Casey Jarvis has form at altitude and in Austria and rates a strong fancy for this week's DP World Tour event.
Golf betting tips: Austrian Alpine Open
3pts e.w. Casey Jarvis at 22/1 (Coral, Ladbrokes 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7)
2pts e.w. Antoine Rozner at 35/1 (bet365, Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Calum Hill at 60/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 - 55/1 Coral)
1pt e.w. Maximilian Steinlechner at 110/1 (Betfred 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8)
1pt e.w. Euan Walker at 190/1 (bet365 1/5 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8 - 175/1 Betfred)
It's been a glorious couple of weeks of DP World Tour golf for backers of out-of-form South Africans, for those two players, their friends, and their families. For the rest of us, it's been a frustrating reminder of the unpredictability of golf below the very highest level, though that is also part of the appeal. There was a bit of an upset on the PGA Tour when a major champion won. Here in Europe, we've had a 14-shot win for a youngster and a dramatic, overdue one for an injury-plagued veteran, both at hundreds-to-one.
This week, the two tours collide, sort of, as Austro-Georgian Ryder Cup star Sepp Straka heads home for the Austrian Alpine Open. Straka moved to the USA as a 14-year-old and has gone on to establish himself as a multiple winner and major contender, and it's to his credit, and that of organisers, that he's finding time between majors to add some star appeal to an event which returned to the schedule last year.
Straka's class would make him a fearsome proposition anywhere, but at home it won't surprise anyone if he captures what would be a first DP World Tour win. The course has changed – more on which to come – but the fact that two Germans fought out the finish last year is significant. Both of them referred to being close to home and there's no question Straka, Bernd Wiesberger, plus the German players in this field, will all benefit from vocal support.
They should also benefit from a familiarity with conditions. This is a short par 70, one of the shortest courses we'll see all year in fact, and it's at about 2,500m above sea level. Defending champion Nicolai von Dellingshausen had won in Austria before, runner-up Marcel Schneider has won in Switzerland, and they were joined by Marcel Siem in the top five. I remember when Siem tied for second in Germany alongside Max Kieffer and just last week, an event in Denmark on the HotelPlanner Tour was dominated by Scandinavian players.
Picking holes in Straka's profile isn't easy, though much of his golfing education came in the USA so just how familiar this feels is open to question. There's a chance that having more focus on him than he usually does proves a negative, while his form is best described as patchy, but this does look a golf course which matches up well with his game. In a weak field for the grade, 10/1 quotes were always likely to prove popular and he'll still have backers at single-figure prices.
Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee GC, which by the way is just a short drive from the border with Germany, looks a little like Adamstal, Crans, Geneve, and other courses of similar nature. On paper it should be a pushover and we'll see a lot of birdies and eagles, but a blend of water, elevation (and elevation changes) and apparent forced lay-ups make it look like a test of precision where distance control and scrambling will be vital.
On those aesthetic comparisons, note that Geneve, home of the Rolex Trophy until 2019, looks a particularly good guide. David Geall won here 25 years ago and among just a couple of top-10s elsewhere was Geneve, while runner-up Michael Kirk played well there on all three visits. Michael Jonzon, in third, won his sole start at Geneve and there were many more players close to the lead with form over in Switzerland.
I'd expect Adamstal and Crans to prove pointers too and they have the benefit of having been used more recently. Plenty of last year's top 10, including the champion, have form at Adamstal and this looks like a similar challenge. Crans meanwhile could've pointed you to the other two Germans in contention plus Sebastian Soderberg in eighth, while Austria form in general was represented by several of those already named, plus runner-up Kris Reitan (as an amateur) and former Lyoness Open champion, John Catlin.
All of that leads to the second and third favourites and I have to come down on the side of CASEY JARVIS ahead of Oliver Lindell.
The latter has an excellent record at Adamstal, played well in this and at Crans last year, is an excellent iron player with good hands and is playing well every time he tees it up, but taking 25/1 against a borderline world-class golfer feels a stretch. We were on at almost twice that when he hit the front on Sunday in Qatar and while no wins from 200-plus pro starts isn't everything, at the prices it is something.
