Keystone
Golf is experiencing good times in this country. “Wrong,” corrects Marc Chatelain, head of competitive sports at the association. “This is the best time in the history of golf in Switzerland.”
At the Omega European Masters, the trend was confirmed, at least at the start of the tournament. With amateur Nicola Gerhardsen (22) and Cedric Gugler (24) from Basel, two up-and-coming Swiss players are among the top ten, at least at the start. Gerhardsen will switch to the pros next week. Gugler won three tournaments this season and made it to the second-highest level (Challenger Tour).
There are suddenly many talented Swiss golfers. Joel Girrbach (30) and Benjamin Rusch (34) from Thurgau are competing on the major European tour this season, and Girrbach at least is well on his way to securing a tour card for next season. Jeremy Freiburghaus from Graubünden played on the DP World Tour, as the former European PGA Tour is now known, last year.
19 years
Previously, no Swiss player had made it onto the big tour for 19 years. André Bossert (60) from Zurich and Paolo Quirici (56) from Ticino were the only Swiss players to stay on the tour for several years in the 1990s.
Before the upswing of recent years, Switzerland was considered by far the weakest Western European nation in the men’s game of golf – not including small countries such as Luxembourg and Liechtenstein. How did the turnaround happen? “We turned the sports sector upside down. We moved the support bases to the regions. We are investing more and making an effort to be professional,” says Marc Chatelain. The Swiss women accelerated the upswing with their participation in the 2016 and 2021 Olympics. “The women have led the way. The men are now following,” says Chatelain.
The upswing is particularly evident in Crans-Montana. This year, more people are coming to Valais than ever before, and in recent years there have been 50,000 over four days.
Premature euphoria
But it is still too early for euphoria. The ascents and progress must be confirmed. The main difficulty in the first season after promotion is the difference in level. With a performance that earns him 10th place on the Challenge Tour, a player is eliminated after two rounds on the big tour. A player is bound to fail if he cannot adapt to these new circumstances.
For Benjamin Rusch, it doesn’t look good that he will be able to get his tour card for next season. Jeremy Freiburghaus also lost it again in 2023. The men are not yet as far along as Geneva’s Albane Valenzuela and the Lausanne sisters Kim and Morgane Métraux – all three in their prime between the ages of 26 and 28 and established Tour players.
Too few places
The association also has structural limits. “There are only a hundred golf courses in Switzerland – and they are fully booked,” says Chatelain. “In Switzerland, we only have 6,000 juniors under the age of 18, and not half of them have a handicap or play ambitiously. Other countries like Sweden have ten times as many juniors.”
The search is on for ways to make the sport more attractive to young people. The financial hurdles in clubs are falling. At the Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club, the entry fee for under 35-year-olds was reduced from CHF 8,000 to CHF 2,500. This has led to many people rejoining. “We have noticed a clear change in recent years. The sport is no longer just reserved for those who have time or money,” says Thomas Grech, manager of Verbier Golf Club.
Who knows: maybe in the near future a Swiss will actually win another tournament on the circuit like André Bossert did in Cannes in April 1995. Nicola Gerhardsen, Cedric Gugler, Joel Girrbach or whatever their names are have the potential to do so.
SDA