Visiting my parents, my wife and I got the chance to meet up with our friends Bettina and Mario to play some golf. Their home club was hosting a tournament, so they picked a course behind Ulm that we would play that sunday. Golfclub Reischenhof is situated in the countryside near Illertissen and features 27 holes on hilly meadows covered with apple trees, thus neatly fitting into the agricultural countryside.

We arrived there on 09:30 on a sunday morning and the clubhouse was still closed, so we put our greenfee in the deposit box and walked over to the driving range through the
converted barn, now serving as the locker room for the members. The whole course was covered in dense fog, so we were oly able to see some 100 - 150 meters.

The first sings of live we saw on the putting green, it was freshly cut and - despite being wet from the fog - so friggin’ fast, you just tickled the ball and it ran like Carl Lewis in his best times. After our warmup, we proceeded to the first tee, about to play the A/B combination of the course, named Hörnle and Autenweiler. The first hole already showed us what we had to expect from this course: downhill, uphill and sidehill lies (almost as extreme as Castro Marim), trees or water hazards, demanding a solid club and course management and extremly fast greens. Keeping the ball in the fairway was the key to good scores on this baby, as already the semirough imposed a challenge, being wet and extremly thick.

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Wednesday, 27. September
22.45 Eurosport, US PGA Tour: Texas Open in San Antonio, TX (USA)

Saturday, 30. September 2006
18.30 n-tv, Abschlag - Golf bei n-tv

Europe goes into the final day of the Ryder Cup with a 10:6 lead over the US. I’ll be curious to see how the Americans turn this one around.

For all you newbees out there, check out Bogeylounge’s Ryder Cup guide. Jürgen Kalwa over at American Arena writes some good analysis of the first two days, go check them out. And for the latest in scores and news, check the good old BBC. Enjoy the sunday. I’m gone golfin’.

The fifth and final game day took place this friday at GC Stolper Heide. Golfers Delight was up against Team Gahlenz on the West Course of Stolper Heide (built by Bernhard Langer). It was a question of honor to show up, even with a high win we couldn’t get in one of the top four spots to earn a place in the 2006 finals. So the goal was to get out there and give the other team a hard time and have some fun on the course.

My team let me down so I had to take on the opponent alone. Rainer and Carsten of Team Gahlenz agreed, that one would play the even and one would play the odd holes. A tough challenge it would be to beat them, Rainer plays a 4 HCP, Carsten a 10 HCP (after only two years of playing golf) and on the other side was me with me fresh 26.3 HCP. But hey, it was a sunny september day, so let’s get out there and whack the tiny white ball.

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Browsing through the pics of my handycam, I bumped into this pic of my almost-hole-in-one. It was last november when I played my first matchplay against Christoph. This was the closest I got to a hole in one. My tee shot hit the flagstick, bounced and rolled back 1,5 meters. Sure birdie putt though! Nice memories!

Match 1 – 8.00am
Tiger Woods and Jim Furyk v Padraig Harrington and Colin Montgomerie

Match 2 – 8.15am
Stewart Cink and J.J. Henry v Paul Casey and Robert Karlsson

Match 3 – 8.30am
David Toms and Brett Wetterich v Sergio Garcia and José Maria Olazábal

Match 4 – 8.45am
Phil Mickelson and Chris DiMarco v Darren Clarke and Lee Westwood

Full story here!

As a pastime until the real action starts, take BBC’s Ryder Cup quiz and test, how much you know about the incidents and controversies of the tournament.

I bumped into something strange the other day. Golf Punk magazine offers this great pic of Pacific Dunes in its current issue:

And then, I saw this pic on BBC Sports website, covering the HSBC world matchplay at Wentworth:

If you look close, this has to be the same course: the live-saver in the back, the little bridge in the middle, the white shadow on the tree in the back. Looks like somebody got the wrong picture, Golf Punk?

Edit: Looks like Kevin Patrick took the pic, check out his beautiful golf shots over at flickr!

Mercedes-Benz is to return to The European Tour International Schedule as a title sponsor with the announcement today that Langer Sport Marketing will promote the Mercedes-Benz Championship at Golf Club Gut Lärchenhof in Pulheim, near Cologne, Germany, on September 13-16, 2007.

The Mercedes-Benz Championship will continue the traditional Tour competition staged by Langer Sport Marketing since the launch of the German Masters in 1987. The three year contract between Mercedes-Benz and Langer Sport Marketing was signed today.

The Mercedes-Benz Championship will comprise of a field of 75 players taken from the winners on The 2007 European Tour International Schedule and players from the top 75 of the Official World Ranking and the top 60 of The 2007 European Tour Order of Merit.

Host Bernhard Langer confirmed his delight in the partnership with the new title sponsor. He said: “Mercedes–Benz is recognised as a sporting brand worldwide and we are thrilled to be in partnership with them again. The new concept will provide an exclusive field of players and we will be able to present golf on a very high level in Germany and Europe in the future. I am looking forward to this co-operation.”

This will be the 20th edition of Bernhard Langer´s tournament and with its rich history of winners, including Major Champions Seve Ballesteros, Michael Campbell, Retief Goosen, José Maria Olazábal, and of course, Bernhard on no fewer than four occasions, we eagerly anticipate another exciting and eventful tournament.