Alps Tour, most long-standing and prestigious

Following the success of the Memorial Giorgio Bordoni by AON, won by Mattia Comotti at La Pinetina Golf Club, the Alps Tour moves to Austria where, from May 16th to May 18th, one of the circuit’s most long-standing and prestigious tournaments, the Gosser Open, is scheduled. This event, born in 1993, is now in its 32nd edition.

Alps Tour, schedule

Taking place at the GC Erzherzog Johann course in Maria Lankowitz, near Graz, 144 competitors from 16 nations will vie for victory, including 31 Italians, who comprise the second largest group after the host nation’s 48 entrants.

The Italians are the clear favorites, currently dominating the circuit with three victories in the last three events. Moreover, five Italian players rank among the top ten in the Order of Merit: Edoardo Raffaele Lipparelli, currently number one and winner of the News Giza Open, Gianmaria Rean Trinchero (number 5), champion of the Tunisian Golf Open, the aforementioned Comotti (number 6), Enrico Di Nitto (number 5), who finished second in Lombardy, and Manfredi Manica (number 9). However, other top-ten contenders include French players Aymeric Laussot (number 2) and Benjamin Kedochim (number 3), Swiss player Luca Galliano (number 8), and Spanish player Eduard Rousaud (number 10). The only absence is the Spanish amateur José Antonio Sintes Navarro (number 7).

Among the other competitors, notable past winners from Austria include Timon Baltl (2019), Lukas Nemecz (2017, 2020), Jurgen Maurer (2006), and Martin Wiegele (2008), as well as French winner Paul Elissalde (2021). Additionally, keep an eye on French player Xavier Poncelet, Irish player Robert Moran, English players Arron Edward-Hill and Harry Ellis, and Spanish player Manuel Morugan.

Italian players have clinched victory in the tournament twice before: Marco Soffietti in 2002 and Alessio Bruschi in 2004. The total prize purse amounts to €40,000, with €5,800 awarded to the winner.

The rules of golf are relatively complicated compared to other sports because they are applied outdoors, close to nature and animals. Respect for the rules is a basic element in the game of golf, which, almost always based on the self-control and free conscience of the players, often sees distorted results, consciously at times, but often unconsciously or through carelessness, due to non-compliance on the part of many players of the game rules.