Golf: Schwab in Lazenberg is one of my favorites

Four years later, he became one of the tournament favorites in the field of nearly 140 participants. And the memories of the 26-year-old, who long ago participated in the European Tour and now wants to go on the PGA Tour, of the facility in Lower Austria are good. “It’s like I’m coming home,” said Rohrmooser.

I got to go a week ago and then suddenly I was at the range next to Miguel Angel Jimenez. Schwab remembers in 2010 “It couldn’t be cooler for a little boy.” At first he felt more “like a spectator or a rider” than a participant. At 32, he scored the best debut score for a player of his age in the professional tour. “That was fine for a 15-year-old.”

Although he knows where he finished 12th in 2018 very well, the game is a bit different from the usual in the current tough and tough conditions, and it is important that you be prepared for that. “It’s important to play smart and smart,” Schwab explained. Risky strikes won’t be the way to go on the first day. It could be dismantled at the weekend if the tournament, which had been awarded 1 million euros, was to be hoped for the lead.

Significantly in the right direction

Schwab emphasized that he was not putting any pressure on himself due to not achieving a first victory in the European Tour. “I am sticking to the path I have planned with the team, the coach and the box,” he said. It would be nice to win at home if it didn’t work out, but it wouldn’t be a big deal. “When I do my job, the results will come as well. My game is noticeably moving in the right direction, and if it continues like this, then everything will come together in the near future. Maybe this week.”

However, thanks to good planning, he feels ready for his seventh tournament of the season. Most recently, when he was in seventh place in Kenya, he played three very good rounds, finishing with 65. “It gives you confidence,” Schwab emphasized. “I’m playing well and I’m feeling refreshed.”

Many contenders for victory

Now he wants to show that he is in Atzenbrugg, which after the abolition of the Coronavirus in Portugal, as in the previous year, will be honored at short notice and with prize money of one million euros like the main tour twice and 11 times. Winner Martin Kaymer (GER) as well as previous winners of Atzenbrugg (ENG), Ashun Wu (CHN) and Joost Luiten (NED) can present it. Justin Harding (RSA) recently won in Kenya, and Nicola Colesaerts (Belgium / 3) and Kurt Kitayama (USA / 2) have also scored wins in the rounds with them.

The tournament airs at Diamond Country Club five hours a day on ORF Sport + (from 1:25 PM) and can also be watched worldwide. The European tour, shaken by Coronavirus problems, chose Austria as the place for the tour to return last year and is now relying again on this country’s strict prevention concept. That can pay off. After cancellation in 2019 due to a lack of sponsors, club president Christian Josie can envision a return to the regular tour schedule as the first April event in Europe to “announce golf internationally in Austria at the start of the season”.