Austrian giant Bernd Wiesberger celebrated last week’s 34th birthday becoming the first triple Tour winner this season thanks for a final round 65 for a 16-under par tally to capture the Italian Open on the Obligata course near Rome.
Wiesberger earlier this year captured the Made in Denmark and five events later the very affable Austrian landed the biggest win of his 13-year pro career in capturing the Scottish Open.
In his seven Tour victories, Wiesberger has now won a French, Scottish and Italian Open titles.
He’s also the first Austrian to win in 76th hosting of the Italian event after compatriot, Marcus Brier lost out in a play-off for the 2007 Italian title.
Congratulations @BWiesberger 🏆
The #ItalianOpen Champion! 🇮🇹#RolexSeries pic.twitter.com/FyxU470sbt
— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) October 13, 2019
And in the 2019 Race to Dubai picture, Wiesberger had leap-frogged his way to the top of the rankings in the goal to end the year as European No. 1.
Wiesberger arrived in the Italian capital third on the Race to Dubai trailing 865 points adrift of front-running Spaniard, Jon Rahm and 502 points behind Lowry in second place.
“It’s amazing to again win as it’s been a great summer for me as I’ve shown a lot of good golf and shown lovely progress after my injury last year,” he said.
“So, I am just enjoying my time out there an enjoying getting back into these situations. It has been a tough week here in Italy but I stuck with the job to keep making that one extra putt and that really worked today.”
Wiesberger arrived in the Italian capital third on the Race to Dubai trailing 865 points adrift of front-running Spaniard, Jon Rahm and 502 points behind Lowry in second place.
Victory has seen Wiesberger leap-frog both Lowry and Rahm to the top of the standings, and in what will be contesting four of the last six events remaining in the 2019 season.
Bernd Wiesberger captures 2019 Italian Open (Photo – European Tour/Getty)
“It would be amazing to end the year as European No. 1 but then I have played well in a lot of events including the Irish Open, the Scottish Open and here this week that has helped getting up to the top of the Race to Dubai,” he said.
“So, it’s really excited what is a ahead in my last four events.”
And South African-born and now Slovakian national, Rory Sabbatini has taken his first first step in hopefully creating a Ryder Cup first signing off for a 66 and a share of 10th place at eight-under par.
Sabbatini married the cousin to the vice-president of the Slovakian Golf Federation and earlier this year the now 43-year old changed his citizenship to Slovakian.
It was a move also that could qualify see Sabbatini represent Slovakia in the 2020 Olympic Games.
