Austrian Open

The European Tour is in Austria this week where, for the first time, every shot will be timed as part of the Tour’s bid to combat slow play.

Each player in the 120-man field will have 50 seconds for the first player in a group to play any given shot, 40 seconds for subsequent players. Players will incur a one-shot penalty for each bad time incurred and these will be shown as a red card against their name on the leaderboard. Each player will have the right to call two ‘time-outs’ during a round which will permit them twice the usually allotted time to play the shot.

This event began life in 1990 as The Austrian Open when Bernhard Langer was champion and this is the 13th time the tournament has appeared on the European Tour schedule since it was reinstated on the main circuit in 2006. For the last six years the event was known as the Lyoness Open.

Former champions of the tournament include Paul McGinley, Rafa Cabrera Bello and Joost Luiten. Last season Dylan Frittelli of South Africa took the title. He won by a single shot from England’s David Horsey, Jbe Kruger of South Africa and Finn Mikko Korhonen. Opened for play in 2000, the course at Diamond Country Club took over as host venue for the Austrian Open in 2010. It’s an interesting Jeremy Pern design featuring water hazards on nine of the 18 holes.

Players to watch:

Lee Slattery – The Englishman came up just shy in last week’s Italian Open but finished an excellent third. He will look to continue the promising form he showed in that event.

Mikko Korhonen – The Finn lost out by a shot last year at this venue. He played well at Wentworth to finish in the top-15 and could contend again this week.

Laurie Canter – The Englishman showed his ability in a first round 63 in Italy, he’ll be looking to build on that this week.

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