Double success for England's Waring at the European Deaf Golf Championships

By Gary Anderson

September 21 - English golfer Paul Waring had a successful trip to the Kytäjä Golf Course in Finland where he bagged the men's title and team honours at the European Deaf Open Golf Championships to become the nation's first deaf golfer to win an international tournament.

The 17-year-old negotiated the Kytäjä course near Hyvinkää with rounds of 72 and 79 to finish three shots clear of Scandinavian rivals Andreas Nilsson of Sweden, Denmark's Hans Elgaard and Norwegian Andrea Hjellegjerde, to claim the European title.

Hjellegjerde had earlier brought cheers from the crowd as she fired in a spectacular hole-in-one on the eighth hole.

In the Stableford competitions, Johanna Mesch of Sweden won the ladies' Championship and Arne Karlsnes of Norway won the men's.

The tournament, organised by the World Deaf Golf Federation (WDGF), saw 54 golfers from seven countries take part in competition.

Following English success in the singles event, attention turned to the team competition and once again history was made as Waring and teammates Jay Stally, Michael Burris and captain Martin Anderson - representing the nation's A team - clinched the European title for the first time.

With the format of the competition based on the best aggregate scores of each team's top three golfers, Waring's 72 and 79, allied to Anderson's 80 and 83, and rounds of 80 and 82 from Burris saw the squad tie with Sweden.

That meant that the fourth player's scores were taken into account and even after Stally's 81 and 85, both sides could not be separated, however a superior score on the back nine holes from England saw them awarded the European crown on their debut in the competition.

The successful England A team celebrate winning the European Deaf Open Golf Championship team title at Kytäjä Golf Course

"Kytäjä Golf was a very tough but beautiful course and it had just recently held the Finnish Open at the start of August," said a delighted Anderson.

"With greens running at 14 on the Stimpmeter, water and bunkers guarding greens and fairways, it was certainly not a feat for the faint hearted."

After the tournament, which also saw the England B team of Jason Albutt, Peter Baker, Mark Forrest and Ben Stephens finish fourth behind Denmark, Anderson revealed that he was stepping down after three years as England captain, in which time he led the side to a number of Four Nations titles.

"I very much enjoyed my tenure as captain leading teams to successes and also being there as a figurehead for deaf participants to approach me," he said.

The next European Deaf Golf Open Championships are scheduled took place in Scandinavia once again, this time in Norway in 2015.

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