Personal Data
Eva: Hungarian, handicap 16,3. Female Clubchampion 2025
André: German, handicap 9,2. Male Clubchampion 2025
Questions:
Eva and André, you are our Club champions 2025. Congratulations for that! As Club champion, you have been invited to play the “Belgian Masters”-tournament at Falnuée GC end of August. How was this experience?
Eva: Thank you for the nice words! It was the first time I played the Belgian Masters. There were club champions from all over Belgium and I played with the ones from Mont-Garni, Rougemont and Ragnies. I was thrilled to be part of it and I found it a great experience, not only because of the excitement of competing with very good players but also because of the “championship” atmosphere created by the organisers during the two days tournament. I was positively surprised that while we were competing, the players were supportive of each other. It was also nice to meet new people from other parts of Belgium and learn about their club lives. The bonus was that Roberto caddied me.
André: Very interesting tournament! I had already qualified as Men’s club champion in 2020 and 2021, but this year was the first time I could actually participate. In 2020 the event was cancelled because of COVID and in 2021 because of heavy floodings (with holes 16, 17 and 18, the clubhouse, restaurant drowned). Overall, it was a great experience! In comparison to other courses, Falnuée was in very good condition. The club had tried to do its best to offer a competitive course. The greens were - especially on day one - a bit too short cut (many of the scratch players in the field were complaining about them being ‘unreadable’). In the end, nobody in the field managed to stay par or below in total for the two days! On day one, I had the pleasure to be in the flight together with Jean-Michel Saive (former worldclass table-tennis player, 7-times participant in Olympic games and now President of the Belgian Olympic Committee). Despite some difficult weather conditions, the atmosphere at the tournament was very positive! A big ‘thank you’ to the many volunteers and in particular to the ball spotters on the most difficult holes – without them it would have been much more difficult to play in an adequate pace!
Since when do you play Golf and how did you manage to lower your handicap? What was your best handicap ever?
Eva: I have been playing for 13 years now. The big break came last year when I decided to take a series of lessons to improve both my long and short game. With improving my game, my self-confidence has grown which resulted in better scoring. I had also bought clubs that fitted my game better. But as Arnold Palmer said, the road to success is always under construction.
André: I started around 1994, at university in Freiburg i.Br. in Germany. After the two group courses and some individual lessons with a teaching Pro, I got the ‘brevet’ from the German Golf Federation and then joined the ‘VCG’ (the golf club of ‘clubfree’ players), allowing me to play on green fee basis in the majority of the German golf clubs. I then found a small (then still 9 holes) golf club in the black forest (GC Ortenau, I am still a member there today!). At that time, there was a high membership demand vs a low number of golf courses in Germany. My handicap went down quickly to 30 and then it was converted to even 27 with the introduction of the Course Ratings, where it remained for almost 15 years! I did not play much during 10 years between 2001 and 2010. Since I took up golf again, I could continuously lower my handicap. In Belgium, I joined in 2015 IGC, in 2017 The National and the EUGC in 2019. My lowest handicap ever was 8,5 under the old system, and it is 9,2 under the new WHS. My ‘highlights’ as a player have been several gros rounds close to the par of the course!
What would be your advice to other EUGC-members, who want to keep or improve their handicap?
Eva: Taking lessons is always useful and to find the right Pro who provides personalised advice, taking into account the age and physical conditions of the player. I would also say that club fitting is important. I wish I had listened to those who gave this advise when we started playing golf. I would have not only saved a lot of money by not buying the wrong clubs but I would have played better much sooner!
André: The ‘secret’ (if there is any) for lowering my handicap has been a combination of playing frequently (at least once per week), playing many tournament rounds (but not only), playing on many different courses, and exercising continuously the short game around and on the greens! Try to eliminate your weaknesses!
Like Eva, I would also recommend members to start working (again) regularly with a Pro. Taking lessons will not only most likely improve your results, but also lead to more overall satisfaction regarding your golf game, not only during the EUGC rounds!
As to the EUGC, the club should consider to offer even more qualifying rounds! By default, all Asterisk rounds should be qualifying, including those played abroad! Under the WHS, there is no justification to not register rounds played abroad as well as qualifying rounds. Playing some Asterisk rounds as qualifying, and others not, is also indirectly intervening with the fairness of the * (Asterisk) competition: If players score high results without getting their handicap lowered and thus playing their next * (Asterisk) competition with a higher handicap than they have in reality, it would be to the potential detriment of their fellow competitors! Also, club members should not hesitate to represent the club in team competitions like the Challenge du Printemps. And, there should be real ‘stroke play’ competitions, e.g. in form of Monthly medal tournaments, as an additional type of competition, with ‘gros’ prizes at the prize givings! It could help further elevating the sportive level of the club and its members!
