WMF Official Announcements

Open European Championships Take Place August 24 - 27 in Portugal

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.

Bischofshofen, Austria – The best youth minigolfers in the world return to Bischofshofen for the 2016 Youth World Championships - one of the main worldwide minigolf events of the year. The players got a preview of the courses during the U23 Nations Cup held in May and now they will start putting again on August 10. Nine countries will be represented by the 74 participants registered to play at both the concrete and miniaturegolf 18-hole courses. Participants must be 19 years old or younger to compete in this tournament. The Germans are sending one of the largest contingents as they look to repeat their domination in the Under 23 tournament where they had top honors in the male, female and team categories. Italy returns to the Youth World Championships for the first time since 2011 and look to have their name in the running.

During their visit to Pristina, Kosovo for the 2016 World Adventure Golf Masters competition, the WMF-President Dr. Gerhard Zimmermann and the EMF-President Mr. Victor Condeco were invited for a meeting with the President of the National Olympic Committee of Kosovo Mr. Besim Hasani at the country's House of Sports.

Mr. Hasani was very grateful that this important international event had been awarded to Kosovo. He was pleased that 15 nations from across the globe – ranging from New Zealand to the United States of America – had traveled to Kosovo to take part in the championship.

Dr Zimmermann said "During our meeting we received the complete picture and full understanding about the political and sports development of Kosovo during the last decade. The ability of sport to unite and connect people from different backgrounds and nations is wonderful to see, and Kosovo's efforts in worldwide sport are an excellent example of this."