It is 8.30 in the morning in Austria, specifically at the Gut Altentann Golf Club, just a stone’s throw from Salzburg. It is the 29th of May, but it is not Spain. No heatwave has reached here. The wind chill is below ten degrees.
“Blessed glory!” was heard in the background from a reader somewhere in the Guadalquivir valley.
It’s cold, the wind is blowing, and your first shot of the day is on a par 3. Hole 10. First round of the Austrian Alpine Open presented by SalzburgerLand. It’s 145 metres to the flag. You talk to the caddie and plan a ‘punched’ shot with the 7-iron. We insist: first shot of the day. In the cold. With wind. The ball flies like a candle, doesn’t move an inch, and ends up a metre from the cup. At that moment, you don’t even remember what you had for breakfast. Who cares.
That’s what Jorge Campillo (-2) did to start his round this morning in Austria. The Extremaduran was the best Spaniard of the turn, regaining the best sensations after a week in Belgium where very few things went right. He doesn’t even consider that he played spectacular golf, but the sum of small things is a lot. For example, he was very solid from the tee. More organised than last week. He missed some fairways, but didn’t get into big trouble. His worst shot from the tee was on the 4th, but he managed to save par by holing it from off the green after a poor first approach. That counts too. The other shot of the day was on the 6th. He hit a great 6-iron on a very tough par 4. He left it a metre and a half away and missed the birdie.
The Austrian course is proving demanding, as expected. Perhaps more difficult in the morning session, with more cold and wind, but in any case, it requires good golf to stay out of trouble and score low. The morning leader is German Nicolai Von Dellinghausen (-5), with a one-shot lead over Aaron Cockerill (-4) and Daniel Hillier and two over Yuto Katsuragawa (-3), Haotong Li (-3), Veer Ahlawat (-3), Ryggs Johnston (-3), and Max Kieffer (-3). If you pay attention to this leaderboard, there is a common denominator: most are very good iron players.
A good round also from Pablo Larrazábal (-1). Better than the score suggests. He played good golf, but three very specific mistakes overshadowed the round. A ball in the water, another lost from the tee, and three putts from four metres made a day where he achieved five birdies seem much worse, a magnificent haul on this course, with very good shots like the second on the 6th and 15th or the wedge on the 2nd.
From here, we don’t have any more Spaniards from the first session under par. The rest need to grit their teeth thinking about the cut on this Friday: Alex del Rey (+2), Nacho Elvira (+2), Ángel Ayora (+3), Ángel Hidalgo (+4), and Joel Moscatel (+4).
