Malta Golf Association

05/08/2026

A HISTORICAL WEEK FOR MALTA GOLF

This year’s edition of the European Golf Association’s EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS has just written history in the books of golf in Malta in more ways than one.

As Royal Malta Golf Club completed its investment in improving the greens, the possibility of hosting such an international tournament became a reality for the first time since the country affiliated to the EGA in 2007. In agreement with the RMGC, the Malta Golf Association embraced the opportunity to organise the country’s first international tournament under the umbrella of one of its governing bodies.

14 men teams and 10 women teams entered the tournament equalling a record of participation that was first set in 2017 and repeated in 2021. Each team was composed of four players who played an individual stroke play qualifier on the first day followed by three days of match play knock out rounds. The men teams were from Albania, Andorra, Bosnia & Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Romania, Serbia and Turkey. The ladies’ teams were from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Romania, San Marino, Turkey and Ukraine.

Malta’s men team was composed of Andy Borg, Ruud Critien, Oliver Davies and JJ Micallef Verelst with Ruud acting as playing captain. Elliana Buhagiar, Laya Cristina, Serena Falzon Sant Manduca and Filippa Schulze Doering composed the women’s team under the captaincy of Noah Gratil. Both teams were under the coaching abilities of Nicholas Zaher. Andreas Schwaab joined the team to help with their mental performance.

In the stroke play qualifier the men’s team aggregate score of -3 placed them in third place putting them against Romania for the first round of the match play knockout stage. The women’s team +10 score placed them in second place meaning that they needed to face Ukraine. Another record was broken during the stroke play rounds when Turkey’s Zeynep Sualp three under par round shattered the women’s RMGC course record and Cyprus’ Andreas Loizides five under par matched the men’s.

In their first play round, the Malta women had three comfortable wins against Ukraine which set them to play against San Marino who were playing for the first time in the championship. Despite their callowness in the tournament, San Marino were not easily won over, and Malta had to remain sharp until the ending holes to eventual make it through to the final with two wins out of three. Having had a bye in the first round due to their first placing in the stroke play, Turkey had in the meantime beaten Bulgaria in the semi-final to set up an encounter with the home team. Playing against the strongest ladies’ team in the tournament, the Malta women stood their ground until the very end to lose with the smallest margins. One match was won on the 18th; another was lost on the 18th and the third lost on the 17th hole. This handed Turkey their fifth gold medal in the tournament’s history, but the Malta women won their first silver medal in only their third appearance. Bulgaria took bronze.

The men’s team had a similar experience in the first match play round with a comfortable win against Romania whom they overcame by two points to one. The semifinal against Latvia was a different affair and possibly the highlight moment of the tournament. Having already lost one match on the 15th hole, Malta’s other two matches were both one down playing the last hole in regulation meaning that they had to somehow turn everything around to make it to the final. This they did in an incredible fashion. After winning the 18th with a birdie, the foursomes pair proceeded to win the first extra hole to level the result leaving Malta’s fate hanging in the hands of the other singles match. A clutch putt for a birdie levelled the match on the 18th but it took four extra holes and some incredible putting for Malta to eventually win the match.

In the gold medal match, Turkey took the host team the distance, all three matches reaching the 17th or beyond. With one singles match lost on the 17th and the other won on the 18th, this left the fate of the medal colour in the hands of the foursomes. Turkey won the 18th hole to level the match and force a play-off, but the Malta pair held their nerve and managed to close off the match on the 19th to secure Malta's first ever EGA gold medal. Bulgaria took bronze.

This gold medal brings the tally for the Malta men team to 1 gold, 4 silver and 4 bronze to leapfrog them in third place of the total medal table behind Lithuania who have two gold medals and Greece who have managed to win this tournament five times.

The MGA takes this opportunity to thank all those who have helped to make this tournament a success – EGA, R&A, Royal Malta Golf Club, Marsa Sports Club, AX Odycy, Paramount Coaches, FRCM Medical team as well as the volunteers who gave up their personal time to assist in the running of the tournament.

Special thanks are forwarded to SportMalta, Visit Malta and the MOC for their financial assistance towards the organisation and hosting of this event as well as towards meeting the coaching consultation expenses.

03/08/2026

27/04/2026

A record number of 30 teams participated in this year’s edition of the MGA Generation Cup. The tournament was played in a Texas Scramble net medal format over 18 holes. Another 8 teams participated in the subsidiary competition in a similar format but over only 8 holes.

Meant for very young Junior Academy players accompanied by an adult, the subsidiary competition was won by JJ Micallef and his cousin Michael with a net score of 29. This was two shots better than father and son duo Silvano and Edoardo Cafolla. David and Anthony Lambon – another father and son combination – placed third a further two points behind.

The first places in the main tournament all feature father and son combination. With a net 58, David and Ralph Debone placed first with a clear two shots ahead of Guido and Ruud Critien. Third place was snapped by Irwin and Noah Gratil on countback considerations from Demis and Doulton Tonna as well as William and Nicholas Beck.

30 out of the 38 participating teams had a player that is currently frequenting the RMGC Junior Academy. Unfortunately, only 19 players out of the 76 were female. We look forward to an increase in female numbers next year and to another buoyant competition in a very family and friendly environment which was happily evident in this year’s edition with the RMGC’s restaurant being full of the participants and their families.

