Austrians get on world map

AUSTRIAN golf has rarely made the headlines, although those who believe the game isn’t popular there would be well wide of the mark.

In fact, Ireland won the 1987 European Amateur Championship at Murhof near Graz and Paul McGinley captured the Hohe Brucke Austrian Open in 1996. They are now competing in the World Cup for the first time under the present format and their team of Markus Brier and Martin Wiegele have surprised themselves and just about everybody else by joining Ireland at the top of the leaderboard.

If anything, Brier could claim to be man of the first round as he chalked up eight birdies while Wiegele was the one to produce the birdie at the last which ensured them of joint leadership.

“It’s amazing how we came to be here at all,” said Brier. “The Austrian Federation paid our way to travel to Mexico for the qualifiers and the World Cup organisers funded our accommodation. However, we were dejected when we finished fourth and missed out by three shots. But Thailand then decided that they wouldn’t compete and we received a call from the European Tour to say we were in and we were delighted to take up the chance.”

Brier, 36, has had three top 10 finishes in Europe this year and is ranked 221st in the world. Wiegele is back in 501st place although he did tie for last year’s Russian Open before losing in a play-off. It is unlikely that they will still be challenging by Sunday afternoon and face a mighty task in going head-to-head with Pádraig Harrington and Paul McGinley today.

It is far more likely that the strongest challenge to Ireland’s position will come from Paul Casey and Luke Donald of England. They stand 11 under par, one off the lead after yesterday’s 61. “As they say, we ham-and-egged it pretty well,” explained Donald.

Casey was forced to admit that reaction to his derogatory remarks about America and Americans and especially the appointment of Tom Lehman as the 2006 Ryder Cup have made him regret his comments.

“I can’t do anything to correct it now,” he lamented. “I wish I could. I have nothing against the States. I wouldn’t live there if I did. I pay my taxes there. My coach, girlfriend, friends, all the rest of it, are there. I wish I could take it back. It weighed on my mind today. I struggled to get to sleep last night.

“What I’ve said has made some people very, very angry which I fully understand. It’s made me upset. I’ve had a huge negative feedback. I’ve been piling through a lot of nasty stuff through e-mail boxes and all the rest of it. One line I gave was taken off the cuff and out of context but nonetheless, it was said. I’m very tempted not to say anything to the press after that.”