Amelkis Classic: 18th career win for Marcel Haremza

He finished with birdies on 17 and 18 and in a very impressive way made clear that he was not willing to move on to a play-off on this sunny afternoon in Marrakech/Morocco: Marcel Haremza, 32 year old PGA golf professional from Germany, won the 2010 Amelkis Classic in style with 13 under par. After three rounds he was two strokes ahead of Tiago Cruz from Portugal, winner of the Samanah Classic last Thursday. Third place went to Englishman Grant Jackson

By Matthias Lettenbichler

Marrakech (Morocco) – It was his 8th victory on the EPD Tour and his 18th career win, but this one maybe more than any other was a result of self-consciousness and being well prepared at the right time: Marcel Haremza, an EPD Tour veteran and an experienced Challenge Tour player, a man always capable to hit a golfball far beyond the 350 yard line, has been working on his short game pretty intense over the last few month.

This had always been the part of his game with the biggest potential to improve, and the longhitter always knew that he would be in pretty good contention in any golf tournament in the world whenever his short game would come to a reliable high standard, as well.

Especially on layouts that demand solid drives and long irons into the greens Haremza is regularly endangered to win a tournament as he is able to reach any putting surface with one or two strokes, just on long par 5 Holes he sometimes needs a third stroke. In Marrakech in Morocco, where the Amelkis Classic, the 7th and last tournament of the 2010 EPD Tour Winter Series was played, he took command from the very beginning, played 65 strokes on the 1st day and kept pole position also after the 2nd round of the tournament when it took him 70 strokes to finish on the par 72 course. With a four stroke margin he went into the final day. But after a bogey on Hole 14 he still saw himself drop back to 2nd place on the Leaderboard: Tiago Cruz from Portugal, winner of the Samanah Classic last Thursday, had made an eagle at the 18 hole of the Amelkis Golf Course and was now waiting in the clubhouse with a remarkable 63 on his scorecard.

“I knew I would have to make one more birdie to get into the play-off”, Haremza later explained. But as he made this birdie right away on Hole 15 and two more on 17 and 18 for a final round 68 there was no play-off but another impressive triumph of the 32 year old German. 2nd place went to Tiago Cruz (70, 72, 63/-11) who made an 18-position-major-move on the Leaderboard. Grant Jackson secured 3rd place with 9 under par (70, 70, 67).

4814 euro prize money lifted Haremza to runner-up position on the EPD Tour Order of Merit. 1st place is still taken by his fellow countryman Nicolas Meitinger from Cologne, and also the 3rd place is owned by a German professional: Daniel Wuensche from Munich completes the top 3 of the rankings.

The Amelkis Classic was the third tournament of the 2010 season in Morocco, event No. 7 in total and the last tournament of this year’s Winter Series that included also four tournaments in Belek/Turkey.

It will now take till the 17th of May before the members of the EPD Tour get back on the tee: Then the Heidelberg Lobenfeld Classic in Heidelberg/Germany is on the schedule, tournament No. 8 of a total of 20 events his season. Fotos: EPD Tour