The inaugural Euram Bank Open will be played out this week at Golf Club Adamstal in Ramsau, Austria. Ahead of Thursday’s first round, here are five things to know about the new tournament.
1)A long history-This will be the 24thtime the European Challenge Tour has held an event in Austria. The first time the Tour stopped off in the landlocked country was 1992 for the Bank Austria Open, where Stephen Dodd, claimed the trophy. The win helped launch the Welshman’s career as Dodd went on to win three European Tour events and last week collected his third title on the Staysure Tour, making him one of only nine men to have won on all three European Tour-operated circuits.
2)Home heroes- Since 1992, three of the Austrian Challenge Tour events have been won by native sons. In 2002, the Austrian Open was won by Vienna native Markus Brier. Two years later, Brier won again on home soil, this time it was a dual-ranking event between the Challenge Tour and the European Tour. The only other man to have claimed a home- Austrian victory across the 23 events was Martin Wiegele, who won the Kärnten Golf Open. Serendipitously, the presenting sponsor that year was the Markus Brier Foundation.
3)Where legends are born-the last time the Challenge Tour came to GC Adamstal, a young Spaniard by the name of Rafa Cabrera Bello claimed his first professional win in impressive fashion — going wire-to-wire with rounds of 61-68-66-69 around this year’s host-venue to win by two shots over Austrian Niki Zitny. Cabrera Bello, who lifted another Challenge Tour trophy in 2006, clearly has a special bond with Austria, as he also earned his maiden European Tour victory here — carding a final-round 60 to come from eight shots back and win the 2009 Austrian Golf Open. With two Challenge Tour wins, three European Tour titles and already one Ryder Cup appearance under his belt, it is safe to say Cabrera Bello ignited his career in Austria.
4)The hills are alive- The old saying, ‘do not judge a book by its cover’ is certainly true of GC Adamstal. At a mere 6,476 yards, the Euram Bank Open site is one of the shortest golf courses on the Challenge Tour International Schedule. However, low scores are far from guaranteed as the rolling hillsides provide a steady barrage of uneven lies, testing the players’ creativity and course management. Set in lower Austria’s alpine foreland, the scenic golf course demands precision distance control as club selection is tested by the relentless elevation changes and thinner air found at 1,135m above sea level.
5)Earlier this season-This is the second time that Road to Ras Al Khaimah points have been on offer in Austria this year. The European Tour’s innovative new tournament, the Shot Clock Masters, was held at Diamond Country Club earlier this year in June. In the event, every single player was ‘on the clock’ for every single shot as electronic shot clocks gave the golfers a visual reminder to keep it moving as they counted down to zero. When a player failed to hit his shot in the allotted time, he was assessed a one-stroke penalty. The event was created by the European Tour as an effort to tackle the growing problem of slow play in golf and debuted to rave reviews as the average round times were cut by roughly 30 minutes each day. Not surprisingly, the average scores were also reduced by more than an entire shot.
