Dear Footballgolf Family,

today we want to inform you about a modified registration modus for international tournaments in 2026.

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In a nutshell (short version):

The new procedure will combine different aspects:

• A) for all tournaments except WC: priority sign-up-rights for top ranked players of each category (e.g. Men Top 25).
• B) for Opens (e.g. Austrian Open): priority sign-up-rights for Host-nation-players, max 25% of tournament capacity.
• C) for World Championships a broader priority sign-up-right for top ranked players (e.g. Men Top 50) together with an enlarged number of Wild Cards for the national associations.
• D) for all tournaments still a big number of open starting places in the traditional first-come, first-serve modus including waiting lists.

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Detailed version:

Reason for the new modus:

We expect that the number of players who want to play this year‘s World Championships in Dortmund will exceed the available starting places significantly.

For us it is clear:

At the most important footballgolf tournament we need to ensure that the top ranked players of each category can participate in their quest for the Championship. Therefore we cannot risk that some international top players miss the World Championships due to bad luck under the current system, which is almost entirely based on first-come first-serve.

Our solution to this is a combined registration modus for the upcoming season 2026:

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1 - WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS:

• A) 90 Top WFGA ranked players will receive an extra registration period before the start of the general registration.
  
  Considering the number of players in the different categories within the last two world cups we opted for this distribution based on the given world cup capacity (288):
  
  Top 50 Men
  Top 15 Women
  Top 10 Men +55 (those outside top 50)
  Top 5 Women +55 (those outside top 15)
  Top 7 Junior Boys
  Top 3 Junior Girls
  
  Decisive for this ranking-calculation is the 01.01.2026 as on this date players born in 1971 will have reached the senior category while juniors born in 2009 are already counted to the adults.
  
  For the Senior categories we decided to use the existing WFGA Senior rankings - and we focus here on seniors who are not already part of the top 50 men or Top 15 women.
  
  
• B) After registration period 1 has closed, the normal gscore registration period 2 will be opened:
  
  About 120-130 players will get in via first-come first-serve modus.
  
  The exact number will be clear when we know how many top players have used their priority right.
  
  Registrations beyond that number will be placed on the waiting list.
  
  
• C) Similar to the Wild Cards last year the WFGA members will also receive about 75-80 „Association“ starting places.
  
  The distribution of these registration rights will be according to the votes in the upcoming General Assembly with a minimum of 2 spots per WFGA member and in continuation to last year 5 extra spots for the hosting nation (Germany).
  
  To enable the Associations to find out how to use* them or to react to injuries prior to the World Cup - the final list can be presented until two weeks before the World Championships.
  
  (* e.g. for parents of qualified children, to consider juniors, for achievements in national tournaments, for placements in national rankings, for podium-defenders, in the form of a lottery, after holding qualification tournaments etc.)
  
  In case that WFGA members will not (fully) use their Wild Cards, they should submit this as early as possible so that players on the waiting list can benefit from this.

To prevent WC-registration of inexperienced rookies we uphold the last year‘s requirement that players must have earned at least one WFGA ranking point in the last two seasons 2024/2025.

New: if you collected points only in double you also can register for singles.

As last year the Association Wild Cards are not affected from this condition which means that associations can also nominate players without ranking points in the last two years.

Note: The exact start and end of each registration period will be timely announced via mails, facebook and on the WFGA Internet site.

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2 - INTERNATIONAL OPENS:

Here we will have no Association Wild Cards but instead a „Host Nation Quote“ of 25 % (based on the application’s tournament capacity) to enable domestic players to play „their“ international open.

For a tournament with 120 starting places that means 30 guaranteed registrations for the host nation.

Players who reside or usually play in a host country* but have a different nationality may be included in this host quota if the WFGA is informed about this before the start of the registration period.

(*like Cengiz Firat in Germany, some Ukrainians in the Czech Republik or the Klegraefes in Salzburg).

Of course if countries like Spain do not reach their 25% (30 Players) those places will be added to the contingent of the general starting places for everybody.

Similar to the WC we will divide International Opens into two registration periods:

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Period 1:

for a maximum of 25% Host-Nation Players on a first-come first-serve base (no waiting list here)

Also in period 1: A smaller number (apart from Juniors) of top ranked players

Top 25 Men
Top 10 Women
Top 5 Men +55 (those outside top 25)
Top 3 Women +55 (those outside top 10)
Top 7 Junior Boys
Top 3 Junior Girls

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Period 2:

Normal gscore Registration on first come first serve base (including not used registration rights from period 1).

Registrations beyond available spots will be placed on waiting list.

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3 - EC / MATCHPLAY:

The two other supra-national tournaments European Championships and International Matchplay will be treated like National Opens - apart from the fact that there will be no 25% Host Nation Quote.

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For organisational reasons and where this is possible WFGA reserves the right to add up to 5 spots to the tournament fields (e.g. to sign up a young player to enable a junior‘s competition)

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General remarks: WFGA is intending to strenghten both National Footballgolf Associations and Top ranked players when it comes to registration process in the next years. Yet we decided to realize this in a moderate step-by-step mode which means that we still have plenty of open (unconditioned) tournament spots for this year.

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Necessary workaround due to the current lack of gscore programming capacity:

The mentioned extra registration periods will be handled via the DOODLE event planning tool:

1. doodle for Opens/Euro/MP: The top ranked players will be invited via their gscore email to choose in which of these tournaments they want to take part. (intended duration ca 2 weeks)
2. doodle for World Championship: A broader number of top ranked players will then get an additional doodle-invitation for their priority right to sign up for the World Championships in Dortmund. (intended duration ca 2 weeks)
3. doodles for the 25% host nation quote: Regarding the International Opens all players associated with a certain host nation will get informed when their doodle will be sent/opened on a first come, first serve base. (intended duration ca. 1-2 weeks)

Note: every player who successfully signed up via doodle will be manually placed by WFGA into the registration sites and will subsequently receive the gscore payment instruction.

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As for the start of the General registration period 2:

After the pre-signup-phase we will (in short intervals) begin with tournaments we expect to be quickly „sold out“ (like Italy, Austria, WC, Spain).

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Detailed informations about dates, time and the chronolgical order of tournament registration periods will be announced as soon as possible via mails, facebook and on the WFGA Internet site.