Malta Golf Association

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

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

18/11/2025

WOODWARD and HUSNI BEY win the MGA SHIELD 2025

The 19th Malta Golf Association Shield has just been played in glorious weather at the Royal Malta Golf Club. Kindly sponsored for the fourth year running by CROSSCRAFT, 99 men and 21 women entered to play in the competition hosted at the Royal Malta Golf Club.

The prevailing good weather over the two-day aggregate Stableford tournament led to some very good scoring. On day one, 38 players went round the course level to their playing handicap with 12 scores in the 40 points and above bracket. On day two, 21 players played to their handicap or better but only four had 40 points or better.

At the end of the first day, Guan Mingi led the ladies with 42 points. Daniela Scudamore placed second with only one point back with Maria Woodward in third place with 40 points and Susan Wibrew together with Catherine Milet tied in fourth place a further point back. Apart from Catherine who kept her fourth place, the other three players shifted their placing on day two. Sue pipped Daniela for an overall second place whilst Maria leapfrogged everyone to claim first prize and her fourth win of the MGA Shield.

William Beck had the nerve to lead the men on day one after carding in 43 points. Nicholas Urpani, John Fletcher, Nicholas Laferla, Fredrik Johansson and Alexandr Vagimov all at 41 points made sure that everything was to fight for the next day. Playing together, the first four names on the list failed to perform and dropped down in the leaderboard at the end of the second day. Fredrik remained consistent and retained his second overall place followed by Aldric Gaudinot Nannan whose 40 points on the second day saw him move from twentieth to third place. In a similar fashion, 42 points from Rayan Husni Bey saw him claim first place with a clear two points margin.

The other headline for the weekend was Andrew Borg’s gross 64 for the course on the first day of the competition achieved through making a par on 13 holes and a birdie on hole numbers 2, 4, 5, 8 and 14. Well done.

Sponsor prizes were forwarded as below (limit of one prize per player):
1st Best net aggregate score from a woman player MARIA WOODWARD
2nd Best net aggregate score from a woman player SUSAN WIBREW
3rd Best net aggregate score from a woman player GUAN MINGQI
Best net score on Day 1 from a woman player DANIELA SCODAMORE
Best net score on Day 2 from a woman player CAROLINA ROMERO
1st Best net aggregate score from a man player RAYAN HUSNI BEY
2nd Best net aggregate score from a man player FREDRIK JOHANSSON
3rd Best net aggregate score from a man player ALDRIC GAUDINOT NANNAN
4th Best net aggregate score from a man player TONI WESTERHOLM
5th Best net aggregate score from a man player ALEXANDRE LEMIRE
6th Best net aggregate score from a man player SAM AZZOPARDI
7th Best net aggregate score from a man player NICK LAFERLA
8th Best net aggregate score from a man player ANDERS BERGMAN
9th Best net aggregate score from a man player STEVEN PATERSON
Best net score on Day 1 from a man player WILLIAM BECK
Best net score on Day 2 from a man player KEITH PRETTY

Prizes were distributed in the presence of Mr Irwin Gratil (RMGC Captain), Mrs Stephanie Sciberras (RMGC Lady Captain) and Mr William Beck (MGA President).

On behalf of the MGA Executive Council members, we thank our sponsors, CROSSCRAFT, for their help in ensuring a successful competition.

02/08/2025

EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025
MALTA WOMEN PLACE FOURTH - MALTA MEN PLACE SIXTH

The eleventh edition of this championship has just been held at the Pravets Golf Club in Bulgaria. Under the auspices of the European Golf Association and hosted by the Bulgarian Golf Federation, this championship attracts teams from the golf developing nations in Europe. In the previous ten editions, the men’s team managed to secure four bronze and four silver medals failing to make it to the podium in their first and last experiences. Malta fielded a women’s team for the first time last year achieving fifth place overall.

This year’s edition attracted nine women and eleven men teams. Malta was represented by Elliana Buhagiar, Laya Cristina, Serena Falzon Sant Manduca, Filippa Schulze Doering, Andrew Borg, Ruud Critien, Mark Ganado and Laurens Schulze Doering. The contingent was joined by Noah Gratil, another young golfer expected to reach national team status imminently and William Beck, the president of the Malta Golf Association.

Having made it through the qualifying stroke play round on the first day of the tournament, both teams proceeded to the match play knock rounds with the women facing the host country and the men facing Greece. The women prevailed but then lost to Luxembourg in the semi final round. This meant that they faced the Estonian girls to compete for the bronze medal. The Estonian team managed to secure a comfortable win over our girls and thus took the bronze medal.

