LAURENS WINS THE CYPRUS (MEN) AMATEUR OPEN

21/06/2022

With a score of level par for the course over 54-holes, Laurens Schulze Doering has won the Cyprus Men’s Amateur Golf Open 2022 held at the Elea Estate Golf Club between the 20th and 22nd May.

Another 45 players from 16 different countries registered to play in this scratch event organised by the Cyprus Golf Federation. The field has been claimed by the CGF to have been the strongest ever in the history of their Amateur Men’s Open.

With two bogeys and one birdie all on par 4 holes, Laurens finished day one tied second with one shot off the lead being enjoyed by Michael Theodoros of Cyprus. On the second day, Michael lost his way on the front nine and with two double bogeys surrendered his lead to Laurens early in the round. With two holes to play, Laurens led by seven shots. Successive bogeys on the last two holes saw this lead reduced to five shots.

The third day started with a tester for Laurens. He had a double bogey on the first hole to Michael’s birdie reducing his lead to only two shots after only one hole. Laurens managed to steady himself and his one over par on the front nine to Michael’s level par gave Laurens a four-shot lead with nine holes to play.

A birdie on the 10th hole restored this margin to five shots which was maintained by the end of the 13th hole. Laurens then went par, par, bogey, par, par to Michaels’ bogey, par, bogey, bogey, par to win the competition by a clear seven shots.

Laurens’ participation in this tournament has been funded by the Maltese Olympic Committee and Sport Malta who have supported the young lad since his early days in the game. Indeed, Laurens was part of the MOC’s elite youth scheme. This together with the support of the MGA and funding opportunities for the national team players, enabled Laurens to experience international tournaments from a young age. His natural talent and commitment to the game enabled him to win a number of junior competitions and be part of the national team that won bronze and silver in these last successive years in the European Team Shield Championships organised by the European Golf Association.

At the end of last season, Laurens decided to make a leap of faith and, with the help of an agency by the name of ASM Scholarships, he managed to secure a few offers to play four years on the US college circuit in order to develop his academic and golf career. An offer for a scholarship and starting golf position on the Young Harris College golf team sealed his fate and in September 2021 saw Laurens moving to the US to further his academic and golf career.

Young Harris College presented world class practice facilities, coaches and competitors paired with a high-class education system to the young man who settled easily in US college life due to his maturity and upbringing. He started the 2021/2022 strong, qualifying first in the inter-team qualifiers for all 3 tournaments in the Autumn/Winter semester. Playing his first three tournaments in +5, -5 and +5 at three world class, yet challenging, venues was enough to secure three consecutive top 25 finishes. This placed him inside the top 30 on the prestigious Golfstat National Division 2 Collegiate Rankings. Following a winter break, he once again qualified as his team’s number 1 for all spring tournaments. He finished inside the top 10 twice but struggled towards the end of the season due to a lower back injury. At the end of his second semester, he finished inside the top 80 on the Golfstat National Division 2 Collegiate Rankings and was awarded the Conference’s Freshman of the Year. *

His future hope is to continue getting better at the sport and that his golf can inspire the younger generation that is coming through, show that golf has a future and that anyone can be part of it.

* Division 2 is a league of around 300 teams. The Division is split into different regions according to location with each region having around 35 teams. A Conference is an even narrower version of a reason containing 12 teams according to their geographical location.