Scottish Golfers Last In & Now First Out In European Tour Return

It will be a day over four months since Scotland’s David Drysdale was denied victory in a play-off for the March 8th closing Commercial Bank Qatar Masters.

The Qatar event was the last to be staged on the European Tour since all competition was stopped as the world dealt with the Coronavirus pandemic.

And to herald the return to competition in the Thursday July 9th restart to the Tour it will be 29-year old Scot Chris Robb to hit off first in the Austrian Open on the Diamond Resort course some 35 kilometres from Vienna.

Robb, who is yet to make his European Tour debut, competed in 19 events last year on the secondary Challenge Tour and now he’s been chosen to lead out a return to golf in Europe at a very early 7am local time (6am UK).

Scotland’s Chris Robb to be hitting off first in the European Tour’s long overdue return to competition (Photo – European Tour)

“It’s exciting and pretty cool to be hitting the first shot of the tour’s return,” said Robb who is among a big contingent of eight Scots in the Euro 500,000 Austrian event.

“I only heard I’d got into the field about midday on Monday as I was flying out here.

“I was second reserve when I left home but just thought with all that’s going on it was with taking the risk that I’d get in.

“With a lot of cancelled flights around, it was a relief to be on the plane to Vienna and now I’m excited to be back playing again.

“I spent pretty much 12 weeks with hitting a single shot other than a few putts on the carpet.

“It was nice to be home for a while, but I’m ready to compete again and happy with how the game is feeling in practice.”

Robb will be joined in the first group by English pair Andrew Wilson and Matt Forde.

Miguel Angel Jiménez will make his 705th European Tour start in the company of Belgium’s Thomas Detry and Sami Välimäki, who won the Oman Open just a week before the suspension of the 2020 season.

Anton Karlsson, winner of the RAM Cape Town Open in February and currently second on the Road to Mallorca Rankings, tees off at 12:50 with 2013 Austrian Open winner Joost Luiten and three-time Challenge Tour winner Kim Koivu.

Hoping to build on his fourth-placed finish at the Dimension Data Pro-Am is Santiagio Tarrio Ben of Spain, who tees off at 14:55 with Niklas Norgaard Møller of Denmark and Sweden’s Fredrik Nilehn.

Rising Spanish star Adri Arnaus, winner of the Challenge Tour Grand Final in 2018, is joined by compatriot Eduardo De La Riva and 2017 Kazakhstan Open winner Tapio Pulkannen at 12:40.

For the full list of tee times, click here.



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