It is with great regret that I report the death of Ted Ostermann, a member of the Association since 1963. Ted, who had been suffering from cancer for two years, died on May 13, 2004 his 88th birthday, in Kitzbuehel.

A single-figure golfer for much of his life, Ted Ostermann left a position with the British radio station in Hamburg to become Lufthansa’s representative in New York in 1949, the year he attended his first Masters. He would go on to attend over 50 more.

A spokesman for the German Golf Federation and a member of the Royal and Ancient, Ted left New York to return home and bought a golf magazine and became its editor and publisher. He later sold what became known as Golfmagazin but remained listed as publisher until his death.

Detlief Hennies, the current editor, said: “Ted was a real gentleman. He knew everyone in the sport personally and he was always a very good advisor to those who worked with him. With the death of Gunther Marks earlier in the year, Germany has lost to two of its most respected and longest serving golf writers.”

Renton Laidlaw, who joined the Association in the same year, said: “Ted was a good friend to British golf writers and in particular to me, perhaps because we both joined the Association in the same year, 1963. Founder of the leading German golf magazine Ted had been a regular visitor to the Masters at the Augusta for 50 years, travelling down to his first Masters by bus when working for Lufthansa in New York. He was so respected that he often the German Federation’s main representative at Augusta, attending the dinners in an official capacity. He had been unwell for the past two years but his death came suddenly on his 88th birthday. The Associa6tion has lost a good friend.”