Ragnheiður Jónsdóttir | July. 2. 2014 | 14:00

Kristján Þór and Tinna Icelandic Match Play Champions 2014

Kristján Þór Einarsson from Golf Club Kjölur in Mosfellsbær, Iceland and Tinna Jóhannsdóttir, from Golf Club Keilir in Hafnarfjörður, Iceland are the 2014 Icelandic Match Play Champions.

The Match Play Championship in Iceland is part of a 7 tournament Tour, the Eimskips Series in Iceland, a Tour in which exclusively Iceland´s best golfers participate.

The Shipping Company Eimskip is the largest sponsor, thus the Series and the main event The Icelandic Championship in Stroke Play, which will take place on the Leirdals course (golfcourse of GKG = The Golf Club of Kópavogur and Garðabær) on July 24th-27th bear the companies name.

Each tournament in addition bears a name of one of the other main sponsors of the Eimskips Series, thus the Icelandic Tournament in Match Play 2014 is also referred to as the Securitas Tournament.

The Icelandic Match Play Championship is the 4th and the Icelandic Stroke Play Championship will be the 5th event in the 7 tournament Eimskip Series.

The Icelandic Match Play Championship is a 4 day tournament, which commenced June 26th and closed, Sunday June 29th and took place on Golf Club Keili´s  (GK´s) golf course, Hvaleyrarvöllur in Hafnarfjörður.

There were 32 male and 32 women golfers, i.e. those with the highest point score from the 3 preceding Eimskip Series tournaments who started the competition, divided into 8 groups of 4.

The top two golfers from each group advanced to the 16 finalist elimination held on Saturday morning, the  quarter finals played in the afternoon of Saturday and subsequently the Semi-finals took place Sunday morning, June 29th and the Finals were held on the afternoon of Sunday.

Match Play is played during all 4 days of the tournament.

The results of this years  men´s quarter finals were as follows:

1. match Kristján Þór Einarsson, GKJ won Birgir Leifur Hafþórsson, GKG, 2&0.

2. match Haraldur Franklín Magnús , GR won Heiðari Davíð, GHD 3&1.

3. match Stefán Már Stefánsson, GR won Benedikt Árni Harðarson, GK, 3&2.

4. match Bjarki Pétursson, GB, won Rúnar Arnórsson, GK  1&0.

The results of this years in women´s quarter finals were the following:

1. match Heiða Guðnadóttir, GKJ  won Sunna Víðisdóttir, GR on the 19 th hole

2. match Karen Guðnadóttir, GS won Signý Arnórsdóttir, GK 1&0

3. match Tinna Jóhannsdóttir, GK won Berglind Björnsdóttur, GR 3&1

4. leikur Guðrún Brá Björgvinsdóttir, GK won Ragnhildur Kristinsdóttur, GR 3&2

Those who won in the quarter finals played on Sunday Morning in the Semi-finals. You can see Golf 1 photo´s from the Semi-Finals by CLICKING HERE:

The results in the men´s Semi-finals were as follows:

1. match Kristján Þór Einarsson, GKJ won Haraldur Franklín Magnús, GR, 2&1.

2. match Bjarki Pétursson, GB, won Stefán Már Stefánsson on the 20th hole.

The women´s Semi-finals were a bit special this year, due to the fact that sisters, Karen and Heiða competed against each other on one hand and on the other the cousins Tinna and Guðrún Brá.

The results in the women´s Semi-finals were as follows:

1. match Tinna Jóhannsdóttir, GK won Guðrún Brá Björgvinsdóttir, GK 2&1

2. match Karen Guðnadóttir, GS won Heiða Guðnadóttir, GKJ 4&3

 

Thus in the men´s Finals this year Kristján Þór Einarsson played against Bjarki Pétursson and in the women´s Finals Tinna Jóhannsdóttir competed against Karen Guðnadóttir.

Kristján Þór won his match against Bjarki 2&1 and Tinna her match against Karen 5&4.

The Icelandic Women´s Champion in Match Play, Tinna Jóhannsdóttir, is born May 17th 1986.  She started playing golf 12 years old, when she went to a golf clinic  for youngsters held at Golf Club Keilir in Hafnarfjörður.  Many of Tinna´s relatives in Iceland are excellent golfers and many have won Icelandic Championship titles.  In an interview with Golf 1 Tinna stated that it was much easier saying that the only one in her family that didn´t play golf was her grandmother. Tinna played golf in the US for 4 years during her College years in the University of San Francisco from where she graduated with a degree in International Studies 2011.  She a.o. took part in LET´s Q-school 2012 and has played on the LET Access Series.  Here you can see a LET interview with Tinna CLICK HERE:  

This was the first time Tinna won the Icelandic Championship title in Match Play, but she won the Icelandic Championship title in Stroke Play in 2010.

The Icelandic Men´s Champion in Match Play, Kristján Þór Einarsson, is born January 11th 1988.

He started playing golf 10 years old and has always been a member of Golf Club Kjölur (GKJ) in Mosfellsbær, with the exception of 2012, when he a.o.won the Club Championship title at Golf Club Keilir in Hafnarfjörður during an exciting final round, where he carded 9 birdies and had a fantastic score of 62 with an unforgettable 9 hole sudden death battle with Axel Bóasson, GK.  Kristján Þór is the current (2013) Club Champion at GKJ.  Kristján Þór has participated in all of the 4 tournament of the Eimskips Series this year, his best result being 2nd place at the 3rd tournament in Borgarnes, where he a.o. carded back to back excellent rounds of 3 under par, 68´s.

Kristján is former Icelandic Champion in Stroke Play 2008 (which was held in the Westman Islands)  and in Match Play 2009 (held at the White River Course, in Icelandic: Kiðjabergsvöllur in the south of Iceland).  Kristján Þór played golf in the US with the Geaux Colonels at Nicholls State in Louisiana 2010-2012, where he studied psychology (You can see his achievements at Nicholls State by CLICKING HERE:) It´s  truly unbelievable and profoundly incomprehensible that Kristján Þór, one of Icelands best golfer was not the choice of the Icelandic National Golf Trainer and didn´t make it to Team Iceland this year.  Kristján Þór´s fiancée is  Marý Valdís Gylfadóttir and they have a daughter.