05/04/2026

MALTA JUNIOR OPEN 2026

The 8th edition of the tournament has just been played at the Royal Malta Golf Club over three days in very difficult weather conditions characterized by very strong cold winds, at times reaching gale force, coupled with heavy rain showers. The tournament set a record with 99 participants who travelled from 23 different countries to join another 12 local members to participate in the event which is endorsed by The R&A towards the World Amateur Golf Ranking points system. The four largest participating nationals hailed from Austria, Germany, Poland and Turkey.

The format of the competition was medal stroke play with the winner declared as the player having the best gross aggregate score over 54 holes. Three categories were in place – one for the under-21, one for the under-18 and another for the under-16. The conditions for the competition, took care of gender equality by making sure that both the best boys and the best girls in each category were equally awarded with an additional criterion that the joint winners of the Malta Junior Open were to be chosen from those players in the under-18 or under-16 category.

Of the 111 participants, 58 were boys and 53 were girls. On paper, the best two boy players had a handicap of +4.1 and + 3.3 whilst the two best girl players had a handicap of +4.1 and +3.7. Overall, 33 players registered with a scratch handicap or better than scratch and another 43 players had a handicap better than 5.0.

Out of 333 scores returned over the three days, only twelve were to level par 69 or better and only two aggregate scores were to level par or under for. The best aggregate score from a boy player was 3 under for the course whilst that from a girl player was 13 over par.

The under-21 girls’ category was won by Julia Bauer from Austria with an aggregate of +27 for the three days. Julia led the tournament at the end of day one four shots ahead of compatriot Elena Doberauer but saw this lead reduced to nothing for the two girls to tie at the end of the second day. Julia then remastered the category during the last round to finally win it by five clear shots ahead of Elena. Third and fourth places were taken by Amalie Stevens Christiansen and Laura Cheng Milsgaard both from Denmark.

In the under-21 boys, a two under par on day one from Oliver Davis assured him the category’s win as his fellow competitors were unable to bridge the gap on subsequent days due to the weather conditions. Oliver travelled from Australia but has also Maltese citizenship due to his mother. His aggregate of one over par was seven shots to the better from Federico Randazzo from Italy. Third place went to Andreas Lozzides from Cyprus and fourth to Benjamin Piesczek from Austria.

In the under-18 girls, after thirty-six holes, Chiara Bauer Mitterlehner from Austria, Maria Khristenko from Latvia, Iiris Matas from Estonia and Deniz Sapmaz from Turkey were all tied in second position a good seven shots behind Isabel Sophie Morato Brede from Germany. A two-over par on the third round from Chiara compared to a nine-over from Isabel Sophie necessitated a sudden death play-off to determine the overall winner of the category. Chiara’s birdie to Sophie’s par, secured her the win. Maria, Iiris and Deniz finished overall third, fourth and fifth respectively.

The under-18 boys’ category was perhaps the most exciting with eight boys playing to level par or under on the first day. Aleksandr Vagimov’s two-under par led the field one ahead of three other players including Stephan Csongei. The latter repeated his performance on the second day to leapfrog Aleksandr by one shot assuring an exciting third day. Whilst these two were battling for the top position, Malte Seidemann from Germany was having the best round out of all the 111 players and came in with the best one round score over the three days with a 3 under par. This secured him third overall place ahead of Malta’s Noah Gratil. Aleksandr – also a member of Royal Malta – duplicated his first-round performance to clinch the first place from Stephan with a three-shot difference.

Two girls from Austria and one from Germany met on the first tee of the third day vying to win the under-16 category with only one shot separating them. In the end, Lisa Huszar from Austria managed to secure the first podium place by four shots from her compatriot Paula Dutzler. Germany’s Paula Schmitter took third place one shot ahead of Ada Narin from Turkey.

A similar unclarity prevailed in the under-16 boys with seven players with four shots of each other after 36 holes played. A one over par on the final day was enough for Ezra Hartland from England to win the category five shots ahead of Sebastian Aigner from Austria. Emil Maijala from Finland secured third place on count back from Antoni Fijalkowski from Poland.

According to the terms of the competition, Chiara Bauer-Mitterlehner from German and Aleksandr Vagimov from Malta were declared winners of the Malta Junior Open 2026 – with Alex becoming the first Malta player to win this tournament.

Full results can be seen on:
http://www.maltagolf.org/tournaments/malta-open #/competition/5327497/results

The other prize on offer was for the best net score from a local player. This was claimed by Grace Lewen Wang who played an aggregate of twenty-five under her course playing handicap.

A highlight of the tournament was the hole in one achieved by Austria’s Marie Schweighofer on the 13th hole during the second day.

Parallel to this event, a subsidiary competition for the RMGC’s Junior Academy Eagle players was held. Four boys and two girls started in the tournament, which was played in Stableford format from the same yellow and blue tee markers as the main competition. Flynn O’Neill took the honours playing level to his handicap – well ahead of Pelyun Chai and Krista Formosa who had 87 and 81 points respectively.

On behalf of the Organizing Committee, I extend our special thanks to Takomo and VisitMalta, our other corporate and individual sponsors and the volunteers without which the accomplishment of the tournament would have been impossible.

Our appreciation is extended to the Royal Malta Golf Club, the Marsa Sports Club, Sport Malta and to all those who helped to make this tournament a wonderful success.

William Beck
3rd April 2026