WMF Official Announcements

2016 Open Asian Minigolf Championships

The Open Asian Minigolf Championships were held in Yokohama, Japan during the weekend of October 8 through 10. The event had two categories of competition – one for those who are AMF members (the Asian Championships) and one for anyone who is a member of the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) (the Open Asian Championships). Within each of those categories titles were awarded for individual play and team play.

In total, 56 competitors took to the lanes in Yokohama from 8 countries including China, Chinese Taipei, Finland, Germany, India, Japan, Sweden and Vietnam. Members from Korea and Iran were in attendance for the Delegate Conference that preceded the tournament but did not compete. Rain and wind hit the first day of competition but players and officials toughed it out and 8 rounds for the individual categories were played.

Vizela, Portugal – The Open European Championship were held from August 24th through August 27th on the VizelGolfe miniaturegolf and concrete courses. Although rain and thunder suspended play many times during the first day, the organizers of the tournament ensured that all twelve stroke-play rounds and all match-play rounds were completed during the four days. There were 170 participants for the tournament, including 123 players representing sixteen countries, making it the largest event to date in 2016 that was organized by the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF) and it's continental federations.

Vizela, Portugal – The best minigolf players in Europe return to Vizela for the Open European Championships starting on August 24th. The tournament will be played on the VizelGolfe miniaturegolf and concrete courses. Eight rounds will be played the first two days, which will be counted toward the overall team championship and in the individual championships. Four more rounds will be played on Friday, August 26th to determine the overall stroke-play individual champions and the match-play championships will conclude on August 27th. The opening ceremonies for the tournament were held today.

Bischofshofen, Austria – The 2016 WMF Minigolf Youth World Championships, one of the main worldwide minigolf events of the year, were played from August 10th through August 13th. Eleven countries were represented as 73 under-19 youth competed for both team and individual titles over the four days. Two major stories heading into the tournament were if weather would impact play and if the Germans would continue to dominate the youth categories as they did earlier in the U23 Nations Cup.

Rain caused many interruptions during the first two days of the tournament and schedules had to be moved around so that players could continue under the tarp-covered miniaturegolf course instead of the concrete course. However, all eight rounds were completed as scheduled and at the end, Germany emerged on top of both the male and female youth categories. In the male youth category, Germany showed dominance over them all, easily finishing atop Sweden for first place, even though two Swedish players were the only males to post 19s in the first 8 rounds. Sweden just as easily kept silver over the Czech Republic team, due in part to those low scores. Italy, in their return to the world stage after 5 years, finished 6th in the male youth division.

Lahti, Finland – While the best youth of the world are playing in Austria, the European seniors (over 45 years old) are competing in Lathi at the Laune Minigolf Center, which was home to the Lahti Open earlier in the year and the 2015 General World Championships. This year sees 84 seniors playing in the tournament, representing 11 countries and comprising of 8 male and 4 female teams. These players will take on both eternite and felt courses throughout the tournament.

The competition kicked off on Wednesday with 4 rounds and continued with 4 more rounds on Thursday, which wraps up the team competition. The Swedish men topped the German men for 1st place while the fortunes were reversed on the women’s side as the German women clipped the Swedish women by 1 stroke.