The Students Matchplay Golf Tournament

Belfast made it through the Final - Congratulations

2011-06-26T10:15:00.000+02:00

Congratulations to our guests from the University of Belfast for winning the Students Matchplay cup 2011! More details concerning the tournament will follow shortly.

Chris for the Orga-Team

EDEKA Fanderl as our new sponsor

2011-06-23T10:37:00.002+02:00

We are proud to present the supermarket EDEKA Fanderl as our new sponsor for our 2011 tournament. EDEKA is number one provider in food-retail with EDEKA Fanderl as as member of EDEKA-group, providing 3 markets in Ingolstadt an Abensberg. Be sure to check the Website http://www.edeka-fanderl.de/ or get directly for your next shopping trip to one of their markets!

Wir freuen uns, EDEKA Fanderl als neuen Sponsor des diesjährigen Students Matchplay 2011 zu präsentieren. EDEKA ist der führende Lebensmitteleinzelhändler mit EDEKA Fanderl als Teil dieses Unternehmens. EDEKA Fanderl verfügt über drei Märkte in Ingolostadt und Abensberg. Ein Blick auf die Website http://www.edeka-fanderl.de/ lohnt sich ebenso wie eure nächste Einkaufstour zu einem der EDEKA Fanderl Märkte!

Still a few flights available for our tournament - Apply now!

2011-06-02T09:14:00.000+02:00

Roughly 3 weeks left until Students Matchplay 2011 tee-off, we offer the remaining flights in our tournament - so gather your friends and apply now! Extra-info for all students who wish to join our tournament, but who cannot find three other golf-buddies with a similiar hcp from their university: In some exceptions, we will also offer mixed "allstar-teams" for students from different universities. Ask us for more information on this issue!

Chris for the Orga-Team

Application process for Students Matchplay 2011 Tournament running now!

2011-04-18T10:26:00.001+02:00

Students Matchplay has started its application process for the 2011 tournament! For this year, we are again looking forward for applications from student-teams from all over the world.

Gather your buddies and apply for the tournament which will be hosted during June 23-26, 2011 close to Ingolstadt / Bavaria. Mixed teams (male / female as well as undergraduate / graduate / phd students) are allowed and appreciated. The only requirement is that you attend the same university and have a quite competitive handicap: The past tournaments had teams with average handicaps of +1.5 to -9, with an overall average handicap of -3. Teams consist of 4 players each.

In case you have any questions concerning the tournament or the application process, shoot us an E-Mail on info@students-matchplay.com

Early registration is strongly advised to avoid disappointment, so do not wait too long, gather your friends and apply now!

We are looking forward to welcoming you here in Ingolstadt / Bavaria. Are you ready to be the next team winning our tournament and holding the trophy in your hands?

Chris for the ORGA-Team

2011-04-18T10:07:00.000+02:00

Finding the correct tournament-date is a bit of a gamble. We - the organization-team - need to make all sorts of bookings and reservations as early as july of the previous year. Unfortunatelly the German Golfers Federation publishes their official tournament schedule not until december/january.

We had a look at their website and - luckily - only a few regional and national tournaments are scheduled on our Students Matchplay weekend. The following table gives you further information.

Country	Event	Date

Germany
Baden-Württemberg	Jugendländerpokal	23.6. – 25.6.
	Damen 1. Liga	24.6. – 26.6.
	Halbfinale VR-Talentiade	25.6.
Bavaria	BMW International Open	23.6. – 26.6.
	BGV Mannschafts-Pokal Damen 2011, Klasse 2	25.6. – 26.6.
Hamburg	Jugendländerpokal	23.6. – 26.6.
Hessen	Länderpokal Jugend	24.6. – 26.6.
NRW	Willy Schniewind Mannschaftspreis 1. Liga	24.6. – 26.6.
	EPD Tour	28.6. – 30.6.
Rheinland-Pfalz/ Saarland	Jugendländerpokal	23.6. – 26.6.
Sachsen/ Thüringen	Jugendländerpokal	23.6. – 25.6.
Mexico	Mexico Open	23.6. – 26.6.
Netherlands	Van Lanschot Senior Open	24.6. – 26.6.
Austria	Nationale Offene Staatsmeisterschaften	23.6. – 26.6.
	10. European Tourism Golf Challenge	25.6.
	Mercedes Trophy Einladungsturnier	25.6.
	Mercedes-Benz Wilson Kids Masters	26.6.
Portugal	LET – Ladies Open of Portugal	24.6. – 26.6.
Scotland	Scottish Hydro Challenge	23.6. – 26.6.
Thailand	Asian Tour: Queen’s Cup	23.6. – 26.6.
USA	Wegmans LPGA Championship	23.6. – 26.6.
	Travelers Championship	23.6. – 26.6.
	Dick’s Sporting Goods Open Champions Tour	24.6. – 26.6.

GOLF JOURNAL: New media partner for 2011

2011-02-17T17:54:00.001+01:00

For the 2011 Students Matchplay, we are proud to present the GOLF JOURNAL - Germany's leading press for Golf-sports - as our new media partner. An article covering our tournament will be published in 06/2011 volume (preliminary report) and in 08/2011 volume (covering the 2011 tournament). Meanwhile, check out the magazine's website with news on sports, travel, training and equipment.

Chris

Fantastic Filmquiz

2011-02-17T17:41:00.002+01:00

John Daly, Steve Essex, and Felix Naumann have one thing in common. They are crazy golf addicts. John has won two majors in the early and mid ninetees, Steve has lost twice in one day to Johannes during the SM06-finals, and Felix Naumann was a television journalist prior to entering university and is probably Europe's biggest talent in university golf marketing. His swing is said to have won most potential for improvement for many years, though...check his latest video.

Matt

Polish your golf-clubs and let's get ready for SM 2011!

2011-02-15T21:07:00.000+01:00

Some weeks ago, the Orga Team Ingolstadt hold its first official Kick-Off-Meeting for the 2011 Stundents Matchplay and we prepared ourselves for the new Tournament this summer. As there are only few months left, we will keep you up to date from now on with most recent news! Stay informed and check out this blog regularly within the next time: We will give you some information on the tournament, the application-process and also some new faces in our team. Get your clubs polished and prepare yourself for a news season of golf sports, exciting tournaments and fascinating entertainment!

Chris (Orga-Team)

SM-hibernation 2010

2010-07-19T20:14:00.000+02:00

...we are back sometime in winter! See you next saison!

Internationality Costs

2010-07-07T15:25:00.001+02:00

If Scottish golfers pay the tournament fee in cash but not in Euros, then Deutsche Bank charges us the equivalent of two nights in the hostel to transfer the Scottish bills into our bank account. Darn expensive!

Feedback from Aberdeen

2010-07-06T10:52:00.000+02:00

A team of four University of Aberdeen golfers travelled to Munich last week to face teams from South Africa, USA Australia and Europe for the 2010 World Students Matchplay [read on].

Welcome UMGC!

2010-07-06T10:00:00.000+02:00

By the way: The University of Manchester Golfers are currently looking into joining the Warwick/Ingolstadt(WFI)/Ingolstadt(FH)-Orgacrew (Woohoo!).

Dann eben mit Anwalt...

2010-07-06T09:47:00.000+02:00

Die Sache mit dem Spielerhotel in Ingolstadt-Lenting ist immer noch nicht geklärt. Auf unser letztes Schreiben, immerhin das vierte in 12 Monaten und neben einigen Anrufen unser "letztes Schrot", haben wir keine Antwort erhalten.

Wunschgemäß ~~eben auf die harte Tour~~ ~~wird's eben teurer~~ wird jetzt eben ein Anwalt übernehmen. Wir freuen uns, dass Uwe Vetter vom Lawblog sich der Sache annimmt.

Donaukurier: Der Cup geht nach Südafrika

2010-07-05T18:08:00.002+02:00

Bei der Fußball-WM im eigenen Land sind sie ausgeschieden, beim Golfen in Neuburg holten sie sich den Cup. Die Studenten aus Pretoria knöpften den Vorjahressiegern, den Mädchen aus Birmingham, bei den 5. Students Matchplay auf dem Wittelsbacher Golfplatz Rohrenfeld-Neuburg den Titel ab. Im Stechen und dank eines Stipendiums, das ihnen den Aufenthalt in Ingolstadt ermöglichte [weiter].

Congratulations, Sian James!

2010-07-05T17:51:00.000+02:00

Sian James, University of Birmingham student and two-time SM-golfer (2009-2010), won the English mid-amateur champioship last weekend [read on] .

Some more tournament statistics

2010-06-27T08:22:00.000+02:00

We have added the yougolf live-scoring tool to our homepage. This is how it looks. Not enough red and yellow, and far to much dark blue. The CSA of +3 wasnt added for no reason. The course was tough and it was raining cats and dogs! There is one minor bug though in the leaderboard. The individual positions are counted wrong.

And then we added the match play scores per hole to our result sheets. Looks neat, doens't it?

Congratulations Tuks Golfers!

2010-06-25T09:40:00.000+02:00

The University of Pretoria was crowned 2010 Students Match Play Champions in Ingolstadt, Germany on Saturday, 19 June 2010. [read on]

Tournament statistics

2010-06-24T18:36:00.000+02:00

I don't have the full statistics yet (average and mean per hole etc.). This is what I can tell you:

Eagles: None, Birdies: 29, and Pars: 375; leaves 784 holes with bogey and worse.

Most birdies played by Dan Bishop (4) and Stephanie Kirchmayr (3), most pars by Dan Farmer (12), Joshua Moses (12) and Sian James (12). Very balanced golf seen by Lauren Spray (9 bogeys, 9 pars). A total of 7 golfers played better than their handicap, 15 golfers played within their hcp-range (+2 strokes). At least after the CSA (competition stableford adjustment) of +3 was added. Never seen that before. As Steve mentioned the other day. A tournament full of firsts!