Jarvis on the other hand delivered on his promise with back-to-back wins in Kenya and South Africa in the spring and the former made perfect sense, with the altitude and the nature of the golf course very much reminiscent of those he grew up playing. Unlike Lindell, he also won at HotelPlanner Tour level and that came here in Austria at Adamstal, a quirky, short, shot-makers' golf course.
Shot-maker would aptly describe Jarvis, who is accurate of the tee and has become a brilliant iron player, gaining strokes everywhere bar Augusta of late. That includes a storming finish to the PGA Championship two weeks ago and, with a big week there behind him, I thought 22nd in Belgium was just fine, especially as he ranked seventh in strokes-gained tee-to-green only for the putter to go cold on him.
Improvement with that club and a return to the mountain air could be all it takes for Jarvis to effectively cement his graduation to the PGA Tour and as well as his form here plus a top-10 finish at Crans, note that there's also a personal connection, as his parents came to Kitzbühel for their honeymoon a long time ago.
It must've felt fitting to them that Jarvis bagged his first professional victory in Austria and it would be even more so were he to win right here in Kitzbühel, which would take him to second on the Race to Dubai and a points tally that seems sure to earn PGA Tour membership. He looks the clear danger to Straka in a field absent of some of the DP World Tour big-guns and is supported accordingly.
Jacob Olesen has five top-fives in nine dating back to Qatar, when alongside Lindell he placed for us at big odds. I've no complaints with regards his revised position in the market but his patchy iron play is enough of a worry to look elsewhere, with CALUM HILL preferred at much bigger odds despite that also applying to him.
Hill is quite similar in some ways as his approach work can let him down, whereas his short-game, like that of the Dane, is first-class. That said, Hill has displayed more spike potential, leading the field for strokes-gained approach in Qatar and ranking 17th as recently as two starts ago in India. When he does produce the goods the rest of his game is plainly up to winning in this company.
Last week's T59 in the Soudal Open wasn't much to write home about but it came after a two-month break, prior to which he'd contended for the third time in seven starts. Clearly, Hill should've won the Bahrain Championship (where funky greens and a German winner give us a tenuous link back here) but he responded well when second in the Qatar Masters and at 15th in the Race to Dubai is in the mix for a PGA Tour card too.
What I really like, along with a sense that his work around the green will be very handy this week, is his altitude form, much of which comes from similar courses. Like Jarvis he's won at Adamstal and gone well in Kenya (third), while he's also a winner in Johannesburg. Third at Geneve might be the best guide of all and it came from one visit, while seventh at Crans and even 10th at Eichenried over the border also read well.
This makes sense given that he went to college in New Mexico, winning titles both there and in Arizona, and if the Scot can build on three rounds of promise at Rinkven, a course at which he's achieved little, he might be up to doubling his tally in Austria and making it a DP World Tour hat-trick.
I'll get back up the betting soon but it makes sense to play out the Scottish theme, with Ewen Ferguson and EUAN WALKER both of some interest.
Ferguson bombed out when fancied last week but has drifted as a consequent and often responds well to a missed cut. Newly engaged and having been in excellent form before the Soudal Open, given his form at similar courses he could very well bounce back.
At bigger odds though I'd rather chance Walker, who has been second and third at Adamstal and was once second in the European Amateur Championship at Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg.
When you consider that Schneider is a former winner of the Austrian Amateur and that Reitan starred in the European Amateur Team Championship in Austria, positives memories of playing well in the country we're visiting perhaps take on greater significance and that's certainly an angle I believe in.
Walker, a tidy operator who ranks 24th in fairways and is solid through the bag, has played well four times this year, all in tournaments won by similar players. That includes 34th in Kenya behind Jarvis, sixth in China when fairway-finding Jordan Gumberg won, 11th in Alex Fitzpatrick's Indian Open, and 30th to Richard Sterne in Belgium last week.
Looking further back to his days on the HotelPlanner Tour, Walker's first win came at the quirky St Mellion, where Fitzpatrick succeeded him, and while his follow-up in the Swiss Challenge actually came in France, Saint Apollinaire is at similar altitude to Kitzbühel. Conditions here might suit more than any that are still to come this season and having made a solid start to life as a rookie, he could surprise a few.
