Andrew's Interwetten Open (HPT) Preview

It feels good to say that we backed the runner-up last week at the Swiss Challenge, particularly at the excellent odds of 55/1. Scratch the surface and the picture is a little less rosy – with seven guys sharing second place, we picked up a chopped return, and Julian Perico et al were eight shots behind Matthew Southgate at the end. Still, it was a solid week and Perico remains one to watch for the remainder of this season as he just might be too classy for this level. Southgate is of course a wonderful story, a cancer survivor and decent bloke who’s been playing solid golf from tee-to-green on the DPWT this season but hasn’t won in too long because his putter wasn’t co-operating, until this week. Hopefully he can keep performing at this level. He’ll face a very different challenge this week.

The Tournament

After hopping around Europe in a fairly illogical manner for a while, this is a short hop over the border to Schladming, which on a tourist website describes itself as “in the middle of Austria.” Which it is. So you have a sense of what you’re getting; altitude, elevation changes, spectacular views, and very, very bad weather. We will certainly see a wet course given the rain in advance, and the forecast makes it look like completing 72-holes will be a great achievement given the storm warnings in addition to the near-continuous rain. Oh, and it’ll be cold. The good news, however, is that winds should be low.

We do have some sense of the course, which couldn’t be said last year when the event was played for the first time. The leaderboard is worth examining. Behind Maz Steinlechner at -21 we had Filippo Celli and then a group of JC Ritchie, Jovan Rebula and Oihan Guillamoundeguy. Hugo Townsend and David Law were also in the top ten. It’s lazy to categorise players too simplistically, but I see a group of skilled iron players (Steinlechner, Ritchie, Rebula, Law) and some real bombers (Guillaumondeguy, Townsend, Celli.) 

Given that this is a 6,438 yard par-69 (and at about 800m above sea level, too,) you might not expect that number of long-hitters to succeed. The clue is in the -21 winning score, I think – this is a course that needs to be overpowered. Whether by simply bombing and gouging or by hitting great wedges, you’ll need to make lots of birdies. The wet conditions will presumably make this even more like target golf than it was last year and could see even lower scores. So we’re agnostic about how players score, but we want either flushers or bombers who can putt well and ideally can play well in poor weather and at altitude.

The Selections

It was awfully hard to leave Adam Wallin off my list of picks this week, as (like many watchers of the HPT) I’m convinced that his first win is coming, and this course could well suit. However, I think he’s been well-found by the bookmakers and I’ve chosen to look elsewhere. Similarly, I couldn’t find any value among the local players despite my belief that, in general, that’s a good place to look. Cedric Gugler, playing his first tournament since missing out in Q-school in November, was a consideration, but there isn’t anyone remotely of the quality of Steinlechner in this year’s regional contingent. 

My first pair of selections will be no surprise to long-time readers of my various golfing prognostications, and I’m delighted that both are returning to form. First is Robin Williams, who has played his formative golf both in the U.K. (awful weather and links success) and in South Africa (altitude) and at his best is a wonderful driver of the golf balla and a heavy scorer. He’s twice won the Fortress Invitational on the Sunshine Tour (at -19 and -22) at altitude, has gone well in professional (fourth in the Dunhill Links) and amateur (second in St Andrews Links) events in poor weather in the U,K,, and has proven himself at this level when gaining a DPWT card in the stacked 2024 Challenge Tour season. His putting held him back when just missing the cut in the recent Austrian Alpine Open but was better in last week’s KLM Open (45^th) which was great preparation for this, and in Catalunya when he was 15^th on his last HPT start. He’s great value to grab a first HPT win and win back the DPWT card he should have kept last year.

Something similar can be said for Veer Ahlawat, who lost his way badly in his first DPWT season after winning the Indian Tour’s sole card in 2024. He did, notably, grab 13^th at last year’s Austrian Alpine Open for a season’s best performance, perhaps unsurprising given that the PGTI courses tend to be short, tight and won by heavy scorers. He might not love the weather but the altitude will hold no fears and he’s as capable as anyone of going low. He had nine events in his native India this winter and won twice and never finished out of the top six. After a couple of poor performances he’s shown talent in Europe this year, and was ninth last week in Switzerland. With two standout results in the Alps from two events, he can add a third.

Finally, we’ll take a player for whom performing in terrible weather is expected, the powerful Swede Tobias Eden. This is a value pick as I didn’t expect the odds to be as generous as they are, but he’s certainly a player who has been on my radar for a while. A later starter than many, he’s now 30 but has only made 27 starts at this level (and had a dreadful year on the DPWT in 2023, making one cut in 20 attempts) but is thriving now. He picked up three wins on the Nordic Golf League last year to win a card, scoring heavily and hitting the ball a mile (as they all seem to on that satellite tour.) He’s been in the top 25 on his last three starts including last week, which started with an eye-catching bogey-free 65. He’s more than capable of putting four solid rounds together under these conditions and springing a surprise in an event where a number of Swedes excelled last year.

• Robin Williams, 50/1

• Veer Ahlawat, 60/1

• Tobias Eden, 90/1

All 1pt e/w, ¼ odds 5 places, Bet365.  As ever, watch out for better odds coming available soon after this is published!