Donaukurier: Beide Hochschulen ziehen an einem Strang

2010-06-22T09:48:00.000+02:00

Mit zwei Premieren findet am Freitag der Abschlag zum 5. Students Matchplay auf dem Platz des Wittelsbacher Golfclubs Rohrenfeld-Neuburg statt. Bei der fünften Auflage des Hochschul-Golfturniers sind erstmals zwei Ingolstädter Mannschaften am Start. Und unter den 18 Studentenmannschaften aus neun Nationen bewerben sich diesmal erstmals auch australische Golfer, die schon am Dienstag in Ingolstadt eingetroffen sind, um den Cup. [mehr]

Wittelsbacher Finals 2010 - many first times

2010-06-20T17:31:00.001+02:00

It was a solid tournament with many "first times". For the first time we have a South African champion. For the first time there were Aussies from the Uni of Tasmania, which is at the most bottom-ish bottom part of Australia. There were no shuttle accidents, which is also a first time. Bournemouth, one of the strongest university golf teams in UK entered for the first time and James Pearson (Manchester) took over a couple of jobs during the weekend. Only Johannes "Mitch" Mitzscherlich (WFI-Ingolstadt) conflicts with the rule of the "first times". He played a marvelous 77, the second best stroke play score in the field. Since the inaugural tournament in 2006 Johannes has delivered top-5 stroke play results (78, 72, 76, 77) with one exception in 2008 (82). To compensate we've already planned a "first time" for the 2011 Wittelsbacher Finals. Team Manchester will work on the barbecue grills during the Welcome Dinner on the evening of the arrival day, should they qualify through the Arden Qualifier. For the exact same 45 minutes that it took us to cleanse their hostel room today and listen to the instructions of the warden afterwards.

Confidence

2010-06-15T22:49:00.000+02:00

Rain probability for Thursday: 97%. Will we order tents for the Welcome Dinner? No!

We are Pope! We are Lena! We are ...

2010-05-30T12:47:00.000+02:00

...probably going to win the Students Matchplay Tournament ourselves!! Germany is on a roll. Consequently Team Ingolstadt will win the SM for the second time following their glorious victory in 2006 over the Warwick boys, with Steve Essex losing twice on the same day!

To spin this thought further: English teams will not make it to the SM-finals. Why? That's why: Your Lena placed last yesterday, and you lose soccer world cup penalties regularly.

Etap Hotel hat kurze Beine!

2010-05-26T15:57:00.002+02:00

Wir haben mittlerweile eine Antwort auf unser Schreiben bekommen. Die erneute Erwiderung hat wieder kostbare Zeit verschwendet. Hier der gekürzte Text, aus dem hervorgeht, wie albern die Einwürfe des Hotels sind. Wird langsam echt mal Zeit, dass wir uns juristisch verstärken...

Sehr verehrte Frau X,

vielen Dank für Ihr Schreiben, zu dessen Bearbeitung ich erst heute komme. Ich möchte mich kurz fassen und nehme zu Ihrem Schreiben wie folgt Stellung:

1) [...] bestreitet, umgehend von Ihrem Geschäftsführer am 01.06.2009 oder an einem anderen Tag telefonisch über den Angebotsirrtum informiert worden zu sein. Er hat auch zu keinem Zeitpunkt ein neues, korrigiertes Angebot von Ihnen erhalten. Daher konnte er auch kein neues Angebot annehmen. Ich halte diese Aussage Ihres Geschäftsführers für eine Schutzbehauptung. Anders kann ich mir auch nicht erklären, warum [...]

2). Ich habe auch keine Ahnung, was Sie mit dem „ursprünglichen Angebot“ meinen. Entscheidend für uns ist der Vertragsabschluss, der mit der Reservierungsbestätigung vom 01.06.2009 zustande gekommen ist. [...]

3) Sie machen einen „offenen Kalkulationsirrtum“ in Ihrem Angebot vom 01.06.2009 geltend. Bitte weisen Sie Ihre Rechtsabteilung an zu prüfen, inwieweit eine Vertragsanfechtung bei Kalkulationsirrtum möglich ist, ob und wie diese erfolgt ist, und inwieweit die Vertragspartei verpflichtet ist, einen Kalkulationsirrtum zu bemerken (BGH Aktenzeichen X ZR 17/97 aus dem Juli 1998). Bitte berücksichtigen Sie auch, dass [...]

Ich fordere Sie hiermit auf, [...] einschließlich Zinsen [...] in Höhe von 5% über dem Basiszinssatz auf [...] zu überweisen. Als Frist für den Geldeingang habe ich mir Donnerstag, den 17. Juni 2010 vorgemerkt. Sofern Sie die Frist verstreichen lassen, werde ich umgehend und ohne weitere Ankündigung den Prozessweg einschlagen.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen

Warwick's birdie vs. Manchester's albatross

2010-05-14T17:19:00.005+02:00

The newly released rules & regulations obviously need some clarification. The play-off rule for the two finalists were throwing couple of golfers. Let us give you an explanation of what we mean:

Instead of a British Open style strokeplay play-off ours is a matchplay play-off. So basically it is a three hole match, hence the 'best two of three' holes.

So as a worked example, its Warwick vs. Manchester, it's Steve Essex vs. James Pearson:
Hole 10, JP makes 6, Essex a 4
Hole 11, JP makes 3, Essex a 2
Hole 18, JP makes a miraculous albatross 2, Essex a 5.

Using the Open play-off, we'd then go to sudden death. Unfortunately, our play-off, the play-off would have ended at hole 11, and nobody would have been able to see that miraculous albatross of James'. And Steve would love that.

Important updates: Rules & Regulations and Course Overview

2010-05-13T21:24:00.004+02:00

Folks,

please make sure to read through our new 2010 rules an regulations. The main changes involve the group draw during the welcome dinner. Only the winner of the groups get to go into the semi-finals. Then we made minor changes to the play-off rules.

We added the distances of the sprinklers to the Wittelsbacher Course Overview to give you all relevant data for your tournament record breaking round in the 60s.

See you in a bit,
Matt

Jägermeister Hausbesuch

2010-05-07T20:21:00.001+02:00

Mal kurz angefragt, ob die Jungs Schiss haben, mit uns zu feiern. Jägermeister hat ja nun bei uns schon einige Tradition. Bin gespannt. Von der Social Media-Reichweite ist unser Turnier ja nicht sooo uninteressant.

Wie man von Golfbags über die Deutsche Meisterschaft einen Bogen hinzu Jägermeister spannt, seht Ihr hier.

ドイツの大学ゴルフ

2010-05-06T16:13:00.001+02:00

[Find the English translation here. And while we're at it, the Arabic here. Matt]

はじめまして、ドイツのミュンスター大学のヤナ・バウマンです。もう１０年以上ゴルフをやっています。

Valentinに何か部活の話やStudents Matchplayについて書いてとお願いされて、これを書いています。ドイツは、高校や大学に部活システムがないので、ミュンスター大学にはゴルフ部もなく、部活の話をよくできません。ですが、ゴルフをやってる学生とStudents Matchplayに参加しようと決意して、ミュンスター大学のチームを作りました。それで2008年のStudents Matchplayに参加して、その4日間で、短かったけど、いい思い出を沢山作りました。メチャ楽しかったですよ。2009年、新潟大学に留学をしていてStudents Matchplayに参加できませんでしたが、今年はまた参加しますよ。

Students Matchplayというのはどんな感じかと聞く方がいるかもしれないから、ちょっと日本語で説明してみますね。このゴルフ大会は学生のために学生によって2006年に作られたものです。世界のどこの大学も参加できるから、国際大学生ゴルフ大会ですね　（今までの参加者の出身は例えば、イギリス、フィンランド、南アフリカ、アメリカ、ドイツ．．．）。

それで、ゴルフは一番大事ですが、国際交流も大事ですよ。一緒にゴルフをやったり、一緒に食べたり、飲んだり、ゴルフの話や母国の話をしたり、楽しい４日間を過ごして、いい経験や友達がたくさん作れる機会です。ゴルフのレベルが高いと思ってプラスハンデを持ってる選手が多い．．．一流のゴルフ大会ですね。

上手なゴルフ選手が沢山いるし、Wittelsbacherゴルフコースが難しくて、きれいだし、国際交流ができるし、ドイツのビールが美味いし、ゴルフが大好きな人と出会えるし、参加してみませんか？

You know what's John doing (6): Johannes Mitzscherlich

2010-05-02T17:32:00.001+02:00

Whenever we get the chance we ask tournament alums three simple questions. Here are Johannes' answers:

1) Ich heiße Johannes Mitzscherlich, bin ehemaliger Student der KUE - WFI (Jahrgang 2009), alleiniger Rekordteilnehmer beim Students Matchplay mit Teilnahmen in 2006, 2007, 2008 und 2009. Die zwei Urlaubssemester waren gut angelegt!

2) Meine schönen Momente im Hochschulgolf: 2006 Gewinner des Students Matchplay gegen die Uni Warwick gleich im ersten Jahr. Ich habe Steve Essex damals innerhalb von 5 Stunden gleich zweimal im Matchplay eine ordentliche Packung gegeben (Edit: vom der er sich noch immer nicht erholt hat und die unvergessen ist, siehe unten. Matt) ;-) legendary!!!! Selten so aufrichtige und vorbildliche Sportler getroffen! Mittlerweile bin ich mit einigen gut befreundet!

