Last Sunday the final of TMC Challenge has been played in Palazzolo miniaturgolf course. This was the last day of the tournament sponsored by TMC Transformers s.p.a., main sponsor of Italian minigolf federation, that wanted this kind of tournament to let the best italian minigolf players getting more experience in the match-play tournament type. TMC offered a very big prizegiving for this event, with 3.900.- EUR of money prizes for the top 8 players and other nice souvenirs for player ranked 9th to 32th.
The 32 players qualified for this final (with some absences by some top players which were qualified, like Rudi Giroldini, Paolo Porta, Stefano Piccini and Ivan Baruscotti) made their challenge in a very hot day with already 35°C from the morning. Good level of play with many matches ended after extra-holes.
The final victory went to Anna Bandera (GSP Cusano), first lady to win this kind of tournament, after the final match won 5:1 with Rinaldo Foini (MT Amatese) which is a real specialist of Palazzolo miniaturegolf course. Rinaldo defeated in the 1/8 finals the reigning Italian Champion Cristian Pinton (MC Monza) and after that two team teams, Boris Arzuffi (1/4 finals) and Francesco Leuci (semifinals). Leuci then got the 3rd place beating Pierluigi Marchiani (GSP Cusano) in the small final with the result 3:0. The winning path of Anna was instead: 3:2 on Juri Ghiraldi (1/16 finals), 4:4 and extra-hole with Emanuele Prestinari (1/8 finals), 5:1 on Michele Perego (1/4 finals), 3:1 on Pierluigi Marchiani (semifinals).
This is another prestigious victory for Anna Bandera, which already won the Italia League individual female ranking and was 3rd at the italian overall championship. All players and FIGSP board thanked TMC sponsor for the organization of this tournament that gave the chance to compete with the KO-system, a useful test for national player which will represent Italy in European/World Championships next august.
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