Minigolf-WC 2011 Stockholm

WOW 6: Eva Andersson, Sweden! She had not played a international championship since 2004. But when Eva heard that the World Championships went to Stockholm and her home club Tantogården BGK, she decided to make a come back.

And what a come back! After a 10th place in the strokeplay championships nobody had any expectations on Eva.

But after knocking out Klukas, SUI, Kern, GER (strokeplay WC), Heschl, AUT (bronze strokeplay) she was in the final! She won every match with 2 lanes!

In the final she had to face Bianca Oberweg, Germany. With a swollen merit list including: 3 EC goldmedals and 2 WC goldmedals among others...

After a shaky finnish on the eternite course by Bianca and with a 3 on lane 2 on the concrete, Eva was 2 up with 7 lanes left. But Bianca refused to go home without a individual goldmedal. She aced 6 out of 7 last lanes!!! Fantastic!!! But Eva offered resistence. They were all square with 3 lanes left and both players aced lane 15, 17 and 18 on the concrete! What a thriller!!!

The sudden death started with the looping on the eternite and both player missed. The Bianca aced the bridge and Eva had to ace to stay alive.

Eva missed and the german team could celebrate Bibi Oberweg!

A heroic and epic final, but Evas comeback was truly one of the highlights of the World Championships.

WOW 4: Going in to the last round the standing in the ladies strokeplay championship looked like this:

1. Stefanie Kern, GER 223

2 Bianca Oberweg, GER 224

3. Karin Heschl, AUT 226

Karin was never close to threaten the german duo. Bianca played fantastic in the beginning and after acing lane 7 she was tied with Kern. And after acinng both lane 8 and 9 she could feel the taste of gold in her mouth.

But Stefanie Kern had not given up. After a great finnish and shaky play by Bianca they where tied with 2 lanes left. Both finnished 2, 1 and we had a sudden death.

Stefanie played first on lane 1 on the concrete and ACED IT! And when bianca missed Stefanie Kern was world champion!

WOW 5: When Harald and Walter Erlbruch came to Stockholm they was of course aiming for gold medals. Maybe they had dreamt about it but I don´t think they ever could imagine them selves both playing the WC-final.

But after Harald knocked out Huus, DEN, Kapke, GER, Strasko, CZE and Noack, GER¨and Walter knocked out Weber, AUT (sudden death), Kristiansson, SWE, Porta, ITA (won the last to lanes on the eternite to win w 1) and Gustafsson, SWE (reigning WC) their dream came true.

The final was relaxed between the 2 icons of minigolf. No cheering, but a lot of jokes. Of course the final went to sudden death and on the looping Walter was the strongest. Danke für die show!

WOW 1: Swedens first day in the mens team event!

 Head coach Jan Strandberg told me the night before that the practice had been amazing. He also said: If we play like this I think we will be very hard to beat.

Sweden had an average on the eternite of 21,7 and on the concrete 26,2!

All the swedes were in the top-15 on the straight list!

WOW 2: The amazing finnish in the ladies team event!

If Austrias Elisabeth Gruber would ace lane 18 on the concrete (easiest lane), Austria would have won the gold. She shot a 4 and when Bianca Oberweg a little bit later stepped up to play the same lane she knew that a 2 would be enough to take the gold. She aced and could scream out her relief and happiness.

WOW 3: My personal highlight och the WC was the final round of the mens strokeplay championships.

The standing before the last round on the concrete was:

1. Marco Henning, GER 208

2. Filiph Svensson, SWE 211

3. Harald Erlbruch, GER 213

Harald had a craving for gold and started the round with 6 aces in a row! So now Henning was 2 up on Erlbruch and 3 on Svensson. After that it was all Svensson-show! He aced lane 7 and followed that with 9 aces out of 11! He also aced the last 5 lanes when he should have been shaky and nervous. The crowd was exstatic, cheering "Fille" loudly after every ace! This will be a memory I will cherish for the rest of my life.

The Minigolf World Championships 2011 is over.

And what a fantastic event it was.

More or less perfect weather (at least during the competition).

A perfectly arranged event. I praise everybody who worked with the WC. Especially all the volunteers. Well done and thank you!

And the competitions, WOW!

Swedens sensational first day in the mens team event.

Austria and Germanys battle in the ladies ream event.

Filiph Svenssons finnish in the mens strokeplay championships.

Oberweg and Kerns thriller in the ladies strokeplay championships.

The Erlbruch brothers dream final in the mens matchplay championships.

Eva Anderssons sensational performance in the ladies matchplay championships.

Eva Andersson and Bianca Oberwegs incredible final in the ladies matchplay championships.