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European Urban Golf Cup 2015

This weekend, the Hungarian Urban Golf Team participated in the European Urban Golf Cup 2015 in London. Our team finished in 10th place, 4 points behind Luxemburg. This EUGC was the debut of the Hungarian team which was composed of solely the Heavy Balls! The detailed coverage of the trip below:

day 1, travel and preparation

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The vibes at an early morning are always high, that’s why we met at 4:20 to catch the shuttle. Some of our members are not so strong in coping with this kind stress, so they started to drink around 6am- good for them. After a relaxing flight, the team arrived to London and reached our quarters without any major issues. After the acclimatization we decided to check the course and the UK Cross Golf event, to get in mood. We almost lost the early drinkers, but with a huge team-effort, we saved them from nightmare filled sleeping.

After some fish and chips, sleeping in the park and a quick meeting with the Dutch team we went to the Timber Lodge, where we’ve met some other players and the organizers. We were a bit afraid that time, because the most of us had never seen so many urban golfers before (that feeling was a bit worse the next day), but we overcame this fright (with some booze) and everything was just super fine. Our Dusan Grasshopper won a necktie on the raffle, had some beers and had a chat with other golf-maniacs, but the early wake-up and cultural shock had their effect on the team, so we decided to go home to sleep a bit before the tournament.

day 2 , the tournament and the party

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In the morning everyone was exited, and in this high mood, It was like the punch in our faces that the local train wasn’t working, because of some repair work. Our country manager became a furious beast and led the team quickly to the Timber Lodge to catch the registration. We registered ourselves, grabbed some water and the clubs and after the briefing, we were ready and we joined our flights.

HUN1 (Susanne, Joyce and Schteiger) +LUX+SWISS (by Susanne)

We were in a flight with Switzerland and Luxembourg. The guys were very nice and funny, we all had a very good time. We started on the longest course and before the first swing we all were very excited about the game. We played quite well, but after 5 holes we got a little tired. Then after some pitching holes, which were the most terrible ones, we got back on the track. We had some great moments, like hitting the double decker and swinging trough the river. We also lost some balls.

HUN2 (Tiger, Rolf, Schimi) +CZE2+UK2 (by Rolf)

Hungary’s 2nd flight headed towards their first attempt with UK’s 2nd and the Czech’s 2nd. After some rookie mistakes Tiger, Schimi and Rolf finally found their places on the court and started to pare down the strikes collected on the previous holes. The skill challenges would have been better for the players, but it is also attributable to the unusual weather conditions and the lack of refreshing ales, which were unfortunately prohibited in the park.

HUN3 (Moses, Dusan, Albert) +GER (by Albert)

Before the start the third Hungarian unit was frightened like a rabbit caught in headlights, so it came as no surprise that they made maximum strokes on the first two holes. Lucky for them, the whole flight went back to the Lodge, so they drank some booze quickly and everything became just fine. The deepest point of their game was the Doglegacy where every player made maximum 8 and these points were badly missed during the final counting. Every flight member has a magic moment during the game: Moses made a boneless stroke to the car’s trunk for -3, Dusan scored on every skill challenge (except on the steps- where everyone failed) and Albert made 2strokes on the wall-putt.

After the game we were exhausted, but looked forward the party, where we did lot better than on the strokes. We had our hopes that we didn’t finished last, but the mighty Luxemburgians beaten us by 4 points, so we did 10/10. During the party we quickly lost our shyness and made some priceless pieces for the cameras. Thanks for the ales and ciders, we cannot recall a lot of memories, but we hope we didn’t cause any damages… From the East Twenty bar to the Stratford station we made a demonstration of urban golf, together with the pedestrians and the spectators. Again, we hope we didn’t cause any damages…

day 3 , Coming home

We woke up quite early, cleaned a little and with sad hearts, we started our journey back to home. We walked a bit in the city, met with some of our friends, ate the last fish and chips and we turned our steering wheel towards the airport. We had some issues with the shuttle, so we nearly missed our flight, but in the end of the day everything was just fine.

Right now everyone is trying to get back on track, but it is not so easy after such an experience. BigUp for the organizers and for every players, we are proud to be in the urban golf family!

Albert Swinger

(more photos will come on the facebook)