The stage is set for a dramatic weekend of golf at the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel – Tirol! Sepp Straka put himself firmly in contention on Friday with a four-under-par 66, taking his total to 133 (-7). Maximilian Steinlechner (68/-2) is equally well positioned, also sitting at seven under par after two rounds. Straka and Steinlechner head into the weekend tied for 11th, while Bernd Wiesberger (69/-1) became the third Austrian to make the cut. The Burgenland native sits in 30th place on a total of 135 (-5).
A crowd of 7,400 golf fans turned the Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith into a cauldron of excitement in picture-perfect weather on day two of the $2.75 million DP World Tour event. Every great shot from the Austrian duo was met with rapturous applause – and there were plenty of them. The only thing that took a little longer to warm up was Straka’s putter.
“I played really well today. I was very good off the tee and my iron play was strong too. I just didn’t hole anything over the first 13 or 14 holes, but the putter really came alive over the last four or five. I made two birdie putts and also two important par saves, which was pretty crucial,” Straka said at the press conference after his round, once again praising the tremendous support from the fans.
“The atmosphere was already incredible yesterday, but today it was almost unbelievable. There were so many fans out there, even more than yesterday. The atmosphere was so good that I hope even more people come out over the weekend,” said Straka. It hardly takes a fortune teller to predict that his wish will come true.
Maximilian Steinlechner made a flying start to his second round with four birdies on the front nine. The Tirolean dropped two shots after the turn, but the local favourite remains firmly in contention at his home event. “Overall, I’m happy with how the tournament has gone so far. Seven under par after two rounds is always a good score. The back nine was a little less enjoyable today. Not much happened, and then I made two bogeys as well. But it was still really cool to play in front of such a big crowd. I’m not usually used to that. I haven’t heard that many people shouting ‘Maxi!’ for a long time,” Steinlechner said.
Bernd Wiesberger was less happy with his performance on day two in Kitzbühel after signing for a one-under-par 69. “It was a very frustrating day over all 18 holes,” said this year’s China Open champion. Wiesberger dropped three shots against a single birdie over his opening nine holes. The 40-year-old then battled back, making three more birdies to move his score back into red figures. Nevertheless, he borrowed a line from Rory McIlroy in his post-round assessment: “A very good player summed up his round two weeks ago by saying, ‘Shit!’ That pretty much sums it up.”
Wiesberger felt he had left too many opportunities out on the course. “Something around 65 or 66 would have been possible today – one to write off and hopefully my worst day of the week.”
Matthias Schwab narrowly missed the cut by a single shot at three under after a level-par 70. The other ten Austrians finished further outside the cut line, although Lukas Boandl still made his mark on Friday with an impressive six-under-par 64. In the end, the Styrian amateur finished two shots short of securing a place in the weekend field.
England’s Andrew Johnston leads at the halfway stage after a superb eight-under-par 62 propelled him to the top of the leaderboard on 129 (-11). One shot behind, Kota Kaneko (JPN), Rafa Cabrera Bello (ESP) and Calum Hill (SCO) share second place.
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