Students Matchplay 2007... nach der Quali waren wir nur Dritter, um einen Schlag am Finale vorbei, was wäre das für ein Erfolg bei dem Teilnehmerfeld gewesen. Geschenkt, also Lochwettspiel gegen Pretoria um Platz 3, die waren immerhin damals Südafrikanischer Unigolfmeister und bescherten mir meine bisher höchste Matchplay-Pleite... 8 auf 7 verloren. Demütigung pur... mein Caddy schmiss mir das Bag vor die Füße... ich durfte es alleine ins Clubhaus tragen, gefühlte 5396 Meter... wäre das nicht schon genug gewesen, gab es vom sonst so lieben Valentin eine vorzüglich Einlauf!!! Er wollte nicht einsehen, dass ich als Vertreter der gastgebenden Universität lange mit unseren internationalen Gästen feiern musste. Dass ich direkt von der Disko auf den Platz gefahren wurde, weiß er heute noch nicht. Also Pst! 2009 war ich schließlich Captain unseres WFI-Teams.

3) Mein schönster Schlag: Der Schlag aus 100 Meter durch die Baumkrone am zweiten Extraloch im sudden death gegen Steve Essex --> Metale Zerstörung des Gegner --> SM Gewinner 2006... yeahhhhh

[I included the Facebook chat as reference. Matt]

How ingolstadtize the tournament

2010-04-30T14:22:00.000+02:00

It's simple: Get the best car manufacturer in town (and also in the world) and the best beer company in town (most likely also in the world) to sponsor your tournament. And then walk over to the other Ingolstadtian university (the second best in town and in the world ;-) ) and ask their golfers to help organize the Students Matchplay.

Beer and Golf in Australia

2010-04-13T09:37:00.000+02:00

Remember that we were contacted by golfers from far, far away? Well, they guys have booked their flights and seem to fit in well:

yeh, "stubby" is for a bottle of beer, then you have a "tinny" for a can of beer. Don't worry, we will show those english boys a bit of aussie attitude.

Top-Scorers at the Arden Qualifier 2010

2010-04-01T17:21:00.002+02:00

After Emma's report let's turn the attention to our top scorers, shall we? Guys, what happened on the back nine? Click to enlarge.

Report: The Arden Qualifier 2010

2010-03-30T23:12:00.005+02:00

Monday 29th March: It all begins!

It’s been a whirlwind of emails (mostly from Dr. Steve Essex) & a few flights here and there from Germany for Val to join (with the Jägermeister in tow) yet on this Monday morning, Students Matchplay UK qualifiers have descended upon the Forest of Arden Golf Club. Set in the ten thousand acre Packington Estate, this sophisticated championship course, having hosted British Masters and The English Open, with a par of 72 and a length of 7,213 yards (to be exact!) will offer the SMUK players a true challenge.

09:00 Welcome to Students Matchplay Arden Qualifier!

Steve & Val arrived in true style, with all the Student Matchplay banners and snazzy e-cards printed as they busied themselves by taking over the golfing lounge at the Forest of Arden Golf Course - Students Matchplay 2010 had most definitely kicked off.

The students started to arrive, dressed from head to toe in their wet weather gear, ready to face the good old British weather: we’re playing off white tees & placing everywhere to compensate.

It seemed that although Val was already in good sprits, it was time to make sure the rest of the players were too – queue an inaugural round of shots of Jägermeister. If you have to do things, make sure they’re done in true German style.

Steve welcomed the groups whilst Lucy & Lauren the “glamorous assistants” from Birmingham Girls (overall winners of Students Matchplay 2009) came along to help draw the groups with Newport being the first drawn. The mood was quite tense and playful as the universities were allocated their slots, who would be drawn against who?

After the groups had been announced those first off the tee braved the forces to practice putting and the ducks seemed to join in, probably being the only ones that were enjoying the weather. There was a slight concern that the course might be closed so I guess we’ll see how it all works out.

By 10:50am it’s time for the first tee off and things in the golfing lounge seemed to have calmed down. It was Warwick John McNally’s who took the first shot of the day – striking it straight down the middle of the first tee. Students Matchplay was in full swing & the weather seems to have petered down to just a dull drizzle – classic English weather.

Lunch / Jägermeister break!

As the weather eased off we thought we’d try out some of the other things on offer – notably the food & the driving range. After an impromptu trip to pick up more Jägermeister supplies (it is at this point that I’m thinking we should get them to sponsor) it was of to The John Ray Golf Centre for a bite to eat. Hidden in Sandpits Lane near Coventry, the centre offers a 30 bay driving range and it’s very own pro in the form of happy-chappy Rob and should you fancy some hearty British food then go on Mondays when they offer a 25% discount. (Thanks Dr Essex for the insider knowledge there!) The drive from the Forest of Arden took us away from the trees and neatly manicured greens & fairways, sending us down the motorway then back into the country side giving us the best of both on this hazy Monday afternoon – please though do not take my driver whom seemed to like throwing his car into all the available pot holes!

On to the Food - surely the most important part of the day after the golfing? In Hogan’s Bar & Bistro, my fellow Northern friend tried out the Yorkshire Puddings & Sausage and followed this generous meal by burning off the calories in the driving range. Our lunch conversation was appropriately centred on golf, and being a beginner myself it was interesting to debate the merits of turning pro – which by the looks of it many of the SM players could!

We’ll all be back here tonight for the announcement of the results and am rather intrigued about who will be up there in the top players. Some of the universities have travelled quite a way to join us in the heart of the midlands, notably Leeds and Durham so Students Matchplay is truly turning into something worthy of the miles (note: must find a way to carbon offset all this travelling...)

Back to the forest: time for the first players to come in & to count up the scores.

We return back to be greeted with a round of Jägermeister before the organisers headed out to take some photos! All seemed to be going well around the course with the participants playing extremely well with some even scoring 4 under par.

Things became rather quiet in the golfing lounge so we thought we’d whack on some tunes – from cheese to classical, nothing is banned here! Party whilst we wait for the scorecards? I think so!

As we turned to predictions (top secret I’m afraid), Val decided to serenade Steve with his version of “A Yellow Submarine” – its all good here ‘cept where have all the golfers gone?

I thought I’d take a wonder around this stunning golf course and I find a few teams on the tenth tee. Thanks to RedBull the teams can re-find their energy at the halfway house & continue on for the final eight holes.

15:30 - The first score cards come in!

Warwick’s John McNally was the first to arrive, his trademark smile indicating that it must have been a good round (in fact I think the dance on the green on the 18th hole indicated that it must have been a damn good round!) and things start to quickly busy themselves in the golfing lounge as Steve & Val want to know the results. Apparently this years scores of 1 under par (71) are already better than last year. “Its not as windy” is the explanation I’m given.

We continue to collate the scores as the leaders change several times and the groups are going to be close to call. Things in the golfing lounge turn from (yet more) shots of Jägermeister to a round of Mini Cheddars and with Busted blasting out, anything goes!

17:00 Calm after the storm

Everyone’s in and they are all relaxing in front of the TV watching Jeremy Kyle Chat Show (now you know their secret) through to the PGA Tour. Golfers watching golf? Who would have thought such a thing?!

Glancing outside the window, I’m happy to be sat inside tweeting away. Follow us: SM_Golf. Go on, you know you want to!

18:45 - Final score cards are in!

Newport is leading the way with their final group result two under par – a very good game from the four. The Students Matchplayers to tee off last were slightly battered by the weather as it closed in for the final few holes. Weary but undefeated, all the groups make it round in good time and after a few relaxing and well deserved drinks in the club house its off to John Reays for dinner where SM took over the restaurant! As the groups for tomorrow were announced talk turned to the evening plans, some were sensible and stayed in – others saw dawn in! Tomorrow will be an interesting one!

Day 2: Good morning golfers!

It’s a not-so-sunny Tuesday morning and all the golfers have made it in one-way or another (some slightly worse for wear) to play the second round of golf – at least the course has stayed open. There is definite talk of the “SM sprit” (or still on high sprits from last night, read as you wish!) and there will be tight results from a few groups.

The golfing lounge is rather quiet after yesterday’s playful atmosphere (must have something to do with the fact that Val is back in Germany and James is without Jägermeister) but I’m sure later when we start handing out the trophies things will liven up. For now, the organisers are taking a stroll round the golf course, taking some photos and enjoying the relaxing side of a golfer’s life.

15:00 - Playoff!

As the teams trickled through after a day of Matchplay, it was down to the 18th tee for a playoff between Loughborough and Central Lancashire. In good old British style, the heavens opened and it started to pour, though sprits were not dampened and as the geese watched on, the adjudicators (our very own Steve Essex & James Pearson) stood with their umbrellas ready to see what the shots would bring. In the end it was won by Central Lancashire after 4 playoffs! Nicely done guys.

17:00 – It all came down to the last putt.

It was freezing outside. It’s the 18th Hole. It’s Newport vs. Birmingham. We stood... We watched.... We waited... It all came down to the last putt for Newport to win 2.5 vs. Birmingham 1.5!

Talk about leaving it until the last minute! This year has seen some amazing golfing, with a mention to Bournemouth who placed 3rd and will be heading to Germany in June.

Goodbye Students Matchplay 2010

As the fabulous golfing prizes and trophies were handed out with help from Warwick Sport’s Director Terry Monnington, it’s hard to believe that the Students Matchplay UK Qualifiers 2010 are all over. After two days of solid golfing from all sides, its time to head off, take the posters down and walk away with the memories from the last two days that have offered the chance for students from many different universities across England to come together and play at The Forest of Arden Golf Course. And that’s what Students Matchplay Sprit is all about: a damn good golfing time! Until next year!

About the author: Emma from Warwick university was a helper for the two days and she caught all the action in black & white from behind the scenes in the Golfing lounge, whilst tweeting her way through the two-day event.

Etap Hotel - nie wieder!

2010-03-30T16:37:00.027+02:00

Im letzten Jahr haben wir einige unserer Gäste im Etap Hotel Lenting untergebracht. Vereinbarungsgemäß hatten wir eine Tranche der Gesamtübernachtungskosten etwa 14 Tage vorher überwiesen, die zweite Tranche wenige Tage vor dem Turnier.

