Maria Lankowitz, May 17^th, 2024- Austria’s own Lukas Nemecz and Spain’s Asier Aguirre Izcue are the current clubhouse leaders with a two-day total of 11 under-par as Round 2 was suspended at 8:23 p.m. local time due to darkness at the 2024 Gösser Open.

Round 2 of the 2024 Gösser Open began with a 2-hour delay due to unplayable course conditions after some very heavy overnight rain fell over Golf Club Erzherzog Johann in Maria Lankowitz, the tournament’s regular host. The second round officially began at 9:30 a.m. local time from the 1^st and 10^th hole. During the day, the players faced a mix of weather conditions, ranging from heavy rain to a blue sky, sunshine, and swirling winds. At 8:23 p.m. local time, the tournament director, Mr. Alessandro Pia, suspended play due to darkness.

Round 2 will resume at 7:00 am tomorrow morning while, the final round of the 2024 Gösser Open is expected to begin around 9:00 am. After round 2, a cut will be made to the top 40 players and ties.

Round 2 Player Quotes

Lukas Nemecz, 34, from Austria who tied for 3^rd place after yesterday’s opening round, shot a 6 under-par, 66 in today’s round and is the clubhouse leader with a two-day total of 11 under-par alongside Spain’s Asier Aguirre Izcue as round 2 was suspended due to darkness.  He made 4 birdies and 1 bogey on the front nine holes and 3 birdies on the back nine to conclude the day. Nemecz is a former Alps Tour Winner and conquered the Gösser Open twice before in his career. He now currently plays on the DP World Tour. After his 6 under-par, 66 Nemecz commented: “I’m obviously very pleased with the first two days, the Gösser Open is a very special tournament for me and for all Austrian players. I’ve been able to win here twice already, and it’s been great to come back and play this tournament.” When asked about the past, he added: “I spent a lot of time playing on the Alps Tour, and I know the level is really good. Every young player needs to go through the Alps Tour to reach the Challenge Tour and the DP World Tour so it’s always nice to see the young upcoming players compete. Luckily so far, I’ve been playing really well, and it will be fun tomorrow. I’m really looking forward to it, I will need to certainly play my best. There are a lot of talented young golfers on the Alps Tour so it will be a good fight.” Nemecz added that he found the “course conditions to be very tough this year. We’ve had a lot of rain yesterday and overnight. In all the years I’ve played, I’ve never had the ball fly so short like it did this morning, and that made it very challenging.” 

Spain’s Asier Aguirre Izcue, 24, was tied for 10^th place after yesterday’s opening round, shot a 7 under-par, 65 in today’s round, and is the clubhouse leader alongside Nemecz with a two-day total of 11 under-par. He made 7 birdies and 1 bogey during today’s round 2. After his round 2, Aguirre Izcue was very happy: “it was a good round today, 7 under-par being very solid tee to green. I hit some great shots and holed some important putts. The conditions were tough today, at the beginning of the round especially. The greens are rolling really good I must say. Tomorrow, ­I hope to keep playing the same way I did today and be focused on my own game. Hopefully, that will put me in contention for the win.” 

Spain’s Asier Aguirre Izcue is the second clubhouse leader as play is suspended at the 2024 Gösser Open. Photo Credits: GEPA-pictures / Gösser Open

Italian amateur, Marco Florioli, 19, concludes his 2^nd round of the Gösser Open with a two-day total of 9 under-par. He shot a 4 under-par, 68 with 5 birdies and 1 bogey. His best finish so far this season was a tie for 18th place at the 2024 Red Sea Little Venice Open, and he’s looking forward to trying to earn another good finish this week. 

Austria’s Maximilian Steinlechner, 24, who was in a 7-way tie for 3^rd place after round 1 of the 2024 Gösser Open is now 2 strokes off the current clubhouse lead as he shots a 2^nd round of 4 under-par, 68 for a two-day total of 9 under-par. He made 2 bogeys and 6 birdies during the day. Steinlechner mainly plays on the Challenge Tour, but nonetheless, he was very excited to be able to compete this week in his home country in a tournament that is always very special to Austrian players. After his round, he commented on how: “Today was a little different than yesterday. We didn’t have rain, but we had on-and-off wind, which was very difficult to judge due to the surrounding area with the trees and hills. It was swirling in the trees which made it much more difficult to judge it correct it. I navigated the course well today and kept it together nicely. I made 2 dumb mistakes, which ended up in bogeys, but all in all, I’m very happy.”

Alongside Florioli and Steinlechner with a two-day total of 9 under-par there is: Italy’s Enrico Di Nitto and England’s Harry Ellis. Italy’s Davide Buchi is currently at 9 under-par but was still on the course when play was suspended. He will conclude his 2^nd round tomorrow morning.

Austrian amateur Fabian Lang, concludes his 2^nd round of the 2024 Gösser Open with a two-day total of 8 under-par and finds himself 3 shots off the current clubhouse lead.

Spain’s Eduard Rousaud, 24, currently 10^th in the Order of Merit standings, concludes his 2^nd round of the 2024 Gösser Open with a two-day total of 8 under-par and is 3 shots off the clubhouse lead as he shot a 2^nd round of 6 under-par, 66. He has been playing well since the beginning of the season and is “looking to capture a trophy, hopefully in the upcoming events. I’ve worked really hard over the last 3 years, and the work is finally starting to pay off. I’m feeling better over the ball also that’s for sure.” Roussaud also added that today, he was: “really focused, much more than yesterday. I could tell I started getting uncomfortable when it was pouring rain because, for a moment, we had some very heavy rain today. I think we got a little luckier than yesterday as yesterday we had rain for the whole day but today it was just for a moment.”

The 2023 Alps Tour Grand Final presented by Auralis winner, Augustin Holé, 26, from France was tied for 3^rd place after yesterday’s 1^st round, finds himself in 3 shots off the clubhouse lead with a two-day total of 8 under-par. He shot a 3 under-par, 69 in today’s round with a quadruple bogey on his 1^st hole of the day, the 10^th of the golf course and then he went on to make 7 birdies on the remaining 17 holes to conclude the round. After his fabulous end to his round with three birdies in a row in the last three holes, Holé commented: “I had an awful start today, I measure a bad yardage and hit it twice over the green, out of bounds but told myself not try and get it back. I know my game is good enough to make a lot of birdies and I was able to do that. To make 7 birdies on the last 17 holes I’m proud to tell myself I did a pretty good job out there.”

Alongside Lang (am), Rousaud, and Holé, with a two-day total of 8 under par, are France’s Paul Margolis and England’s Harry Goddard.

The highlight of the day belongs to Thomas Austin from Austria who made a hole-in-one on hole 15 from 158 meters with a 6 iron.

The players are competing for an overall prize fund of €40,000 and 45,000 points. The winner of the 32nd edition of the Gösser Open will earn €5,800 and 6,525 Order of Merit points.

Tournament Promoter

Murhof Gruppe promotes the sixth event of the 2024 season. The Murhof Gruppe owns more than 25 golf courses throughout Austria, including this week’s venue.

This week’s main sponsor is Gösser Beer. The main tournament partners are: Steiermark Tourismus and Region Graz. The Pro-Am Partners are: Gösser, Steiermärkische Sparkasse and Antenne Steiermark. The Federations that support the event are: Österreichischer Golfverband – ÖGV and Steirischer Golfverband (StGV) and the media partners are: Kleine Zeitung and GEPA Pictures.