Gut Kaden, the Hamburg venue which has hosted six of the last ten editions of the Deutsche Bank Players’’ Championship of Europe, will once again come under the golfing spotlight next month but it is a very different course to the one which last hosted the tournament in 2003 thanks to a vigorous agronomy programme which has transformed the Hamburg venue.
In the winter of 2002 the greens at Gut Kaden suffered a severe attack of fusarium and with a May date for the tournament, the course did not have time to recover. As a result the greens were well below the standard expected of a European Tour venue.
But since then, every effort has been made by the club and, according to Tournament Director David Probyn, the transformation has been “exceptional”, ensuring that Gut Kaden will be in prime condition for a new mid-summer date of July 21-24 with record prize money of €3.3 million.
“After the very difficult experience of heavy disease on the greens in 2003 when the event was last played at Gut Kaden, the club has made enormous commitment in the intervening two years in preparation for hosting the event for a minimum of the next four years,” said Probyn
“Their efforts have been three-fold. Firstly the club has addressed their need for extra investment in staff and machinery. Secondly they have undertaken a complete review of their working practices and thirdly the club has employed Richard Stillwell, the Tour’’s Chief Greenkeeping Consultant, as the club’’s own year-round consultant.
“Frankly, the transformation has been exceptional and on viewing the course last week and having been involved in many of the events here over the years, I have never seen the course in such excellent condition.”
Other efforts have also been made to enhance the course with many of the older greens, which had over time become uneven being levelled and relaid while a number of new tees have been built in an effort to maintain the integrity of the challenge. This year new tees are in place on the sixth, seventh, eighth, 12th and 14th to add to the other new tees added over the years on the second, third, fourth, ninth, tenth, 11th, 13th and 16th holes.
At 7,290 yards the course is now 217 yards longer than when Russell Claydon established a course record of 63 in 1994 and therefore it has been decided that a new course record will be established this year,
“The club should be congratulated on their outstanding efforts in bringing the course on so far since the first event in 1992,” added Probyn. “Everything I have seen has given me great confidence that we will have the best ever Gut Kaden course on show in July.”
The 2004 US Open Champion Retief Goosen, World Number 11 Padraig Harrington, big-hitting John Daly and defending champion Trevor Immelman are among the world-class players who have committed to the Deutsche Bank Players’’ Championship of Europe. Alex Cejka, Bernhard Langer and Marcel Siem lead the home challenge.
The Deutsche Bank Players’’ Championship of Europe carries a record prize fund of €3.3 million with the winner earning €550,000.