Am Turnierabend rief uns die Hotelleitung an. Wir mögen bitte 400+ € nachzahlen. Die wären noch offen. Aus der Reservierungsbestätigung ging das aber nicht hervor. Hiernach hatten wir den gesamten Rechnungsbetrag gezahlt. Nun, man würde unseren Gästen sonst keine Zimmer geben, wurde uns mitgeteilt. Uns blieb also nichts anderes übrig, als die 400+€ zu zahlen. "Unter Vorbehalt", wie wir in die Betreffzeile der Überweisung und in ein begleitendes Fax schrieben.

Nun, knapp 6 Monate später und zahlreiche Briefe und Bitten um Rückruf später hat Val dem Deutschland-Geschäftsführer einen Brief geschrieben. Und siehe da: Innerhalb von drei Tagen schreibt die Regionaldirektorin für den süddeutschen Raum zurück. Es täte ihnen leid, man habe sich da wohl verrechnet, das könne ja nun passieren, wir sollten dem Unternehmen bitte gewogen bleiben, viele Grüße.

Das heisst: Vertragsangebote von Etap sind unverbindlich. Das deutsche Gesetz dürfte das anders sehen... und genau das haben wir zurückgeschrieben.

Brief update (3)

2010-03-28T09:23:00.001+02:00

- the weather during the Arden Qualifier will be, uhm, British at best, for info click on the weather icon on the right
- the fundraiser posters have arrived in Birmingham. They look awesome and will cost around 2 GPD a piece. Come on guys, it's for a good cause. It helps us pay the SM-bills.
- best stroke play score at the 2009 Arden Qualifier was a 76, shot by Alistair Robinson, University of Warwick Golf Club. Let's break the record!
- We have a call with the president of the American College Golf Coach Association next Wednesday. Gregg has been extremly friendly so far. Will be interesting to get to know his ideas wrt university golf in general and the SM in particular.
- and we had a meet with the "addition to the SM-family" last week. Discussed a qualifier for western German universities on the most elite golf club in Cologne. Whereas the Wittelsbacher has the King and the Forest has the deer, the Cologne course would have the Koelsch.

If you mix "beer", "golf" and "facebook"...

2010-03-26T20:01:00.000+01:00

... this is what you get! Since there are no restrictions, feel free to join! Poor Ali ;-)

The Arden Qualifier 2010: Tee Times

2010-03-26T12:34:00.000+01:00

Here they are. Five Changes this morning alone. Hopefully no more until monday morning. See you all at the Forest of Arden!

Cheers
Warwick / Ingolstadt University Golfers

Group

University

Name

Hcp

10.50	Warwick	John McNally	0.0
	Birmingham	Nick Ansell	0.0
	Loughborough	Jack Hemsley	1.0
	Oxford	Will McPhail	4.6

11.00	Loughborough	Jon Fox	2.0
	Birmingham	Anthony Nash	0.0
	Central Lancs	Stuart Barber	4.0
	Bucks New	Adam Morris	+1.0

11.10	Warwick	James Cooke	0.0
	Bucks New	Raj Patel	4.0
	Newport (WAL)	Daniel Farmer	0.7
	Liverpool	J. Clements	0.7

11.20	Bournemouth	Kevin Garwood	+2.0
	Birmingham	Dan Beattie	+1.0
	Brunel	Andrew Rideout	+1.3
	Central Lancs	Andrew Palmer	+1.0

11.30	Leeds Met	Stuart Harrison	3.1
	Loughborough	Gary Anderson	1.0
	Liverpool	Craig Oliver	1.4
	Central Lancs	Kyle Hughes	2.0

11.40	Loughborough	Dan Kneafsey	0.0
	Birmingham	David Wilson	0.0
	Central Lancs	Ashley Collyer	0.0
	Newport (WAL)	Vince Thorne	+1.0

11.50	Bournemouth	A. Shakespear	+2.0
	Leeds	M. Farrimond	3.4
	Bucks New	Nico Inglis	2.3
	Leeds Met	Tom Lenton	3.0

12.00	Oxford	Ben Twiney	5.3
	Cambridge	Harvey Bradley	8.0
	Hull	Nick Whiting	4.0
	Leeds	R. Stevenson	4.0

12.10	Oxford	Calum Slowther	2.2
	Bucks New	J. McGilvray	3.4
	Essex	Sam Thompson	6.0
	Brunel	Oliver Kent	4.5

12.20	Bournemouth	Daniel Bishop	+2.0
	Warwick	Ali Robinson	2.0
	Newport (WAL)	Chris O’Neill	+0.1
	Liverpool	Alex Cousins	2.4

12.30	Oxford	Alex Gems	2.3
	Cambridge	Nick Patrick	9.0
	Liverpool	Thomas Garner	9.0
	Leeds	Andrew Heesom	1.0

12.40	Brunel	Kieron Insole	4.5
	Essex	Emily Irons	5.9
	Kingston Surrey	Jamie Savory	4.2
	Hull	Anthony Brown	9.0

12.50	Cambridge	Matt Bennison	10
	Leeds Met	Josh Newell	4.0
	Hull	Tom Griffiths	11.0
	Durham	Jack Lewis	5.2

13.00	Brunel	Tom Acres	4.5
	Durham	J Rowland-Clark	5.5
	Newport (WAL)	Kate Whitmore	0.0
	Bournemouth	James Whyte	0.0

13.10	Cardiff (WAL)	Oliver Stevens	3.0
	Warwick	Tim Reynolds	3.6
	Leeds Met	Chris Benton	2.5
	Kingston Surrey	Nathan Dillon	5.2

13.20	Cardiff (WAL)	Chris Orr	2.2
	Cambridge	John Gregson	5.0
	Kingston Surrey	Nick Devine	5.0
	Essex	James Duval	10.0

13.30	Cardiff (WAL)	Gareth Rees	2.3
	Durham	R. Osterdahl	5.0
	Essex	Olivier van Nes	4.5
	Kingston Surrey	Ben Swain	3.7

13.40	Cardiff (WAL)	Robin Hughes	2.3
	Durham	James Coe	5.2
	Hull	Martin Anderson	2.2
	Leeds	Niall Mannion	1.0

Rules: Mid-tournament substitution

2010-03-26T11:11:00.001+01:00

Some of you may remember the irritation/confusion in the Manchester/ENG vs. Erlangen-Nuremberg/GER semi-finals 2009. We have asked James Pearson, the Manchester team captain in 2009, to provide us a rule for our tournament booklet. He suggests:

The team which wishes to make a 'mid-tournament' substitution must consult with both the opposition and the tournament committee. The decision to allow a replacement is entirely at the committee's discretion and subject to approval from the oposing team captain.

No objections, neither from England, nor Austria and Germany. So it's an official rule as of now.

Ph.D. Acknowlegements of an University Golfer

2010-03-26T08:06:00.000+01:00

Acknowledgements are the only few pages in your Ph.D.-masterpiece, where you can bring your personality to play. Of course there are certain restrictions, e.g. you have to name your sponsors, supervisors (in Germany we call them "Doctor father", neat huh?) and of course the enormous intellectual burden of your Ph.D.-project.

Once that's done, the stage is all your's.

By far the best intro of all 100+ Ph.D. acknowledgements I've ever read!

You know what's John doing (5): Georg Schultes

2010-03-25T16:01:00.001+01:00

Whenever we get the chance we ask tournament alums three simple questions. Here are Georg's sanswers:

1) My name is Georg Schultes. Im a 23 year old Austro-Germanic-Brit and a graduate of Imperial College London. :) I played in the Students Matchplay 2007 as Captain of our university golf team and returned in 2009 to help out with proceedings and to offer Val a shoulder to cry on! ;) After finishing my degree at Imperial College London I turned my golfing hobby into my career and now play professionally on the Alps (3rd Tier development tour) and Challenge Tours.

2) My golf career to date has had plenty of highlights including playing at university. As an amateur I had a 62 (-10) and a 63 (-9) in competition, on my way to obtaining a +3 handicap before turning pro. I was fortunate enough to play the Boyd Quaich three times as well as the Students Matchplay which, in my opinion, are amongst the best uni competitions around! If only the SM got us round St. Andrews with the use of the R&A clubhouse! (sorry Mr Thonig, Wittelsbacher comes a close second here! ;) ) [Edit: Mr. Thonig is the manager of the Wittelsbacher and also a member of the executive board of the German Golfers Association. Matt.]

More recently I have enjoyed some success on the Alps Tour and on the Austria Pro Tour, notably finishing 2nd at the Adenbeck Murstaetten event near Graz last year. I've also been fortunate enough to have just returned from a 3 week winter training trip to the Butch Harmon golf school in Las Vegas. :) Daily practice on the range between Nick Watney, Ricki Fowler and Nathalie Gulbis in comfortable 20 degree heat and wall to wall blue sky in February makes it an awful lot easier to drag yourself out of bed in the morning! This year my main aim is to prepare for tour schools towards the end of the year, European Tour 2011?!

3) There are several other uni golfers I met along the way who have joined me in the (not so often) paid ranks. Mark Davies of Exeter university and SM 2007 alum plays on the Alps Tour with me and Andrew Crux who I played with at Imperial had a Challenge Tour card in 2009 are the most notable and I still keep in touch with both. In terms of the Students Matchplay, my best memories include the tour around the Audi factory in 2007, the cars in which they chauffeured us around in (where else would a bunch of students get the keys to those Audi A8 and A6s with students behind the wheels :D ), late nights drinking proper Bavarian beers and of course nursing the "slight" hangovers on the first tee the next morning! :)

Whether first timer or seasoned SM veteran, hope too see you all in Ingolstadt in 2010! Theres always a Maas waiting in the clubhouse! :)

Here it is - the Fundraising-Poster

2010-03-21T17:28:00.000+01:00

Finally! The Best-of-Ecards-Poster data file is now on the way to England. Delivery is scheduled for March 26th. Sold at 2 pounds apiece it will help to cover the enormous costs for the inaugural SMAT - Alps Qualifier....

