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Tournament Preview
Sepp Straka is excited by the chance to fulfil a childhood dream as he targets a maiden DP World Tour title at the Austrian Alpine Open presented by Kitzbühel Tirol.
The 32nd edition of the Austrian Alpine Open heads to the picturesque Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith for the first time, which becomes the 465th venue to stage a DP World Tour event.
Straka returns to compete at his national open for the first time since 2018 and has since become a global superstar.
The World Number 18 became the first Austrian to win on the PGA TOUR when he won the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in 2022. A year later, he won his second PGA TOUR title at the Sanderson Farms Championship, before going on to finish joint second at The Open and represent Europe at the Ryder Cup for the first time.
He then won twice stateside in 2025 as he later that year became a two-time Ryder Cup winner, with the 33-year-old now hoping to end this week by becoming just the third Austrian champion on home soil after record three-time winner Markus Brier and Bernd Wiesberger.
Straka is joined in the Tyrolean mountains by a number of compatriots including nine-time DP World Tour winner Wiesberger, Matthias Schwab, Lukas Nemecz and Max Steinlechner, who won the Interwetten Open in Austria on the HotelPlanner Tour last season.
Nicolai von Dellingshausen secured his maiden DP World Tour title after a putting masterclass on Sunday propelled him to a two-stroke victory at the 2025 Austrian Alpine Open, and the German will return to defend the trophy this week.
Marc Warren will become the 51st player to reach 500 DP World Tour appearances this week in Austria. The four-time DP World Tour winner picked up his first title at the 2006 EnterCard Scandinavian Masters and went on to secure the Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year Award. He also won the 2007 World Cup alongside Colin Montgomerie and, as an amateur, he holed the winning putt at the 2001 Walker Cup at Sea Island, Georgia.
Warren also won twice on the HotelPlanner Tour in 2005 on his way to topping the Rankings and securing promotion to the DP World Tour, and he will be joined by Kipp Popert who is making his debut on the DP World Tour.
Popert, who was diagnosed with a form of cerebral palsy called Spastic diplegia that affects his lower body, has won 16 times as both an individual and team member on the G4D Tour, and is currently World Number One on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD).
Player Quotes
Sepp Straka: Anytime I can get back to Austria, it’s amazing and being able to play a tournament here is really special. I’m really looking forward to the week.
The support here has been incredible, and I can’t wait for the crowds to get to the golf course. It was a special year back here in 2017 and it was a fun week. I had probably my best professional finish at that point.
The course looks great and it’s really tight off the tee, so you’re going to have to hit it pretty straight. The rough is pretty thick this year and the greens are tiny. I think off the tee is going to be pretty important this week.
That would be incredible to win my national open. Growing up, I always went to the Austrian Open. It was at my home course, Fontana, back in the day. I always went with my brother and our friends. We couldn’t wait for the week to get there and go out and watch the stars play golf. Just being able just to play here, it’s incredible and winning it would be really special.
Nicolai von Dellingshausen: It feels a little bit different returning as defending champion. I try to have the mindset that it is another tournament week, but obviously with everything around it, with all the appointments and press conferences that we have, obviously it’s different.
I’m trying to see it in a way that I’m trying to just play golf again, as I did last year and it worked out well. Whatever happens this week happens this week, but I’m going to enjoy this week no matter what.
I think it’s quite a tough course. A couple of weeks ago there was still snow up here but the rough is thick and the greens are great. It’s quite tight, so you really have to hit it straight. If you’re in the rough, sometimes you can just hack it out and take the punishment, but I think it’s great. The views are incredible and I’m really looking forward to it.
I think winning a golf tournament is hard. It always will be. What I remember most is walking down 18 with my caddie and he was just shaking his head the whole time. He was like, it’s over. We’ve done this. And then it kind of settled in. I made the three-putt just to make sure, but it was kind of that moment where I was like, OK, I’m going to win a DP World Tour event.
A lot of things kind of changed and a lot of things stayed the same at the same time. My wife got pregnant just a couple of weeks after, so we have a son now. This has definitely changed a lot, but a lot of great things have happened. After the win, it kind of felt like everything was falling into place. All the work we put in basically paid off in all different areas, not only golf.
Bernd Wiesberger: There’s a lot of pride within the players to play and compete in their national opens. They would say it’s their fifth Major and certainly it is for me as well. I’ve played a lot of Austrian Opens myself, it’s a very, very special week.
We travel the whole world so it’s nice to play in front of home crowds. The home fans, you get a little bit more support, but it does come with a little bit more pressure because you do want to perform well for them and for yourself. It’s a great week and we are very lucky to have so many national opens out here on the DP World Tour.
Markus Brier won it, that was amazing for Austrian golf and for players that were inspiring to get to that level and he showed us what was possible. It’s always important to have a role model from your home to show a path and show that it’s possible.
It was an unbelievable week for me in 2012 and a great experience to win in front of home fans, family and friends. That makes it special and there’s not much that beats winning your national open. From a career ambition, I don’t think anything will ever beat qualifying for the Ryder Cup but from an emotional and how special it is, national opens are right up there and I was lucky to tick that off very early in my DP World Tour career.
Max Steinlechner: It’s very special. I think it’s the first time that the DP World Tour has an event in the area where I grew up in Tyrol in Salzburg. It’s unique, it’s special. A lot of friends and family will come out and watch. In a way, it’s a tournament like every other one, but in a way, it’s just very special and unique and I’ll definitely look forward to playing tomorrow.
I’m certainly going for it. I mean, trying to go into a week saying I’m going to win is a little bit stupid, but I mean obviously I’m going to prepare the best I can and then give myself my best shot at standing there on the last green as the last man on Sunday. So yeah, I mean I’m just going to be looking forward to playing in front of the home crowd and friends and family and I’m already enjoying it. So yeah, it’s going to be a good week for sure.
It’s going to be fun. Some of my friends have been out to tournaments before and they’ll definitely let me know if I make a good birdie and hit a good shot. So it’s going to be fun. And the crowd in Austria is usually, they enjoy golf. So I’m sure a lot of people will come out as well. it’s going to be good.
