the top players on a transatlantic flight to Germany between the US PGA Championship in Kiawah Island and the US Open in California should not have been easy.
Martin Kaymer is at the start in Winsen an der Luhe
Source: AFP
All the better that 2000 spectators can watch the golf rounds on the Green Eagles course every day. The local authorities approved the Porsche European Open as a model project, which will give the players at least a touch of fanatic atmosphere.
The most interesting story from a German perspective is provided by unknown names such as Martin Kaymer or Max Kieffer. While Kaymer’s comeback to top golf last suffered another setback at the US PGA Championship with a failed cut, Kieffer from Düsseldorf is still far from a place in the top 100 in the world.
In any case, the view of Bavarian Matthias Schmid, reigning European amateur champion and currently the most promising player that Germany’s men’s golf has to offer, is exciting. The young man who played college golf for the Cardinals team at the University of Louisville is still an amateur, but he’ll be moving to professional this summer. Schmid recently passed the qualification for the 121st US Open, which takes place from June 17th to 20th in Torrey Pines, California, with flying colors at the Dallas Athletic Club. A total of over 9,000 golfers tried to qualify for one of the 156 starting places in the Major’s field.
Complete game required
The 7057 meter length of the Porsche North Course in Winsen is the least of the problem for Schmid. The 23-year-old is considered a long hitter, at least among amateurs. The game should make it much more difficult that one or more of the numerous water hazards of the course come into play on 17 lanes. Year after year, the course has been improved and the greens made more complicated since the Porsche European Open was held for the first time in 2017. Golf professionals can hardly be shocked with length alone these days.
In 2019, at the last edition of the tournament, Paul Casey won a player who does not stand for monster drives, but rather for an outstanding iron game. This also documents that in the end of this tournament week it will be about a game that is as complete as possible and the right strategy towards the green.
Like the German Martin Kaymer, Casey is a veteran when it comes to analyzing the places. The fact that, despite his 43 years of age, he persistently remains in the top 25 of the world rankings, he attributes to the constant search for possible optimizations: “There are always things that can be improved, especially in the golf swing,” he said in the run-up to the tournament knowledge. “It’s about the one percent here and there. Those are the important little snippets. We are all perfectionists in a sport that can never be perfectly mastered. But we try to perfect what we cannot perfect. “
Kaymer sounds similar in the run-up to the tournament. He always asked himself, “How many perfect strokes can I manage on the lap under stressful situations.” From Saturday onwards, he will be able to answer the question in Green Eagles.
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