If you don't, we'll decline your team entry!

2010-03-21T10:30:00.000+01:00

Our facebook-fanpage bobbed up and down for the past three years. Emma, new to the English "orga-crew", has brought new life into that page. Looks great! So become a fan yourself today! Here's the link: http://bit.ly/aHsrM0. The facebook-button on our homepage looks rubbish, may have to work on that when we have a free minute.

You know what's John doing (4): Valentin Langen

2010-03-20T23:07:00.009+01:00

Whenever we get the chance we ask tournament alums three simple questions. Here are Val's answers:

# 1: Ich heiße Valentin Langen. Ich bin mit über 30 einer der "Altsäcke" im Turnier. Weil ich sportlich unbegabt bin, hat mich das Golfteam der Katholischen Universität Eichstätt-Ingolstadt damals (2005/2006) in das Organisationsteam des Golfturniers abgeschoben. Ihre Hoffnung, möglichst wenig verkehrt zu machen, habe ich nicht erfüllen können. Ich werde aber von Jahr zu Jahr besser. Aktiv Golf spiele ich aufgrund meiner tiefen persönlichen Betroffenheit seither nicht mehr.

In den ersten Jahren des Turniers habe ich als Lehrstuhlassistent an der Katholischen Universität gearbeitet und zur Corporate Warfare/Corporate Chess Game geforscht. Mittlerweile lebe und arbeite ich in Norddeutschland. Im Turnierkontext werde ich "Val" genannt, weil ich diese Abkürzung als Email-Kürzel verwende. Beim unseren Turnieren bin ich meistens irgendwo um Hintergrund zu finden. Einen seltenen Moment im Vordergrund findet Ihr hier.

# 2: Was ich im Hochschulgolf erlebt habe? Nachdem ich in der Schulzeit gelegentlich mit Tino Schuster golfen durfte (weil ich eine Klasse über ihm war, nicht, weil ich so gut gewesen wäre), endete meine Unigolfkarriere, bevor sie begann (siehe # 1). Daher zähle ich zu den ganz wenigen ungeschlagenen Athleten im weltweiten Hochschulgolf. Immerhin etwas, was Tiger Woods, Rory McIlray, Rickie Fowler und Martin Kaymer nicht geschafft haben.

# 3: Mein schönster Moment bei einem SM? Der hier. Fotos anschauen und freuen!

I like

2010-03-17T10:24:00.000+01:00

Formal mail to the GCAA:

[...] We want the Students Matchplay event to be a global event, and a celebration of student golf from across the globe. It is all completely non-profit, and we organize this purely for the love of student golf and camaraderie. But to make this next step, we do need to 'crack America' and get more teams from their involved. We seem to be restricted by NCAA rules, which is why we contacted you in the first place for advice on the matter, and to see whether GCAA support would help us in the situation.[...]

very kind return mail to us:

[...] thanks for your mail today. [...] Your event certainly looks like something that American universities should become involved with. [...] I would like to explore opportunities on how your tournament and GCAA could work together going forward.

Also, would like to hear your thoughts on ways we could help you. Any ideas both short term and long for the event. [...] Also, our initiatives in Japan and now China are ongoing. Both countries have college systems based on the US model. Japan’s goes back 35 years and China’s is now emerging. [...] Maybe the idea of creating an event(s) in several countries going forward is something you would explore. All good things to discuss.

internal mail between orgacrew-members:

Forest of Arden 2012 = European qualifier (5 teams get to finals), US qualifier 2012 (at Sawgrass)(5 teams), African qualifier @ Sun City, South Africa (4 teams) Asian qualifier, Shanghai International (5 teams), Australian qualifier Royal Melbourne (5 teams). Finals @ Wittelsbacher??? I like!

Economies of Application 401

2010-03-15T16:16:00.001+01:00

The lads of the University of Zuerich/Switzerland golf team are minimalists. Since neither the tournament nor their team and team details had changed, they simply resent their 2009 entry form. Guess I will forward my 2009 reply then...

Familienzuwachs

2010-03-14T14:34:00.000+01:00

So schaut eine Email aus, mit der wir andere Studenten in unser Orgateam holen wollen (Mehrschulterstrategie). Die Antwort war - zu unserem Erstaunen - sehr positiv.

Sag mal,

ich habe keine Ahnung, wie lang Du noch an der Uni sein wirst und wie Deine Unigolf-Pläne für 2011ff. sein werden.

Nachdem nun James (Uni Manchester, SM07, SMUK09, SM09) bei Steve (SMUK, Warwick) ins Orgateam reinwächst [...], fehlt mir bei all den "Kerlen" und der englisch/deutschen Dominanz das Gegengewicht.

Du bist spätestens im Sommer ausreichend SM-erprobt (SM07, SM08, SM10, oder?), weisst was wir eigentlich mit dem Turnier machen wollen, kennst den mühseligen Umgang mit Deiner Uni (Förderung) und Deinem Team (Akquise, Management, Orga), kennst Dich im deutschen Unigolf aus, kennst die Pappenheimer (Steve, James Giblin und Co.) und bist

(jetzt kommts!)
- kein Kerl
- kennst Dich mit §§ aus
- und sprichst japanisch.

Wenn Du Lust hast, lass uns doch mal gemeinsam bei einem Bier/Kaffee darüber nachdenken, wie Du in die SM-Familie reinwächst bzw. was wir Jungs machen müssen, um Dich für das Turnier zu gewinnen.

Herzliche Grüße!

10 Turniere im Rücken

2010-03-13T07:31:00.004+01:00

Die Organisation eines Hochschulgolf-Turniers macht sehr viel Spass. Die Arbeit ist abwechslungs- und lehrreich, erstreckt sich mindestens über

- Turnierentwicklung: Was kommt als nächstes?
- Spielerakquise: Hey Du, ja Du! Bock????
- Sponsoring: Interessante Zielgruppe gefällig?
- Teamorganisation: Wer kümmert sich um...?
- Pimp: Hm...machen Bagtags Sinn?
- Kommunikation: Unser Turnier ist was ganz ganz Tolles!
- Programm: Frühstück am Platz oder doch in der Juhe?

Diese unterschiedlichen Teilbereiche sind nicht trennscharf und lassen sich auch anderweitig unterscheiden, nennen und gruppieren. Sie lassen sich bei jedem Turnier so oder so ähnlich finden. Und dann wäre da noch die tatsächliche Turnierorga mit Starter- und Marshallaufgaben. Kurzum: Es ist viel, viel Arbeit.

Die Arbeit wird zunehmend umfangreicher. Eine Lösung hierfür ist, diese Arbeit turnierintern über mehr Schultern zu verteilen. Eine andere, turnierübergreifend zusammenzuarbeiten. Letzteres haben wir gestern mit den Jungs von der Unigolftour besprochen. Bei einem Bier in Hamburg. Gemeinsam hätten wir über 10 Turniere im Rücken, was uns den Zugang zu so manch einem Ansprechpartner erleichtern sollte. Die Gespräche werden ergebnisoffen weitergeführt. Wobei, stimmt ja nicht. Wir werden zusammenfinden. Ende des Jahres ist was fix. Behaupten wir mal.

SM - Bag tags and a little secret

2010-03-12T09:12:00.001+01:00

Back in 2007 we designed a beer coaster/mat that we wanted to punch and then use as a bag tag. The idea wasn't that bad, as beer, students and Bavaria do connect well. Unfortunatelly the print was poor, so was the material. Their use was limited to... put them underneath a glass of beer. Eventually you'll see the coasters during the SM-tournaments.

Yesterday we had a quick design session. And here's the result. A new bag tag, printed on 350g/m2-thick cardboard paper. The ordered 500 tags should last for the next two saisons. And if you look closely you'll find a little well-kept secret...

Birdie, birdie, here we come...

2010-03-11T16:25:00.000+01:00

The communication experts up in England have set up a Twitter-account. So follow SM_Golf if you want to be informed first hand.

Never heard of "hosel rockets"

2010-03-10T10:54:00.002+01:00

The golfers from the Universities of Warwick and Manchester were bantering back and forth on facebook. The term "hosel rockets" was mentioned several times and none of us Ingolstadtians knew what that meant.

"About's" golf dictionary has a neat golf slang collection. Apparently a hosel rocket

... is a slang term for a shank. And a shank is a shot in which the point of contact between the golf ball and the golf club is the club's hosel.

How are we supposed to know that? We don't hold more SM-championship titles than the two teams combined for no reason...

Urban golf in India!

2010-03-09T16:34:00.000+01:00

It's not quite university golf but a fine piece of contemporary photo art. Find more wonderful impressions here.

Payment ethics

2010-03-09T09:27:00.001+01:00

We all are short on money. Constantly. It's symptomatic for students and young professionals. Talk to us, and we find a solution. Absolutelly no problem. Having said that I am happy to annouce the receipt of the last 2009 team entry fee. Yesterday. With just a 9 month delay.

Funding tactics

2010-03-08T13:00:00.000+01:00

We checked and discussed the cash budget over the weekend. From the minutes:

Okay, I'll go and get a dish washing job at the local restaurant!

You know what's John doing (3): Steve Essex

2010-03-04T14:00:00.002+01:00

Whenever we get the chance we ask tournament alums three simple questions. Here are Steve's answers:

# 1: My Name is Steve Essex. I am 27 years old and have played in the SM event in 2006/2007/2008, and was tournament referee in 2009. I now assist Val in organising the event, and run the UK qualifier out of the University of Warwick. The inaugural UK event was in 2009, with the 2nd event taking place on March 29th-30th, 2010 @ the Forest of Arden GC. 18 teams are playing.

I now work as a post-doctoral researcher designing new high temperature ultrasonic transducers applicable to power plants, having completed an MPhys degree and a PhD in Physics from 2001-2009.

