The scene at the Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith at 7:50 am on Thursday morning was enough to give you goosebumps. A large crowd had gathered around the tenth tee to witness Austrian golf star Sepp Straka hit his opening shot at the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel – Tirol. Five hours later, the four-time PGA TOUR winner signed for a three-under-par 67 before praising the tremendous support he received from the fans during his first competitive round in Austria in eight years. Tirolean local favourite Maximilian Steinlechner also made an impressive start, firing a five-under-par 65 to put himself in a strong position at his home tournament.
Straka may have appeared as calm as ever on the outside, but admitted after his round that there had been a few nerves beneath the surface. On his very first hole, his approach to the tenth green found the water. After taking the resulting penalty stroke and playing a fine recovery, however, Straka saved par to the delight of the crowd.
The fan favourite then had to remain patient until his 11th hole of the day. A birdie on the par-four second was followed by two more gains before back-to-back bogeys briefly sent him in the wrong direction. Birdies at the seventh and ninth ultimately secured a solid three-under-par 67.
“The support was fantastic right from the start today. It was a pretty early tee time, but there were still so many people out there cheering me on. That was really important. I could feel that energy and I needed it, because my game wasn’t quite there at the beginning. But every time I holed a putt or hit a good iron shot close to the pin, the crowd went wild. I’m very happy with the score, and my short game in particular was really good. After a slightly difficult start, I felt more and more comfortable over my second nine,” Straka said, summing up his opening round.
Local favourite Maximilian Steinlechner was in outstanding form in his opening round. The Tirolean carded no fewer than eight birdies, meaning a bogey and a double bogey did little to take the shine off his performance.
“Great atmosphere and the weather was good too – I’d be very happy for it to continue like this,” said Steinlechner, who is taking the fact that Austria’s DP World Tour event is being staged so close to home this year very much in his stride.
“I’m simply enjoying the fact that the Austrian Alpine Open is taking place in Tirol this year, so I’m definitely not putting any extra pressure on myself,” said Steinlechner, who believes there is plenty more to come this week.
“I know my game is good enough to compete at the top of the leaderboard, but there is still a lot of golf to be played. For now, the aim is to pick up tomorrow where I left off today.”
Among the other Austrians who teed off on Thursday morning, Tirol’s Alexander Kopp returned a creditable one-under-par 69. Amateurs Jakob Lotschak and Tim Hofmann both carded 72 (+2), while David Ennsmann finished with a 74 (+4).
For all information about the Kitzbühel destination, please visit kitzbuehel.com.