The feelingfrom the big tournament
The Hanseatic international Youth Open (HIYO) is on the way to becoming a top-class event.
There were three great days of golf in Alveslohe from August 2nd to 4th at Gut Kaden. For the 89 youngsters between the ages of 15 and 21, all the trappings at the 2nd Hanseatic International Youth Open 2022 almost looked like a professional tournament. Banners, flags, advertising partners, live scoring and so on.
In the end, Mia Lena Hoffmann (18) from Golf Club Altenhof, Fabius Wenzlawek from Golf and Country Club Hamburg Treudelberg and two players from the Hanseatic Eagles, the joint performance squad of the Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein golf associations, prevailed. "One couldn't have wished for anything better," said Dominikus Schmidt, Managing Director of the organizing Hamburg Golf Association. He would like to continue to establish the tournament as a top-class event and would be happy if even more players came from Europe in the coming year.
"Such an event is super important for our squad players, they have the opportunity to measure themselves against first-class competitors without having to travel far," says youth national coach Jens Weißhaupt. By hosting your own tournament, the North German boys and girls are guaranteed at least one wild card to start. "In big tournaments elsewhere, the number of starters is limited for us by ranking lists - it's also logistically difficult to get anywhere with 17 players." So Gut Kaden was and is ideal.
Club Managing Director Wolfgang Mych was accordingly very satisfied with the entire event. "Our course is not easy to play, you can see that in the result: With the boys, only the winner underplayed the course standard after three rounds with two, with the girls nine strokes over were enough to win" , Mych stated and said: "It has to be like that in a top-class tournament. It's good for the players to experience what it's like to play in an international tournament."
The young activists could only agree. The great atmosphere was also appreciated. Directly in the starting house at the first tee A1, Morris Tesch as DJ “Mr. Happy” set up his system and greeted the players with their favorite songs.
"This is a tournament for the youngsters," said Schmidt. This also included a constant presence in social networks. Instagram was full of pictures and impressions, and there was also a live stream on the internet from the first tee.
Next year the tournament will take place again from July 17th to 21st. Gut Kaden is ready - "our members are happy to support the tournament," says Wolfgang Mych. Thanks to the financial commitment of the city of Hamburg as an "Active City Event" and sponsors such as Porsche, Vilsa and the German Golf Association, there was almost a "black zero". Nevertheless, the HGV is urgently looking for a name sponsor. Then Schmidt and his fellow campaigners at HIYO 2023 can at least go one step further.
Andrew Hardt