# 2: My University golf career spanned 8 seasons from 2001/02 through to 2008/09, where I achieved my Warwick golf ambition and played in the BUCS Premier League in the final season. I managed 99 BUSA/BUCS matches in total! I particularly enjoy beating people from Birmingham University, did I ever tell you about the time I played Jason Palmer?

There have been far too many highlights to mention them all, but here's a few: Students Matchplay being one (see #3); one match vs. Staffordshire Uni in 2003 involved our team shirts being stolen, a car breakdown, 6 of us sharing a double bed, and being attacked at a cash point by a psycho woman and her boyfriend who was 6 feet 4 and didn't wear shoes; Giblin's Irish accent in Belfast; Facing near death in Falinski's car on the way to Durham in 2005; Tom Donneky's winning putt vs. Worcester (the scream of the dying mongoose); UWGC's 'Club of the Year' and 'Team of the Year' titles at Warwick in 2007 and 2008; our first premier league game vs Lincoln; a verbal altercation with 'Slow Joe' of UEA; Giblin's 'handshake' vs Northampton; Tyler's shot heard round the world;....... I really could go on.

Needless to say I've loved every single minute of my involvement with the golf club at Warwick, and it fully justified me doing a PhD just so I could play more University golf. Have met so many great people, and James Pearson too.

# 3: Students Matchplay 2006. It's the final. Warwick v Ingolstadt. Drew 2-2. Playoff. Though I lost to Johannes 2&1 in my game, it was probably the best match I'd ever played in. Out in 3 under and only 1up, parred the next 5 holes and I was 1 down... Warwick stuck me in the playoff, vs Johannes, and my best SM shot has to be my opening tee shot in the playoff on the 10th. To be honest I was quite nervous, everyone was there for the climax of the first Students Matchplay, including Frank Thonig the golf manager at Wittelsbacher. He shook my hand before the playoff, and I'm not going to lie, it really hurt. The man is so strong. But, despite my now debilitated hand, I minted my 4 wood close to 300 yards, and I haven't been anywhere near hitting that far since.

Perhaps my favourite SM shot was on the next hole, playing the 18th as the 2nd playoff hole having halved the 10th in pars. Out came the driver and I blocked it 50 yards right into the heart of the 17th fairway. Ben Falinski, caddying for me at the time, instructed the gathering crowd that was our tactic all along as it gave the best angle in. I'm pretty sure they bought it, with three people saying it was a tactically astute move later that evening during the players night, adding they would have never considered such a tee shot.

Rest assured, it was a block.

Team Augsburg/Germany

2010-03-04T08:26:00.000+01:00

The Augburg University Golf team contacted us. They play of +1/0/1/4 and want to enter. Among them the 2006 German Amateur Boys Champion Thomas Weiler who played already at the SM08 and SM09.

You know what's John doing (2): James Giblin

2010-03-03T17:35:00.002+01:00

Whenever we get the chance we ask tournament alums three simple questions. Here are James' answers:

# 1: My Name is James Giblin. I am 29 years old and I played at the SM for the University of Warwick at its inauguration in 2006. In the three years since, I have been back as a caddy, alumni and as a marshal. I now work as a software development manager in London.

# 2: My university golf career started in 1999 when I started at Warwick. I played for my University team for 8 years, went on trips to the Czech Republic, Ireland, Scotland and of course Germany and made many fantastic memories.

# 3: My favorite moment at the Wittelsbacher had to be walking past the leaderboard after nine holes in 2008. I had the second best front nine in the tournament, and the best score for a man (I never could beat girls at golf!). That was no mean feat playing off 5, when the first 15 players were off scratch or better. Sadly my form dipped over the back nine, but it was a very good day's golf.

Das Kreuz mit den info@-Adressen

2010-03-03T12:18:00.000+01:00

Im Dezember, Januar und Februar haben wir einige Verbände und Unternehmen wiederholt angeschrieben. Im Wesentlichen ging es um die Fragen, wer der Ansprechpartner für Golfangelegenheiten ist (Unternehmen) und ob Fördermöglichkeiten bestehen (Verbände). Beinahe alle Mails, die an die allgemein zugänglichen info@-Emailadressen gingen, wurden nicht beantwortet. Sowohl die vom Dezember, als auch die vom Januar, und auch -richtig!- die vom Februar. Jetzt, drei Monate später wird die Zeit ein wenig knapp, ganz abgesehen davon, dass unsere Laune ein wenig strapaziert ist. Es macht ja keinen Spass, ins Nirvana zu schreiben. Seit heute morgen schreiben wir die CEOs und Präsidenten direkt an. Das Ergebnis überzeugt: Drei Emails haben wir nach USA und AT verschickt, alle wurden innerhalb von 20 Minuten beantwortet. Vom Chef persönlich. Mit allen notwendigen Kontaktadressen. Klasse!

Boyd Quaich 2010

2010-03-02T14:15:00.001+01:00

A quick word to those of you who are interested in playing the No.1 university golf event for individual golfers: The Boyd Quaich of the University of St.Andrews is accepting entries as of now. If you think you may not make in the field of the British Amateurs or the Open Championship, this is probably one of the very few chances to play one of the best courses in the world!

Brief update (3)

2010-03-02T13:18:00.000+01:00

Seems like we're gettin' there! The formal application to elevate the Students Matchplay tournament to an official German university sport tournament has been signed by our unisport director last week (don't mention it). So assuming that everything works out fine you will be playing at a German ADH Trophy soon. This should help quite a lot of you to get funding from your university.

We figured it might be about time for some business cards. Three tournaments in three countries, quite a lot of exposure to the golf sport industry and further growths in the futuere need a professionally looking business card. We put three names on one card to save costs. A little les than 30 Euros isn't that bad.

Matt didn't have time to mess around with the Best of Ecards-Poster. Hopefully we manage to get that done before the Arden Qualifier in four weeks.

"We will consider your comments"

2010-02-24T11:41:00.001+01:00

This is what you get when you ask Him for sponsorship:

Thank you for contacting Team Tiger! We will consider your comments, so please keep sending us your thoughts!

ABC

2010-02-23T15:15:00.004+01:00

Since we received positive feedbacks from R&A, ADH, DGV and OEGV, we thought we might as well go all the way. So, FISU, PGA, EU have been contacted for general info regarding sponsorship and support today. Won't be relevant for 2009 though. NCAA and GCAA haven't reacted yet in almost a month. The EU was a bit faster. It took them less than 3 hours:

> -----Original-Nachricht-----
> Subject: RE: Sportförderung
> Date: Tue, 23 Feb 2010 14:11:15 +0100
> From:
> To:
>
> Sehr geehrter Herr Berst,
>
> wir danken Ihnen für Ihre Nachricht. (...)

MFG!

EDIT 1: To be fair, the EU has a higher budget and thus a bigger staff. It's aquivalent to around 235 Euros per head of the European population.

EDIT 2: Alright, the Bavarian state government has an even better reaction time. Less than two hours according to the clock. Unfortunatelly they don't sponsor university sport events.

Funds from the European Sport Commission

2010-02-23T09:55:00.000+01:00

Chris dug something out that might be of interest for us organizers. Obviously there is was EU-money out there that tournaments like ours could have applied for in 2009 (DOH!). Not really sure though, since the PREPARATORY ACTION IN THE FIELD OF SPORT, CALL FOR PROPOSALS, EAC/21/2009, (OPEN CALL)-document doesn't come easy to read. Eventually their FAQ help. Would be great if they set up the sponsorship-program again for 2011.

Arden: Two more teams

2010-02-22T14:27:00.000+01:00

We've got a bit more cash from the Uni Warwick so we can afford two more teams now. Steve has invited Leeds Met and Hull to enter, making currently two groups of 5 and two groups of 4. Leeds Met and Hull were both the first two reserves, and also played at the 2009 Arden Qualifier. It is certainly good for the event to have more teams.

...wir wollen nur spielen!

2010-02-22T12:40:00.002+01:00

Die Studenten des Unigolfteams Lüneburg machen eine tolle Arbeit. Sie veranstalten mit dem Student Masters nicht nur ein eigenes, sehr erfolgreiches Turnier, sondern bringen mit ihrer Unigolftour auch Anstoß, Entwicklungshilfe, Rückenwind und Ordnung in den Hochschulgolfsport. Am Wochenende hat Val sie auf der Hanse-Golf in Hamburg besucht. Und ist mitten in einen Dreh hineingestolpert...

Brief update (2)

2010-02-19T21:08:00.000+01:00

What happend this week? Well, the webpage for the Austrian qualifier is up and running. The menu needs some polishing, the picture-flashs on the webpages differ, depending which browser you use. Weird.

We had a meet with Audi. Their headquarter again was an amazing visit. They will sponsor the tournament, which is awesome.

Then we had a couple of talks to the various representatives of the Ingolstadt campus. Students' union, university sport, alumni association. Long story short: A little more appreciation would be nice!

Below you'll see the 2010 fundraiser poster. The plan is to sell this poster for 3 GDP/5 € a piece, revenues will go either in the Alps Qualifier or will be saved for the 2001-saison.

Good bye, UK-qualifier button!

2010-02-17T15:03:00.000+01:00

Told ya! The boys are working on the website. Latest feature: A scroll down menu bar, indicated with the ">>". Looks great!

Arden: The more the merrier

2010-02-16T11:16:00.000+01:00

The Arden Qualifier has received more interest than we originally expected (and our expectations were quite confident). We have emailed the 16 team captains we currently have and asked them the following:

1. Do you mind 4 extra teams joining, giving them the chance to play in Germany should they qualify (with no extra spaces available)
2. 4 teams play but they can't qualify for Germany but can still win SMUK prizes.
3. 4 teams play, and if some finish in qualifying spots they go to top of the reserve list if any spaces become available
4. We stick to 16 teams

Had 4 replies so far, all said the more the merrier.

News from the other side of the globe

2010-02-15T13:38:00.002+01:00

A couple of days ago we were contacted by a unigolf team from far far away. Today we mailed again back and forth.

