As restarts go, Gavin Moynihan hardly put a foot wrong. The 25-year-old Dubliner posted a bogey-free 69 in the opening round of the Austrian Open at the Diamond Country Club outside Vienna, as the European Tour – shut down for four months – got up and running again.
Course specialist Joost Luiten, from the Netherlands, reaffirmed his liking for the course built on an abandoned petro-chemical industrial site with a superb 65 to claim a one-stroke lead over Scottish duo Craig Howie and Marc Warren, while veteran Miguel Angel Jimenez rolled back the years to be among those grouped three shots behind the Dutchman.
Moynihan – playing his first competitive round since missing the cut at the Dimension Data tournament in South Africa last February – had shown good form recently in sharpening his game, firing a 58 on the Corballis links close to home in Donabate, while further fine-tuning took place in Co Kerry where he played Ballybunion, Tralee and Waterville.
A hot streak mid-round provided the foundations for Moynihan's 69, with birdies on the seventh, eighth and 11th holes, to get inside the top 20 after the first round. However, Robin Dawson had a difficult day in signing for a 76 while Niall Kearney struggled to a 78, both facing an uphill battle to survive the 36-holes cut.
The Austrian Open – the first tournament to be played on the European Tour since the Qatar Masters in early March – once again saw Luiten hit the ground running. A champion in 2013 and with top-10 finishes on his last four appearances, Luiten started with five birdies in his opening seven holes. His lone bogey came at the 11th but he finished strongly with birdies at the 15th, 17th and 18th holes to claim the outright lead.
“I have got good memories of this course. It is good to come back after a four months break and have my game in order, a lot of guys didn’t know where they stood. It’s good to have a fast start. You’ve got to keep the mistakes off the card because it is a tricky golf course if you are out of position,” said Luiten, who observed the break hadn’t led to any rustiness. “Tournament golf, you don’t lose it. You have got to stay focused and stay patient and just play your own game.”
LEADERBOARD
Britain and Ireland unless stated, par 72, (a) denotes amateur:
65 Joost Luiten (Ned)
66 Craig Howie, Marc Warren
67 Lorenzo Scalise (Ita), Connor Syme, Philip Eriksson (Swe), Nicolai Hojgaard (Den)
68 Timon Baltl (Aut), Nicolai Von Dellingshausen (Ger), Joel Stalter (Fra), Jonathan Thomson, Christopher Mivis (Bel), Renato Paratore (Ita), Wil Besseling (Ned), Miguel Angel Jimenez (Esp), Eduardo De La Riva (Esp), Thomas Detry (Bel), Jens Dantorp (Swe)
69 Anton Karlsson (Swe), Oscar Lengden (Swe), Scott Henry, Niklas Norgaard Moller (Den), Robin Sciot-Siegrist (Fra), Martin Simonsen (Den), Gavin Moynihan, Oliver Lindell (Fin), Jerome Lando Casanova (Fra), Allen John (Ger), Marcel Schneider (Ger)
70 Mikael Lundberg (Swe), Gudmundur Kristjansson (Swe), Lukas Nemecz (Aut), Maximilian Kieffer (Ger), Sebastian Heisele (Ger), Sebastian Garcia Rodriguez (Esp), Carlos Pigem (Esp), Daan Huizing (Ned), Henric Sturehed (Swe), Robin Roussel (Fra), Adrien Saddier (Fra), (a) Niklas Regner (Aut), Adri Arnaus (Esp), Craig Ross, Gary Stal (Fra), Felix Mory (Fra), Jordan Wrisdale, Gregory Bourdy (Fra), Joel Girrbach (Swi), Scott Gregory
71 Robbie Van West (Ned), Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Matthew Baldwin, Pelle Edberg (Swe), Matt Ford, Moritz Lampert (Ger), Enrico Di Nitto (Ita), Joel Sjoholm (Swe), Bradley Moore, Darius Van Driel (Ned), Santiago Tarrio Ben (Esp), John Catlin (USA), Pedro Oriol (Esp), Alexander Knappe (Ger), Scott Vincent (Zim), Frederic Lacroix (Fra)
72 Jens Fahrbring (Swe), Federico Maccario (Ita), Chase Hanna (USA), Max Schmitt (Ger), Per Langfors (Swe), Sami Valimaki (Fin), Ondrej Lieser (Cze), Robin Petersson (Swe), Julien Quesne (Fra), Rikard Karlberg (Swe), Steven Tiley, Ugo Coussaud (Fra), Stanislav Matus (Cze), Borja Virto (Esp), Lorenzo Gagli (Ita), Clement Berardo (Fra)
73 Martin Wiegele (Aut), Roope Kakko (Fin), Aron Zemmer (Ita), Marcel Siem (Ger), (a) Maximillan Steinlechner (Aut), Mathieu Fenasse (Fra), David Boote, Hurly Long (Ger), Francesco Laporta (Ita), Lars Van Meijel (Ned), Markus Habeler (Aut), Deyen Lawson (Aus), Raphael Ger Sousa (Swi), Mark Flindt Haastrup (Den), Antti Ahokas (Fin), Chris Robb
74 Nicolai Kristensen (Den), Andrew Wilson, Scott Fernandez (Esp), Pep Angles (Esp), David Borda (Esp), Benjamin Rusch (Swi), Heinrich Arkenau (Ger), Leonhard Astl (Aut), (a) Laurenz Kubin (Aut), Dominic Foos (Ger), Richard Mansell, Antoine Rozner (Fra), Victor Riu (Fra), Bernd Ritthammer (Ger)
75 Ricardo Gouveia (Por), Filippo Bergamaschi (Ita), Stuart Manley, Daniel Gavins, Ben Stow, Todd Clements, Martin Ovesen (Den), Markus Brier (Aut), Ross McGowan, Ewan Ferguson
76 Ivan Cantero Gutierrez (Esp), Robin Dawson, Ryan Evans, Damien Perrier (Fra), Adrian Meronk (Pol), Jonas Kolbing (Ger), Lukas Lipold (Aut)
77 Janne Kaske (Fin), Christofer Blomstrand (Swe), Alfie Plant, Gerold Folk (Aut), Emilio Cuartero Blanco (Esp)
78 Niall Kearney, Alvaro Arizabaleta (Col)
79 Tapio Pulkkanen (Fin), Nick McCarthy
80 Kim Koivu (Fin)
81 Haraldur Magnus (Isl), Haydn Porteous (Rsa), Rhys Enoch, Jesper Sandborg (Swe)
85 Fredrik Nilehn (Swe)
87 Sebastian Wittmann (Aut)
