Malta Golf Association

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.

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.