Hey guys!!

I’m excited to accept your invite!!! Please forward the details on how to formally enter. And how do i find out about the "bring your own sponsor program"? We are currently in the process of working on an itinerary, and may need your help with getting around Germany, I assume we fly into to Munich? If so how do we get from there to the tournament?

Cheers,
University of Tasmania Golf Team

--------------

Hey guys,

great to hear from you! Well, with the SM being a private tournament after all we accept entries on a handshake-basis. This reduces workload for all of us and has worked fine in the past. If you are accepting the invite, do so, and we'll plan with your team.

We are still sitting exams until the end of the week and then probably need a couple of days to celebrate... long story short: we don’t have the 2010-entry forms updated yet. So you may either use the attached 2009-form or give us a couple of days to produce the new one. Basics (rules, costs, program...) won’t change. Either way, if you say you come, go ahead and make plans. We stick to our words.

Bring your own sponsor: Here's some info. You may also want to read through these ideas.

Yep, you'd fly into Munich, it's 70 km south of Ingolstadt. Normally you'd get full shuttle service starting on the SM-Thursday. I assume you will be arriving a tat earlier, so either we pick you up with our private cars, or you take the public transport with is as fast, very reliable (this is the punctuality and rules country), so very easy. Depending on when you arrive one of us could take your clubs at the airport and store them in Ingolstadt while you go end explore Munich. I am sure we will work something out.

There is a Facebook-group where you could start making some Aussie-noise. Let us get back to you in a bit with a name and an email-address of one of us, who will help you with all travel/tourism-related questions.

Cheers
Orga-Team

Guess we'll need to polish our strine. This would do for a start!

Finally! Alps, here we come...

2010-02-14T21:25:00.000+01:00

It took a bit longer than we thought (that's why among other things like exams) and it was even less fun then we expected. Today we designed and texted the webpage for our Alps Qualifier. The website-guy has received a couple of files tonight. Since we got at him with an 8pounds parcel full of sweets last week he should upload them tres rapidamente! Following the website logic you should be able to see the Alps Qualifier-webpage here. Very keen to see if our ideas look good!

Sponsoring: Image of Golf

2010-02-14T10:28:00.002+01:00

[in German]
Einige Zitate aus einem Artikel, den wir beim Aufräumen unseres Turnierbüros gefunden haben:

"Golf hat das Image, ein exklusiver Sport zu sein, der nicht allen zugänglich ist und auch nicht sein will. Und der kein Geheimnis daraus macht, dass er Geld kostet. Genau das macht den Golfsport für Sponsoren aus dem Premium-Segment attraktiv. (...) Neben dem Image der Exklusivität (...) gilt Golf außerdem als "sympathisch", erfordert "Technik & Präzision", bietet die Möglichkeit, "sich in schöner Natur und an der frischen Luft aufzuhalten" und "garantiert Erholung, Entspannung und Ruhe."

Dieses Image ist sicherlich 6 Jahre nach der Erhebung nicht mehr ohne weiteres gültig. Insbesondere unter uns Studenten dürfte sich mittlerweile rumgesprochen haben, dass Jahresmitgliedschaften für Golfclubs teilweise weniger kosten als für Discount-Fitnessclubs, zumindest solange man Student ist.

Quelle: Kadelke, Jan (2006): Der Deutsche Golf Verband e.V. (DGV) — Etablierung des Golfsports als integrierte Marketing- und Vertriebs-Plattform. In: Braun et al. (2006): Marketing- und Vertriebspower durch Sponsoring. Springer, Berlin, 2006, S. 282-283.

Follow up: SM09-winners successful in Argentina

2010-02-12T14:25:00.001+01:00

Two of the four Birmingham Girls played well in South America. Read on!

You know what's John doing (1)

2010-02-11T18:57:00.002+01:00

The idea came up that we could start a series of updates on individuals that have been involved in the Students Matchplay tournament, be it golfers or staff. Alex joined the Orgateam in 2007 and co-hosted the finals in 2008. He then started his printing-company http://www.myprinting.de/, took a year of from university, constantly turned attractive job offers down, and wrote his final exams in spring 2009. Rumour has it that his business idea was a direct consequence of his disappointment of various online poster and photo-services he had worked with during the preparation of the SM07 and SM08. Good for us! Whenever we need posters printed, we turn to him and get the best quality for an amazing prize (~~which is for free but we are not supposed to talk aboout it~~). You'll see his posters usually on tee 1, were we merit the past winners.

Nice problem to have...

2010-02-11T16:14:00.000+01:00

In close to five years of organizing the Students Matchplay tournaments we learned that there are three distinct groups of golf teams. Group 1-teams are the early-enterers. They commit to the tournament already a couple of month ahead of the date, sometimes as early as the winter (!!) before, and pay the earliest. Group 2-teams enter early without naming specific players, often due to scheduled team trials, and pay at or after the deadline. Group 3-teams enter early, confirm their entry at each occasion, dont pay and dont show up and produce all sorts of costs (e.g. empty hotel rooms, not needed rental car...).

Apparently there are also Group 4 and 5-teams. Group 4-teams are late-enterers. Group 5-teams are silent, they reduce the entry-process to only the wire transfer. With the Arden Qualifier being filled by Group 1 and 2-teams, many requests by Group 4-teams and two Group 5-surprise payments we are now trying to get extra tee-times and rooms. And extra budget, since the entry fee doesn't cover the costs per person. If you have any idea, let us know.

Brief update (1)

2010-02-09T21:58:00.001+01:00

Steve (Warwick/SMUK) is happy. His tournament is filled, inaugural meeting with his SMUK-orgateam went well, so everything is set and ready to roll. Val (Ingolstadt/SM) is not happy. Had to cancel two meetings regarding sponsorship and official unisport accreditation, so no dearly needed positive results on these sides. The IT-guy is in the worst of all moods. Stumbled over his feet, broke the server, apparently also one of his toes and spilled his tea on it (the server). So the launch of the SMAT-Website needs to be delayed. Which is not that great. Even more important: Please. Please. PLEASE. Let's not have to do all these brochures all over again.

FAQ: Only three players from my university - can we play?

2010-02-06T16:42:00.000+01:00

Yes! Bring a fourth player along. If you don't, you'll be asigned a fourth player. He/she plays uncompetitively in your team, it's just to keep the amount of players an even number. So your stroke play team score that you need for the match play finals is calculated by aggregating the single gross scores of the original three players. The match play match of your fourth player is automatically lost.

"Operation Baguette" - let's find some French golf teams!

2010-02-06T11:35:00.000+01:00

Last year the Championnat de Golf Universitiare de France and the Students Matchplay unfortunatelly fell on the same date. This year however the French tournament is one week later, on around the 30th of June! With this in mind we contacted a couple of French university golfers in the past days. The feedback is quite promising. Would be great if they'd make it to Ingolstadt, wouldn't it?

February 6, 2010 -GolfbloggerUK

2010-02-06T11:16:00.000+01:00

How about that! The GolfbloggerUK has published a post about our tournament. 150.000 unique visitors and 600.000 hits from 138 countries (per month stats) will certainly bring attention to our tournament!

Great-tournament-weekend

2010-02-05T15:36:00.003+01:00

The US Open are scheduled on 14-20 June 2010;
The British Amateur Championships: 14-19 June 2010;
The FIFA Soccer World Cup: Germany's set on the 18 June 2010;

and - of course

The Students Matchplay: 18-19 June 2010.

First thought: we picked the single best great-tournament-weekend, which is awesome. Second though: we picked the single best great-tournament-weekend, that's why we need ahelluva load of plasmas.

The SMUK/Arden Qualifier field

2010-02-02T11:56:00.002+01:00

That was a bit faster than we thought. The field is filled. The 16 teams are:

Warwick, Birmingham, Lougborough, Cardiff, Buckinghamshire New, Leeds, Essex, Liverpool, Newport, Oxford, Cambridge, Central Lancs, Manchester, ~~Hull~~ Durham, Kingston Surrey, Brunel.

Exeter, a two time champion (2007, 2008), haven't entered their team.

Edit 02/18/10: Infact we got the entry form and money of Durham first so they are playing instead. Apologies for the mistake. Communication across borders sometimes takes it toll...

Sources for your team funding (III)

2010-02-01T12:35:00.001+01:00

Our goal is to make your costs irrelevant for your decision to play at the Students Matchplay tournaments. So, in case there aren't any on-campus or off-campus sources, we can help.

This year we will start the "Bring your own Sponsor"-program, to give you a better chance to find your own sponsorship. We can also help by reducing tournament fees, covering air fares, and waiting for payment, like we've done in the past. Keep in mind though, that we don't have much ourselves, and if the money doesn't come right out of our own pockets, it's taken from the tournament budget. In this case we will need to cut costs/program elsewhere. Which is absolutely fine if it makes the field more competitive.

Arden Qualifier 75% filled

2010-02-01T11:56:00.002+01:00

Five more teams in 10 days, and 4 entries pending. The SMUK/Arden Qualifier, which is hosted on March 29-30, should be filled by the middle of next week. Teams are encouraged to send in their entry forms asap, should they want to play and eventually qualify for the big event on the Wittelsbacher down in Munich/Germany.

Confirmed entries are so far: Warwick, Central Lancashire, Leeds, Liverpool, Newport, Buckinghamshire New, Cardiff, Manchester, Birmingham Men, Kingston Surrey, Hull and Oxford.

EDIT: "Lufbra" have now entered too. Thats the biggest sports university in the UK now on board!

Down under interest

2010-01-29T11:35:00.001+01:00

Jack sent us an email. What the details were regarding entering his team, he wanted to know. The university name didn't sound like he was from nearby. Well, having looked into Google Maps we now know why.

