Minigolf Youth Shine in Austria

Voitsberg, Austria - Over 5 days, more than 50 youth minigolfers 19 and under from 10 countries battled it out for medal supremacy over a variety of categories at the bi-annual Youth World Championships.  This event, played over two courses at the BGC Lipizzanerheimat Minigolfanlage Voitsberg, saw winners in the following categories: male and female strokeplay and matchplay categories, as well as male and female national team strokeplay and mixed pairs strokeplay.  As expected we saw plenty of medals from the German minigolfers but a variety of players made their way to the medals including some unexpected names.

The nations invested many practice days to find the perfect ball material and playing strategies. However, not only did the physical aspect play a role in the preparation, but mental health was also thematized. As a cooperation between United Through Sports (UTS) and the World Minigolf Sport Federation (WMF), a workshop was held for the youth players and coaches to get an overview of mental health, why it is essential and how it can be improved. It has been proven in several sports by several athletes that by controlling your mind, you control the game and increase your performance. We hope to see more of these collaborations in the future!

The first two days focus is on the team events and setting players up for the individual category finals later in the week.  The team tournament consists of 8 rounds of play, with four each on the felt and miniaturegolf (Eternit) courses. In this competition it was Germany that dominated, winning both the male and youth categories. Lead by Elena Weber and her 26 on felt in round 5, the German girls took first by a 20 stroke margin over Austria, who in turn beat out Sweden for silver by 11 strokes. The German boys showed even more dominance as they cleared second place Sweden by nearly 40 strokes.  The competition was tighter for silver but 19s by Elias Wejsfelt, Albin Leanders and Melker Rundqvist helped secure a 5 stroke victory over the bronze medalist Austria.  

Female Youth Team Podium

Male Youth Team Podium

The next four rounds focused on completing the individual titles with 15 males and 9 females making the cut for the final laps on both miniaturegolf and felt. While the German girls continued their dominance the scoreboard looked a bit different on the male side. Elena Weber would continue her run and win the gold in the Female Youth category, outpacing her countrywoman Annika Sophia Hensel by 9 strokes in the end. Isabell Möller of Sweden broke up the German podium and took bronze over Annalena Danerrder of Austria by 5 strokes. It was Erik Nilsson of Sweden, coming off success at the World Adventure Golf Masters in June, who topped the Male Youth leaderboard, holding on by 1 stroke as Patrick Schleich of Austria made a late charge for a home gold in the final round. It was Nilsson's 18 on miniaturegolf in the 11th round that gave him the lead to hold onto.  Following close behind was Dominik Šebor of Czechia who followed up back-to-back 19s on miniaturegolf with a blazing 22 on felt to close out his strokeplay tournament and move himself up into the bronze medal. That would also be the podium for the complete strokeplay competition.

Annika Sophia Hensel (Silver - Germany), Elena Weber (Gold - Germany), Isabell Möller (Bronze - Sweden)

Patrick Schleich (Silver - Austria), Erik Nilsson (Gold - Sweden), Dominik Šebor (Bronze - Czechia)

In the mixed pairs strokeplay, 16 teams battled over 4 rounds to determine the winner. In the end it was a final round 27 on felt by the German team of Annika Sophia Hensel and Luis Buchwieser that pushed them to gold by 2 strokes. The Czechia team of Stepanka Tupa and Dominik Šebor would also secure their silver by 2 strokes over the Swedish team of Amanda Eriksson and Elias Kandevik.

Stepanka Tupa and Dominik Šebor (Silver - Czechia), Annika Sophia Hensel and Luis Buchwieser (Gold - Germany), Amanda Eriksson and Elias Kandevik (Bronze - Sweden)

The final day saw matchplay for the top 16 females and top 32 males from the strokeplay competition. It was all Germany on the male side of the bracket with Luis Buchwieser securing his second gold of the competition in a mostly dominating run through the field. Sky Joèl Kaspar took silver and Jonas Rabe beat out yet another German, Jan Malte Stief, for the bronze.  The female competition saw the youth really shine on the last day. At only 11 years old, Sofie Küstner from the home country Austria became Youth World Champion in matchplay, followed by Amanda Eriksson from Sweden (13 years old) and Jonanna Winterhoff from Germany (14 years old).

Sky Joèl Kaspar (Silver - Germany), Luis Buchwieser (Gold - Germany), Jonas Rabe (Bronze - Germany)

Amanda Eriksson (Silver - Sweden), Sofie Küstner (Gold - Austria), Jonanna Winterhoff (Bronze - Germany)

Besides celebrating new champions and medal winners at the Youth World Championship, many international connections and friendships were built among the participants. To support the social interaction, the main organizer, Christian Gobetz, and his team prepared the player's party, where the athletes in mixed teams had to overcome different team challenges, like building towers, archery and many more. One challenge was organized by the Austrian Special Olympics hockey team, which challenged the minigolf athletes in a different sport and provided a broadening of perspectives.

Medal Count

Germany  9 - 5G, 2S, 2B

Sweden 6 - 1G, 2S, 3B

Austria 4 - 1G, 2S, 1B

Czechia 2 - 1S, 1B

Please make sure to check out the WMF Youth Facebook page for many more photos and the WMF Instagram account (@worldminigolfsport) for some great viral reels from the event.  We also opened the World Minigolf Sport TikTok account (@worldminigolfsport) for this event and hope to use it to extend minigolf's reach. This event reached over 5 million accounts across platforms and earned us over 2,000 new followers on Instagram alone. With that, the WMF's social media activity has reached a new record and is helping the minigolf sport to gain more visibility and fans. On the other hand, the danger of hate speech in social media is not ignored, which is why the WMF media lays a high focus on making the platform as safe as possible from toxic negativity. Therefore, all are asked to support the positive development of minigolf sports by sharing fairness and kindness.

At this point, a big shoutout to everyone involved in making the event what it was: the main organizer and minigolf course owner in Voitsberg, Christian Gobetz, with his team, United Through Sports, for bringing in the education aspect and support to the development of the sport, the Special Olympics hockey team from Austria, the WMF representatives, tournament organizers, referees, and media team,  and of course all the athletes, coaches, supervisors, as well as their friends and families and everyone that followed this years Youth World Championship on-site or online - "THANK YOU!"