SALZBURG, AUSTRIA | There was no mistaking that the DP World Tour was back in Austria last week. The locals have a fondness for traditional dress (lederhosen and felt hunting hats for men, dirndl dresses for women) that in other countries might suggest that you’d wandered into some sort of kitsch celebration of the past.
Throw in a Sunday morning soundtrack of cuckoo song, cowbells and churches calling their congregations to prayer, and there was absolutely no doubt: this was the Austrian Alpine Open.
The sense that the event was unfolding in a well-directed re-creation of The Sound of Music was enhanced by the fact that the last pairing in the final round was the 54-hole leader Marcel Schneider and the eventual winner Nicolai von Dellingshausen, two Germans whose names suggest that they might be acquaintances of the von Trapp family.
"I’m trying really hard not to cry. It’s been such a tough journey the last two and a half years after losing my card."
Nicolai von Dellingshausen
The pair moved clear of the chasing pack early on Sunday, but the pure sound of their music was then threatened by the crash, bang, wallop of Norway’s Kristoffer Reitan.
Eight days ago the 27-year-old won the Soudal Open, his first DP World Tour triumph, by carding a final-round 62 that overcame a nine-shot 54-hole deficit.
He was disappointed by his subsequent opening rounds of 67-69-67 at Gut Altentann Golf Club, but told himself that he had blitzed a DP World Tour field once, so why not do it again? “I had a good feeling this morning,” he said before making birdie at six of seven holes from the sixth to pile pressure on the final pair and he left himself a 25-foot eagle putt at the last to card a 59.
Alas, it missed, but the two-putt meant his last two final rounds had needed a mere 122 shots with a remarkable 20 birdies and one bogey. His clubhouse target of 17-under 263 was not quite enough. Schneider matched it to share second while Denmark’s Jeff Winther finished alone in fourth on 14-under.
Von Dellingshausen edged clear and completed a two-shot victory with a final round of 65 for a 19-under 261 total. It is the 32-year-old’s first victory on either the first or second tier tours in Europe but not his first in Austria – he won the 2017 Adamstal Open on the third-tier ProGolf Tour.
“I’m trying really hard not to cry,” he said afterwards. “It’s been such a tough journey the last two and a half years after losing my card. It kind of feels like a home tournament for me and I love playing in Austria. I always play well when I play here for some reason – it must be the food.”
Or maybe it is all about the lederhosen. If so, the good news is that a pair of them were among his prize package.
Matt Cooper