Haxterpark project wins DGV innovation prize

“Inclusion, sustainability and science” – with these guiding principles, the Paderborn University Golf Club has succeeded in creating a special golf course in Germany. The club has now been awarded the DGV Innovation Prize for its “Haxterpark Project” inclusion concept.

Behind the name Haxterpark project hides a public sports and leisure center in Paderborn in East Westphalia, which meets the guidelines mentioned. The operator, the non-profit Haxterpark GmbH, developed the facility for an 18-hole golf course, which has been used by the University of Paderborn and the Paderborn University Golf Club since 2004, as well as a boules field. Archery is also offered on the site of the former farm. All sports facilities are designed barrier-free, so that among the approximately 1400 members there are also 60 severely disabled people and some of them not able to walk.

The adjoining Haxterpark inn is barrier-free and, like the golf course, offers numerous people with disabilities a place to work. Under the motto “Inclusion in Sport”, 22 disabled employees, some of whom also come from workshops for the disabled, are employed in greenkeeping, archery and in registration and administration. This corresponds to almost 50 percent of all employees.

The Paderborn University Golf Club, which is also GEO-certified, won the DGV Innovation Prize in the final against the Bielefeld GC and the GC Lilienthal. In 2019, the theme of the competition, which is organized together with Allianz , was “ Social Responsibility ”.