Final Report on Harder German Junior Masters 2008

Those responsible for the “Harder German Junior Masters 2008” hardly believed that such an improvement over the previous year’s tournament with its top-class players was at all possible: 17 nations had registered 120 participants, including whole national teams and German selected teams. Again there were two new participating countries, i.e. Latvia and Iceland. Minus 2.5 was the cut for the young ladies; participation in the tournament was only possible from minus 1.7 for the young gentlemen. As in every previous year the major part of the tournament concept was put into practice: all participants were able to show their skills on all three days of the tournament. And: contrary to the previous year, optimum conditions prevailed. Glorious weather and the Par 72 placing in top form gave reason to expect good scores from this elite group of participants.

The winner was Maximilian Mayer from the Golf Club „Am Reichswald“ in Nürnberg. He was one of the guarantors of his team that a few weeks beforehand had just managed to win over the team from the Heddesheim Golf Club during the final game for promotion to the first federal league. And in Heddesheim Maximilian Mayer again demonstrated his skills: with an excellent performance on the first two days he laid the foundation stone for success. With the overall result after three rounds of 209 strokes (7 under par) he was able to secure the coveted “Green Jacket”. Second was his team comrade, Marvin Auernhammer (211 strokes), who with 64 strokes on the second day of the tournament played a new course record, ahead of Alexander Wennstam (213 strokes), member of the Swedish national team consisting of three players. However, Maximilian Mayer was not completely satisfied with his performance on the last day: „I was nervous, but I just got a grip on myself in time. The fact that I just happened to close with a double bogey, was somehow symptomatic for that day.“

The game was tense for the young ladies. With 140 strokes each Charlotte Kierdorf from the Golf&Landclub Cologne as well as Laura-Alexandra Stempfle from the GC Hamburg-Horn headed for the final round with the same score. Just behind them lay Lara Katzy from Berlin (143 strokes), Marina Stütz from Austria (145 strokes) and Thipada Suwannapura from Thailand (146 strokes). In the end the ones with the better nerves were at an advantage: In the end Charlotte Kierdorf, whom no-one had really taken seriously before, with 214 strokes was ahead of Laura Alexandra Stempfle (217 strokes) and Thipada Suwannapura from Thailand who succeeded in catching up well. The prize-winner, who was the only person to play under par in the overall result of the three rounds, was jubilant: „That was my first international tournament. I never expected this kind of success.“

During the presentation ceremony event manager Dr. Susanna Rosswag had a surprise up her sleeve for the participants: the ten best junior players in this tournament have gained the qualification to play in the new “World Junior Golf Series” next year, provided they fulfil the age conditions. This means that they qualify both for the first tournament, the „Icelandic Junior Masters“ in Reykjavic and for the follow-up tournament in Ponte Verda Beach/Florida.

Tournament director, Dr. Joachim Rosswag, was satisfied: „This year we have taken the greatest step in the development of the tournament. This year’s „Harder German Junior Masters“ bestowed on us the best players we have seen since the beginning. And each year it is always a pleasure to see what superb golf is being played in the junior sector.”