Back towards the favourites, I tend to think that ANTOINE ROZNER remains generally underrated as for my money he'd slot in nicely behind Jarvis in the betting for this.
And it's not just that he's a three-time DP World Tour winner with a touch of back-class – Rozner's very recent form is of a high standard, with top-30 finishes in six of his last seven starts hinting at something better to come in the weeks and months ahead.
One of the best iron players on the circuit and razor-sharp around the green right now, I do think this is a potentially nice fit and if it's a course where driver is seldom in use, that too could work in his favour. Rozner arrived on the circuit as a quality driver but that part of his game has regressed as other parts have improved, and too often it holds him back.
That said, he drove the ball much better in Spain last time and with the putter more reliable now than it had been, he looks very close. Rozner has produced a couple of potentially tournament-winning tee-to-green displays when his putter has been costly, but when the next of those inevitably arrives he looks in a better place to take advantage.
As for why here, not only does the course appear likely to suit someone with a solid Crans record, but he's been excellent at altitude since right back in 2019, when he won at about 2,500ft in Spain. Since then he's gone well in Switzerland, South Africa and over the border in Munich, while he's won as well in Prague, where some form of adjustment is needed at about 1,000ft.
Rozner's brother won a Pro Golf Tour event in Austria a decade or so ago and the best golfer in the family looks primed to threaten a more significant victory this weekend.
Returning to the local angle, Schneider has form in all the right places but I wasn't overly impressed with the price and while I could see Marcel Siem being inspired by Sterne's win, I'm going to fall into the trap with MAXIMILIAN STEINLECHNER.
This young Austrian is shorter in the betting than he would be anywhere else but I do think that's valid, and he's stepped up on home soil. He won the Gosser Open in 2024, contended at Adamstal the same summer, and then stormed to victory in the Interwetten Open to all but secure DP World Tour status.
Steinlechner even managed to sit close to the leaders through 54 holes of this event last year despite his form coming in having been patchy, so when it comes to paying a bit of a local tax at least we can see clear evidence of his ability to raise his game. That he also has some knowledge of this golf course is also a positive.
He's got stacks of potential, too, and could've won several more times on the HotelPlanner Tour last season. He showed there that his good is very good and don't forget that his breakthrough victory came at altitude in South Africa, so conditions here can only help.
Set against all this is the fact his recent form is modest but he played well through the middle two rounds in Belgium and some of his best golf earlier in the year also came high up in Nairobi and Joburg, so all things considered there's enough there to take our chances at 80s and bigger.
Switzerland's Joel Girrbach is one of the most accurate drivers around and his irons are firing, but like former Kenya and Crans winner Sebastian Soderberg, his putter is in meltdown. That's not true of in-form Ricardo Gouveia, second at Geneve and a winner in Germany once, but he's shortened since betting opened and any value has probably now gone.
There's a Crans case to be made for Ritchie Ramsay who bagged successive top-20s before a missed cut which was solely down to the putter, but while he's another veteran who might see Sterne as inspiration, even around a short course like this one I can leave him out with most bookmakers on the short side.
That leaves only Albin Bergstrom to weigh up and I've come down on the side of why, rather than why not.
On the form he showed prior to last week it's fair to say Bergstrom has next to no chance, but he was in the mix at a short, tree-lined course in Belgium (13th) and has long been considered a player of some potential.
That he has a top-10 finish at Adamstal to his name is eye-catching, not just because of the potential tie to that course itself, but because as with Walker it may reflect fond memories of Austria from his days playing for Sweden as a junior.
Bergstrom clung on to win the anchor match at the 2016 European Boys' Team Championship to earn victory for his side and that was at Diamond Country Club, where Reitan was the star of the following year's senior version.
The course is different but the conditions are similar and, following back-to-back cuts made and something tangible to build on, he'd have been one to chance had the standout 300/1 been more widely available. Unfortunately, and as is increasingly the case, it isn't.
Posted at 21:00 BST on 25/05/26
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