The 11th IDHO

It is still dark as the Golfhuisje is being prepared to receive the 10(!) contestants for the Waller Trophee and eternal fame in the 11th International Dutch Hickory Open.

The weather is a bit grey but dry, and the heather on the course lies in waiting, exuding whisps of fog and hungry for balls. Golf balls that is.

By nine o’clock most of the fog has lifted and a watery sun lights up the surroundings as the first players start to arrive. This is always a bit of a magic moment where old friends meet again – this time after a break of three years – and new faces are introduced.

A pleasant sense of expectation mounts as the host delivers his welcome speech, the course manager Lily Waller goes over the special rules and regulations of the old and ancient Heide Golf Baan and peaks when the composition of the five flights is announced.

Then the flights take up their starting position and around ten o’clock we are off! The 11th IDHO has begun. While the players wrestle with the limitations posed by both themselves and the course, head of catering Marga Kuiper and her team wrestle with the challenge of putting together a lunch that will match the quality of the efforts delivered by the players.

From 12 o’clock onwards, accompanied by a short spell of sun that breaks through the grey clouds, players pass by for their second round of nine holes. The pattern is roughly the same: some discontent with the quality of their play so far, a quick coffee or tea, a banana and off they go to face the grueling hazards of the course.

In sympathy with this prevailing mood, the skies darken and open up. With a drizzle at first, then some serious rain. Finally, when all flights have completed their 18 holes, the weather relents and it is more or less dry. Everybody now huddle in the Golfhuisje and gratefully warm themselves with a hot cup of soup and a bite of the traditional copiously filled chunks of Turkish bread, all the while, more and more anxiously, awaiting the final denouement.

For the ladies, Ria Frenken decisively claims the throne with an impressive 86 strokes which is 2 strokes less than those of her main contestant Lily Waller and 11 strokes less than Marja de Kom who came in third.

For the gentlemen the 18 holes ended undecided. Both Brian Gee and Iain Forrester came in with 83 strokes, with Iain winning the first 9 and Brian the 2nd.
A shootout was needed to force a decision and hole 1 was chosen as the battleground. Under ominously looming clouds, the audience was presented by both players with amazing drives and impossible puts that turned out to be possible after all. Iain and Brian played par the first time. Played par the second time. The third time Iain laid his ball some 5-6 yards from the pin. Brian landed closer but in the bunker.

Iain made a beautiful long put and laid the ball within half a yard of the hole putting the pressure on Brian. Brian did a fantastic chip from the bunker and landed about 1½ yard past the flag.

His final put had the exact length needed and almost the perfect direction, and it was inevitable that it would fall. But it got stuck in the unyielding grass on the very edge of the hole.

This thrilling apotheosis meant that the winners of the IDHO 2022 were Ria Frenken and Iain Forrester, with Iain followed by Brian and Peter Scholz (102 strokes).

As tradition has it, the prize ceremony was concluded with the announcement of the Best Dressed players. Contrary to tradition however, were this decision was a very mysterious and rather unpredictable black box, a new algorithm was initiated: democracy! In this rather arcane and nowadays often derided system, the Best Dressed Lady and Gentleman were selected by the players themselves, with each player casting - anonymously - one vote for each category. Helga Scholz-Dinger and Martin Frenken were decisively chosen as Best Dressed players. And who would or could argue with that!

This was a very spectacular ending of the first of a new row of IDHO’s we hope to organize the coming 9 years.

The first of which will be played on Saturday 16 September 2023, the year that will witness the 100th anniversary of the Heide Golf Baan, so expect an even more unique event.

SAVE THE DATE!

We definitely hope to see you there!
The IDHO Team