In statistics-ish: The distance equals approx. 2.600 rounds of golf on a regular course ~~(...probably only 1.800 on the Wittelsbacher, er)~~, 185.000 drives, easy wedges, putts, trick shots etc. if you are a scratch golfer, and 18 month of golf, if you play 6 rounds per day.

GCAA + NCAA = USA!

2010-01-26T19:52:00.000+01:00

Just wrote an email to the GCAA, asking if they could help us to inform U.S. college golf coaches. Then asked the NCAA, if there were any restrictions for U.S. teams to come over to Germany. I am very interested in their answers!

Sources for your team funding (II)

2010-01-24T11:59:00.002+01:00

Should you not be able to get funds from on-campus sources, here's what you could do:

1) ask special service clubs for funds. Clubs like Rotary and many others do support projects if they are within their stated purposes. Your points could address management/societal values like sportsmanship, fairness and competition; team work; intercultural exchange; of course golf development at your university...

2) ask your local golf hero for support. We once asked Bernhard Langer to donate one of his clubs. We then auctioned off his club and made a small fortune (we tried the same with Ernie Els to help the South Africans players to cover their travel costs, but after a couple of promising mails with his assistent we lost contact. Seve Ballesteros didnt even bother to write back).

3) make a savings plan and stick to it. 15 € per month from the beginning of you winter term until June of the follwing year will pay for your entry fee. Covering the air fare will be a piece of cake then.

4) challenge the strongest senior golf club team in your area. They of course will have to pay your greenfee. If you win, they pay you a sum, if the lose, you get nothing. Should be reasonably fair.

Sources for your team funding (I)

2010-01-23T10:41:00.003+01:00

Paying for your Students Matchplay-entry all by yourself should be the last of your last options. There are several ways to get somebody else pay for you:

1) Universities usually have budgets for university sport events. Contact your university sports department about it.
2) Ask your university's alumni association for sponsorship. Or the Alumni of your university golf team.
3) Find your own sponsor (Read this).
4) Throw a fundraiser party, organise a golf clinic...

This is pretty much the same we do over here.

Just a signature away

2010-01-22T21:28:00.001+01:00

Nearly 4 month ago in early October we asked the German University Sport Federation (ADH) what it would take to bring the Students Matchplay to the next level. Nothing more than an application to host an official German University Sport event, they said. So we filled out a four pages form, sent it over to the sports director, only to learn, that Catholic University wasn't eligible to host such a tournament. Because it wasn't a member university of the ADH.

Not.

Good.

So we went to the other university in Ingolstadt, the Ingolstadt University of Applied Sciences, had a chat with their golf team captain (nice lad!) and their deputy president (fine guy as well!), and a gazillion emails later we tonight received a telephone call. Their university will sign the application form for us. Great, huh? That means, that with a bit of luck the Students Matchplay will be a "ADH trophy", which means that all German participants can ask their university sports department for funding. Students Matchplay thus will become the second official university golf tournament beside the German University Golf Championships.

Feedback from Unisport Austria

2010-01-19T11:31:00.000+01:00

Hosting a tournament also involves some lobbying. After all, there are budgets for university sport tournaments out there. We spoke with the Unisport Austria, which is the relevant university sports federation for the scheduled Alps Qualifier at the GC am Mondsee. Their feedback reached us this morning. We are allowed to promote the Alps Qualifier as a golf tournament for Austrian students. The decision on funding will be postponed to 2011 though. That's fair enough.

After only a couple of days

2010-01-19T11:08:00.001+01:00

It's the second year now that we are hosting the Arden Qualifier for golf teams from England and Wales, again at the end of March. Currently we have entries from Warwick, Central Lancs, Essex, Buckinghamshire New, Liverpool, Newport and Leeds. The latter three teams are new to the Students Matchplay tournament. That's a pretty dawn good status considering that it's still winter. Steve's feeling seems to be reliable.

University Golf Morale

2010-01-09T17:56:00.001+01:00

Unlike other teams the Cambridge and Oxford golfers usually party a lot and enjoy our beer and manage to get to the golf course in time. I now know why.

No problems in filling the field

2010-01-09T17:16:00.004+01:00

Quote from Steve's email:

"(...) Just wanted to say that I have a feeling that the SMUK/Arden Qualifier is on every golf team's radar in the UK now. Had emails from Newcastle, Bournemouth, new Birmingham men's captain, Leeds, Loughborough, Brunel, Liverpool, Kings College & Bath. Had an extremely positive response from all the universities that played last year too, so no problems in filling the field this year. Currently 31 universities have the entry details. (...)"

That's great news considering that the British Universities & Colleges Sport Association doesnt list that many more universities in there league system (details here).

Guess where

2009-12-16T12:18:00.000+01:00

China obviously blocks our domain www.university-golf.de. Which doesn't come that handy when the only web competent Students Matchplay team member is -guess where - at Shanghai Tongji University as an exchange student.

R&A supports Students Matchplay

2009-12-12T00:18:00.001+01:00

We received an email from the R&A up north in Scotland. For the ones with less golf knowledge: The R&A is the world ruling authority of golf, they administrate the world amateur golf ranking, host the no.1 amateur golf tournament in the world and one of the four majors, and among other things see golf development worldwide as one of their responsibility. The R&A will support the Students Matchplay with a single grant which shall reduce the green fee commitment at the English Qualifier. How wonderful is this?

University Golf Sponsoring: Social Media Reach

2009-12-10T13:05:00.006+01:00

The critical question in sponsoring negotiations is what the sponsor gets in return. "Well, gratefulness!" is usually not considered the best answer. What sponsors mainly want to see are estimates regarding their marketing reach, i.e. the total number of people seeing the sponsor's logo in the context of the sponsored event. Most sponsors focus exclusively on contacts made through traditional media, such as newspapers, magazines, TV . Students Matchplay is a university sport event and as such an ideal platform for all companies that want to address us, i.e. young golfers, university students and alumni in particular. So why not try to measure the marketing reach through our no.1 media, the internet, the "shooting star in media consumption" as Deutsche Bank Research puts it?

We did a little research. Since social media is the buzzword in the moment, since word-of-mouth marketing has the biggest impact with respect to credibility, and since Facebook happens to be the No.1-website for us university students, we calculated the "Facebook Reach" of our English Arden Qualifier. Here are the results: All participants at the English tournament have a total of more than 37.000 Facebook friends. The most socially connected golfer among them is the captain of the University of Manchester with nearly 900 friends. The most connected team are the golfers from the University of Durham with some 2.600 friends. What does that mean? Well, with all photos marked and all wall posts made Facebook-members in or around Durham and Manchester should be well-informed about the Students Matchplay via their friends' newsfeed or direct profile views. And have most likely also seen the involvement of our sponsors. In technical terms: these 70 or so golfers can become your brand ambassadors, dear sponsor!

Sponsors might be interested to know, how well connected we are within the world gold community. To give you an idea, these 37.000 Facebook-friends can play golf fairly well. 39 of them finished among the Top 60 of the 2009 British Amateurs. They make up 75% of the participants of the BUCS Men’s South East Regional Qualifier 2009. It’s the same with the Students Matchplay Finals in Germany. The total Facebook-reach of all golfers and staff is a bit over 41.000. Although the tournament is bigger than the one in England (~100 compared to ~70 golfers), non-English students are obviously less connected on Facebook. That doesn’t come as a surprise. Facebook entered the German and European market only as late as spring 2008. The golf expertise among this group is also quite high. You will find 80% of all German Premier League Golfers and the whole German National Golf Team here.

It’s interesting to compare that with the official German University Golf Championships. Their 59 participants have a Facebook-reach of less than 10.000.

Wittelsbacher is the German Candidate for the Ryder Cup 2018!

2009-12-08T16:33:00.001+01:00

Congratulation! The German Golfers Association DGV announced today, that Wittelsbacher GC will be the candidate for Germany's bid for the Ryder Cup 2018 (German, English (Link, anyone?)). That is fantastic for the German golf in general and the German and international university golf in particular. It's the constant generosity of the owner, manager and members that allows us students to meet once a year to play competitive university golf on that beautiful course.

Team Cambridge with most appearances

2009-12-01T21:53:00.006+01:00

We checked the entry lists of the past four years for all golfers that played at the Students Matchplay at least three times. And here are the results:

4 appearances
Joe Mitzscherlich, Ingolstadt (GER), SM06, SM07, SM08, SM09

3 appearances
Stephen Essex, Warwick (ENG), SM06, SM07, SM08
Paddy Croft, Cambridge (ENG), SM07, SM08, SM09
Jon Sharples, Cambridge (ENG), SM07, SM08, SM09
Marie-Louise Weeda, Maastricht (NED), SM07, SM08, SM09
Philipp Demelt, Aachen (GER), SM07, SM08, SM09

These names will be published on our Croft Corner during the tournament and - brand new - also online.

Saison 2010 Kickoff

2009-11-25T18:20:00.001+01:00

We started the new golf saison yesterday. These year's main plans are
- the official accreditation at the German University Sports Federation
- the "Bring your own Sponsor"-program for international teams
- the development of better sponsoring-packages for our corporate partners
- the start of our third university golf tournament in Austria
- and the cooperation with the golfers from the other university in Ingolstadt

Updates will follow.

Matt

Feedback from UClan

2009-05-06T10:45:00.015+02:00

"UCLan golfers have gained a tremendous second national title in the space of a month. The UCLan team, consisting of David Corsby, Andy Palmer and Colin Gaudie triumphed in the UK Students Matchplay event held at the Marriott Forest of Arden Golf Club, home of the British PGA Championship, which took place on the 2nd and 3rd of April."

Read on.

Feedback from Birmingham

2009-03-29T10:52:00.001+02:00

"Golfing history was made twice over by two teams of students flying the flag for Birmingham at an international golf qualifying event yesterday.The University of Birmingham students can boast the first ever women’s only team to qualify for the World Student Matchplay tournament, as well as being the first university to have two teams qualify. (...) "

Read on.