It was a sense of déjà vu for the men losing again to the Greek boys on the first play-off hole. They then won against Liechtenstein in the semi-final round which was settled by a birdie putt on the first play-off hole. They then faced Luxembourg in the final round. As Malta was being defeated in one singles match, the other two matches were looking good to be won with two holes to go.

However Luxembourg managed to tie both matches on the 18th to proceed to a playoff. One was determined in favour of Malta on the first play-off hole whilst the other went in favour of Luxemburg on the third play-off hole making Malta settle for sixth place overall.

The main placings for the tournament were Luxembourg in first place for the women followed by Turkey and Estonia. Greece won the men’s tournament followed by Andorra and Turkey.

Malta’s participation in this tournament was through the funding possibilities of SportMalta.

01/08/2025

EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025 – DAY 5 – SEMI FINAL ROUND RESULTS

The day is best described as a measure of two nine-hole matches both for the women’s and men’s teams.

Luxembourg, the strongest women’s team in the stroke play event, came out of the blocks on fire and were leading in all the matches after the first nine holes. Our foursomes’ pair were unable to turn it around and had to succumb to defeat at the end of the 15th hole. Serena managed to prevail and won her match on the 18th hole. Elliana was three down with three to go but managed to win both the 16th and 17th hole. Both she and her opponent made pars on the last hole to give Luxembourg the overall win.

Luxembourg will now play Turkey in the final round. Our girls face Estonia for a possible bronze medal. Laya and Elliana will be the foursomes’ pair starting at 11:10 and they will be followed by Filippa and Serena at 10 minutes intervals thereafter.

The men had an almost similar experience with Liechtenstein. Laurens’ opponent was on his a game and never gave Laurens a fighting chance. The foursomes’ pair and Andy’s matches were tight but slightly favouring Liechtenstein at the turn. Andy prevailed and won his match on the 15th.

This meant that the result depended on the foursomes’ pair. Ruud and Mark were all square playing down the 18th and they made par on this hole to match that of their opponents and to proceed to a playoff. Their opponents had a bad drive on this hole followed by a second bad shot yet managed to put it very close to the pin with their fourth shot on this par five hole. Ruud put his drive down the middle, Mark followed by a save second shot and Ruud put the third shot on the green leaving Mark a 20 something footer to win the hole and the match for Malta. The boy did not fail.

Our boys will now play Luxembourg on the final day for fifth place. Ruud and Mark play again the foursomes starting at 10:30. They will be followed by Laurens and then Andy.

Perhaps the biggest surprise for the day was the loss of the Bulgarian men’s team to Greece and that of the Turkish team to Andorra. This is Andorra’s only second showing in this tournament and Bulgaria, before the day’s started, were easily the favourites to win the tournament.

31/07/2025

EUROPEAN TEAM SHIELD CHAMPIONSHIPS 2025 – DAY 3 – QUARTER FINAL ROUND RESULTS

The men started their matches against Greece with the foursomes pair of Ruud and Mark teeing it off at 9:00 hours followed by the single matches of Laurens at 09:10 and Andy at 09:20. It was a nervous starting hole for all players, including the Greeks. This was not the first time that the countries played against each other in this tournament with the advantage in favour of Greece who had edged Malta out of gold a couple of years ago.

The foursomes match was won by Malta 3&2, whilst Andy lost to a determined opponent 3&1. Malta’s fate hung in the hands of Laurens who was leading by two holes with three to go. Ben Hogan, arguably the greatest ball striker of all time, once said that he was happy if he hit two shots per round exactly the way he had intended. If Hogan’s statement was incorrect, then Laurens would have been home and dry by the 16th and Malta would have proceeded to the semi-finals. But it was not to be and the Greek boy prevailed to win the match on the first play off hole. Laurens was understandably devastated for himself and for the team but we are sure that he has the ability to deal with the day’s outcome and bounce back in the short term as a winner.

The women teed off two hours later than the men and were very much left to their own devices as most of the concentration was on the men’s team. They responded with a convincing win against the Bulgarian team with Filippa securing a 6&5 win and Serena a 3&2 win. The foursomes pair of Elliana and Laya remained all square until the 16th but then lost the last two holes. Nonetheless, this was a very positive result from the Maltese against the host country.

Tomorrow, the ladies play against Luxembourg – the winners of the stroke play competition – who did not play today due to a bye. Tee times are at 08:30 with Filippa and Laya as the foursomes pair followed by Serena and then Elliana at 10 minutes intervals. Whoever wins will play the following day for the chance to win gold.

The men’s formation remains the same with Ruud and Mark teeing off at 11:40 followed by Laurens and Andy. Their opponents are the men from Liechtenstein and the teams will by vying for the best 5th to 8th places.