Course record 63: Kramer secures 2nd 2010 victory

It is just two weeks ago that he won the Licher Classic in style and as a consequence moved up to 2nd place in the EPD Tour Order of Merit: “I really want to win the final 2010 rankings”, he said after his first triumph of this season in Lich. Now Max Kramer has made a huge step to fulfill his announcement: With 19 under par the 26 year old from Frankfurt/Germany triumphed at the Brose Open in Coburg, secured himself the 4814 euro cheque and  made him the new No. 1 of the EPD Tour Order of Merit. Portugals Tiago Cruz and Ben Parker from England shared 2nd place after three rounds of brilliant golf in Coburg

by Matthias Lettenbichler

Coburg/Germany – Maybe it was Coburg’s red rough not being that thick, that long and that nasty this time. Maybe it was the superb greens that made putts possible even from the very far distance. Whatever reason: The players showed terrific performance on the par 72 course of the Coburg Golf-Club in Germany.

On the first day Ben Parker, an Englishman living in Hamburg since a few years (picture on the right), shot a new course record 63 when he made five birdies and two eagles in his opening round. Scoring 66 on Monday gave him the lead with 15 under par, five shots ahead of Max Kramer who had 65 and 69 strokes on his scorecard after two days. The cut was at par and lifted 44 players into the final round.

In this final round around the Tambach Castle Parkers 5-shot-lead was gone pretty soon because now Max Kramer matched the course record, made 10 birdies and one bogey and Parker himself struggled a little bit with a double-bogey at 11. He finally fought back with birdies on 13, 16 and 17 and scored 70 in round 3 so share 2nd place with Tiago Cruz. The Portuguese not only had a flawless final round 64 with 8 birdies on the 3rd day but played a perfect tournament with not a single bogey on his scorecard in any of his three rounds (68, 67, 64/-17).

But all this superb golf was not good enough to stop Max Kramer on his way to the top of the leaderboard. After 17 holes of the final round the young German had completed no less than 10 birdies. On hole 18, a – let’s call it interesting finishing hole – he had made birdies in rounds 1 and 2 attacking the flag over a group of apple trees that stand around in the landing zone of this par 4 and have caused some dramatic finals in the history of the Brose Open already. But this time Max Kramer decided not to take the risky path – and was punished right away: His second shot was on the green but 12 meters from the flag. His first putt came short and the second liped out. So he had to write his 1st bogey of the day – still matching the course record and securing himself the trophy.

“I was really surprised by the quality of the greens this year and this was a reason for me playing very good golf this week”, Kramer said after receiving the trophy from Kurt Sauernheimer, member of the board of the Brose Group, sponsor of the event.

59: Return to Habsberg

Max Kramer’s performance was good enough to take the winner’s purse filled with another 4814 euro and to storm in top position of the EPD Tour Order of Merit. With a total of 17,070 euro after 13 events of the 2010 season he is now No. 1 of the rankings, followed by his fellow countryman Daniel Wünsche (12,977 euro) and England’s Grant Jackson (12,756).

The members of the EPD Tour do get a littel break now as the next tournament is scheduled 12th to 14th July. The Fürst Fugger Privatbank Classic is a new event on the EPD Tour calendar – but it is not an unknown golf course: The 54 hole tournament will be played at the Habsberg Golf Course near Nuremberg – and this is the soil where Martin Kaymer, shot his record round 59 in 2006 when he played on the EPD Tour. So visitors will most likely be able to watch some low rounds again when the tour comes back to Habsberg.