A fantastic opening round of the European Challenge Tour’s BA-CA Golf Open, presented by Telekom Austria saw no less than five players tied for the lead on six under par, and the emergence of seriously strong home challenge to delight the Austrian crowds at the fabulous Fontana Golf Club.
Challenge Tour Number One Andrew Butterfield of England emphasized the growing confidence in his game by joining his fellow countrymen Ross Fisher and Marcus Higley, Austria’s very own Thomas Feyrsinger and Frenchman Julien Quesne in a tie for lead, while Markus Brier, Martin Wiegele (both five under par) and Clemens Prader (four under) all gave the home fans something to cheer with some excellent first round displays.
Brier is the defending champion and favourite to win this week, but Feyrsinger managed to steal some of The European Tour player’s thunder by outscoring him on what was a perfect day for golf on the outskirts of Vienna.
After dropping his only shot of the day on the 16th (his seventh hole of the day) Feyrsinger, a 29 year old from Kitzbühel, holed a monstrous 50 foot downhill putt for birdie on the 17th and then made an eagle three on the 18th to really get his round going. That moved him to five under for the round, and a further birdie at the first ensured him a share of the lead.
After his excellent first round, the 29 year old revealed that he spent the last two days working with former European Tour player Anders Forsbrand of Sweden getting his game in order for the challenge of Fontana.
Forsbrand, one of Bernhard Langer’s Ryder Cup vice-Captains during Europe’s record victory over the USA last season, works with the Austrian Golf federation for six months of the year, and Feyrsinger certainly benefited from working with the Swede this week.
He said: “That is the best round of golf that I have played in a long time. I have won two tournaments on the Alps Tour this season, but they were in May and July and I have not played all that well since then.
“I have been working hard with Anders for the past two days and that has helped me a lot. I must have hit 800 balls on the range on Tuesday and then the same again on Wednesday and that has helped me.
“I’m very happy with my start – now I just have to try and keep it going for the rest of the week.”
Brier, Wiegele and Prader were similarly pleased with how they opened the tournament, while Butterfield showed just why he has moved to the top of the Challenge Tour Rankings with another exemplary performance.
The Englishman has steadily grown in confidence throughout the 2005 season, and, even though he lost out in a sudden-death play-off for the dual-ranking Cadillac Russian Open, he feels that result has secured him a place on The 2006 European Tour, which in turn has further boosted his self belief.
“I played nicely today – I played a lot of very nice iron shots and, while I didn’t play the par fives that well, it still felt good,” said Butterfield.
“I think my confidence has grown as the season has gone on. It was pretty high at the start of the year but since Russia it has come on that extra bit. I think that is something to do with the fact I know I have secured my card for The Tour for next year.
“That has had a double effect in the sense that it has relaxed and spurred me on to win the Challenge Tour Rankings. My goals have changed. I was 27th on the Rankings and then got to the play-off in Russia which has secured my card for next year. From that the confidence builds and builds and then you come to a venue like this one at Fontana which seems to suit my game – it’s not an overly long course and the greens are just so good.”
