Diamond Country Club has water on nine of the eighteen holes
It’s the Austrian Opens 21st birthday and will again be played at the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, not far from the Austrian capital Vienna.
The 7,053 yards, par 72 Diamond Course was designed by English architect Jeremy Pern, the once Vice President of the British Institute of Golf Course Architects. Opened in 2002, the Diamond course features water hazards on nine of the 18 holes, including the 192-yard 11th and 159-yard 15th par 3s, where both tee shots are played to island greens.
First played in 1990, the inaugural Austrian Open was won by Germany’s Bernhard Langer. In 2010 when The Diamond Country Club first held this event, Keith Waters, Chief Operating Officer of The European Tour, said: “I would like to place on record my sincere thanks to Christian Guzy, the owner of Diamond Country Club, for his commitment and support in securing the future of the Austrian Golf Open. The Diamond Course is one of the finest in Austria, and I’m sure our Members will enjoying meeting the varied challenges it presents.”
Bookies favourite Miguel Angel Jiménez © Kevin Murray
Picks to win:
Miguel Angel Jimenez 12/1 hasn’t won a tournament this year but has had two 2nd place finishes and five other Top 25 finishes and although he was on the losing side in the Seve Trophy he did win his individual match Vs Darren Clarke.
It has been a very frustrating season for Joost Luiten 14/1, he has played some great golf only to shoot himself in the foot and out of the nineteen tournaments his played on the European Tour he has finished in the Top 25 ten times, three of those being in the Top 10 and just hasn’t been able to close out. With this weeks relatively weak field look for Joost to do well.
Jose Manuel Lara 20/1 best finish this season is his third place at the Sicilian Open, he also had another good finish two weeks ago at the KLM Dutch Open finishing sixth. He must have been kicking himself there was no tournament last week, but will looking to do well this week.
Each-way picks:
John Daly great odds at 125/1 © Kevin Murray
Its hard to say how the final hole collapse affected Robert Coles 80/1 at the Avantha Masters back in February, he has only finished a tournament shooting a final round in the 60s twice. All his good rounds seem to be the Opening or second rounds then he slowly fades out of contention, but I can see him stringing four good rounds together and hopefully it will be here.
Robert Dinwiddie 125/1 started the season in great form finishing sixth, ninth and seventh in his first three tournaments and then went off the boil. He had his best finish since January at the KLM Dutch Open, he opened with a 66 and closed with a final round 69, so hopefully Robert can continue in that vain.
I had to check that this was THE John Daly, 125/1 is a great price for the big man from California, not at his best anymore but always happy to put on a show when on his travels and a ninth place finish in the Canadian Open back in July shows the big man can compete when in the right frame of mind, so could be worth a couple of quid.
Diamond Country Club, Austria, just outside the Capital Vienna
Glad it helped