Markus Brier won the Hickory Masters 2026, held May 13-14 at Circolo Golf Villa d’Este in Italy. The Austrian tour professional, who has two wins on the DP World Tour and two on the Legends Tour, won by a single stroke ahead of overnight leader Paolo Quirici (Switzerland), the 2013 World Hickory Open champion.
The two days could not have been more different in terms of weather: sunshine and a light breeze in the first round and rain and thunderstorms on the final day. Today’s final round was interrupted twice due to lightning and thunder. The 37 hickory golfers from 16 nations faced an additional challenge.
Paolo Quirici, one of the world’s best modern hickory golfers, was still in the lead at the second weather-related interruption. Playing in the final flight, he and his closest rival, Markus Brier, had two and a half holes left to play. Quirici put himself in contention with a birdie on the 16th. Brier managed to keep up with Quirici thanks to a chip-in for par, and then made birdies on 17 and 18. Thus, Brier won the new tournament’s handsome trophy, the ‘Silver Rake Niblick’, by a single stroke.
The Hickory Masters 2026 is the first tournament in modern hickory golf that has made an effort to solicit only the world’s finest players and to adhere to the rules that governed the game during the hickory era. Perry Somers (Australia), the 2010 Hickory World Champion, said: “The same rules apply as 100 years ago: original clubs, no replicas, everyone using the same ball and wearing a shirt and tie or bow tie. I love it.”
Hickory Golf Masters is an international golf business with four divisions: an invitational tournament, a museum, a members club, and a showroom for buying/selling and refurbishing hickory golf clubs. It can be found on the web at: https://hgm.golf/ The company is based in Lugano, Switzerland.
Paolo Quirici, host of the Hickory Golf Masters tournament, presents the 2026 champion Markus Brier, with the ‘Silver Rake Niblick’.