LIVING TOGETHER

Golf for people with disabilities

At the Bielefeld Golf Club, sportsmanlike interaction between individuals with intellectual disabilities and those without disabilities are part of the club’s routine. This collaborative initiative was founded in 2001. Since 2006, Hörmann has been involved as a sponsor.

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2001
was the first European Championship for golfers with disabilities
> 5%
of all approximately 730 courses and golf clubs in Germany are also committed to players with a medical handicap
Fairplay
comes first in golf – disadvantages due to disability are compensated by special rules

Klaus-Hermann Bunte, then deputy headmaster and now headmaster of the Mamre Patmos special school in Bielefeld, and Bradley Kerr, pro trainer at the Bielefeld Golf Club (BGC), established a partnership in 2001 that still brings mentally disabled and non-disabled people together today. Since then, the mixed teams have regularly trained together on the course of the BGC. Inclusive tournaments are also part of the everyday life of the club, if currently at all possible due to the pandemic.

  • Hörmann has been the main sponsor of the golf activities of the Mamre Patmos special school since 2006.
  • Since 2007, there is a steady collaboration between the club and the Special Olympics World Games for people with intellectual disabilities.
  • In the year 2012, the North-Rhine Westphalia golf training centre was established at the Bielefeld golf club. Bradley Kerr is head coach of the German team and the golf coordinator for the Special Olympics Germany.
  • Members of the BGC golf team successfully participated in the World Games inDublin (2003), Beijing (2007), Athens (2011), Atlanta (2015) and Abu Dhabi (2019).

The group's successes at the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi
In 2019, the Bielefeld Golf Club sent seventeen-year-old Alexandra Reck, a student at the Mamre Patmos school, to the Special Olympics in Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates as a member of the German golf team. Under the supervision of the pro trainer of the Bielefeld Golf Club (BGC) Bradley Kerr and the headmaster of the Mamre Patmos special school in Bielefeld Klaus-Hermann Bunte, the athletes were trained beforehand at the Bielefeld Golf Club. The girl achieved a great success in the competition: she won the silver medal in her performance class Level 1 (Special Olympics golf rules). She was able to beat the competition from Poland, Spain and the United Arab Emirates with 231 points. Find out more.

Our Golf stages

Special Olympics World Games 2023 in Berlin

The Special Olympics World Games were held again in June 2023. Over 7000 participants from around the globe came to Berlin to take part in the various competitions, including 182 competitors in the discipline of golf. A total of eight medals were celebrated by the German golf team at the end of the competition. Lukas Kollmeyer, 22, who is a member of the Hörmann-sponsored golf club at the Mamre Patmos School, also took part and even won silver in his performance class. Special Olympics participants Petra Constanze Pithan and Sophia Schmidt also recorded great successes in golf and tennis, respectively.

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Inclusive Golf Tournament 2022

In October 2022, Germany’s 7th Inclusive Golf Tournament took place at the Bielefeld Golf Club. 60 golfers from all over Germany took part in the tournament, playing 18 or 9 holes in pairs. In addition to the golf game, a small skills competition was also held where further points could be scored, before the award ceremony for the golf tournament took place in the late afternoon.

World Games 2019 in Abu Dhabi

It was the fifth time that the North Rhine-Westphalia state golf training centre for people with intellectual disabilities at the Bielefeld Golf Club prepared a team for the Special Olympics World Games – this time in Abu Dhabi in 2019.

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Work place Golf

Commissioned by the Hörmann Group, film-maker Eike Swoboda accompanied Daniel, Lennard, Christoph, Sarah and Thomas, five young people from the Lilienthal Golf Club near Bremen. In each golf club, individuals like them, who live with impairments in thinking and learning, can be usefully and helpfully employed with occupational therapy instructions. This is presented in the documentary about “Five special green keepers”. You will find more information at the following addresses: Lilienthal Golf Club, Headmaster of the Mamre Patmos school K.-H. Bunte

Inclusion Prize 2017

The Jury of the Bayerische Medien-Golfer (Bavarian Media Golfers) has awarded the Bielefeld Golf Club (BGC) the 2017 “Prize for Inclusion and Media”. The Bavarian Media Golfers Club mainly consists of journalists from the state of Bavaria. Their goal is to increase the popularity of the sport. Since 2015, it has been honouring golf clubs that work to integrate handicapped golfers. The prize was awarded in the presence of Claus M. Kobold, the President of the German Golf Association, during the BMW International Open in Munich Eichenried.

Special Olympics Germany 2016

With two gold medals, three silver medals, three bronze medals and four fourth places, the German team performed well at the 2016 Special Olympics Germany national games in Hanover. The silver medal from Lukas Kollmeyer was an especially exceptional result, as he competed with hemiplegia, a difficult physical handicap. The organisational team of Bradley Kerr, national golf trainer for the Special Olympics, Klaus-Hermann Bunte and Corinne Belman (organisation) was fully backed by the management at the Hanover golf club.

Inclusive Golf Tournament 2016

37 golfers with intellectual disabilities came from all over Germany to Germany's third inclusive golf tournament at the Bielefeld Golf Club in autumn 2016. They played in pairs on mixed teams in individual skills competitions and in full rounds of golf. 30 members from the Bielefeld Golf Club of various talents, ages and “handicaps” took part in the tournament. All this resulted in a happy and successful mix of athletes.

Inclusive Golf Tournament 2014

On the occasion of the 800th birthday of the city of Bielefeld September 2014, an inclusive golf tournament for participants from across Germany was held at the Bielefeld Golf Club (BGC). 70 golfers, with and without disabilities, participated in the event. The tournament was carried out by mixed teams.

“Gutes Handicap” (Good Handicap) – a film

Film maker Eike Swoboda followed the golf team of the Mamre Patmos school from Bielefeld with his camera during the national games of the “Special Olympics” in June 2010 in Bremen, Germany. His seven minute film entitled “Good Handicap” does not require many words to illustrate the powerful strokes of the Bielefeld team. See the film “Good Handicap” here.

Golf bridges gaps – a history

The Mamre Patmos school has maintained a close relationship with the Bielefeld Golf Club (BGC) since 2001. Back then, they had started a golf club together. This was the first step for the BGC to become the North Rhine-Westphalia state golf training centre for people with disabilities. Hörmann accompanies and supports the disabled golfers. The following timeline illustrates the initiative from its beginnings to the year 2015.