Maiden win for Czech Ales Korinek in Austria
Raiffeisen Pro Golf Tour St. Pölten
With rounds of 63 and 70, a total 7 under par, the Czech Ales Korinek has secured himself the trophy of the Raiffeisen Pro Golf Tour St. Pölten 2020. Due to heavy rainfall and the resulting unplayability of the course on the first and partly also on the second day of the tournament, the event had to be reduced to 36 holes. Swiss Marco Iten came in second, two strokes behind (66, 69/-5), third place was shared by the two French Stanislas Gautier and Julien Brun as well as the three Germans Allen John, Jakob van de Flierdt and David Heinzinger; they all played 4 under par.
St. Pölten / Austria - Even if in the end only two rounds were in the books and the final round had to be launched by shotgun: The players had a long tournament marathon at the Raiffeisen Pro Golf Tour St. Pölten in the Austrian GC St. Pölten. “It was mentally very difficult this week. Always waiting, always breaks,” said Champion Ales Korinek about the situation at the second tournament of the Pro Golf Tour 2020 after the corona lockdown.
Torrential rain made the picturesque par 70 course of the GC St. Pölten unplayable on the first day, and since it was pouring again on the second day, half of the field could only begin their first round on the third day of the tournament. In order to be able to fully allocate prize money and ranking list points and to ensure that the tournament also counted for the European Challenge Tour 2021 qualification (three spots), two rounds had to be ended. Tournament director Simon Bowler therefore decided to have a cut (+1) of the top 40 and ties after 18 holes and to send the remaining 44 players to the final round by a shotgun start at 2:45 p.m. With success: Round 2 was properly ended before dark and 37-year-old Ales Korinek celebrated his first win on the Pro Golf Tour.
63 strokes on day 1
“I'm really happy that I won here. My putts were very good that week, the irons precise. Despite the really difficult weather conditions, the great golf course was in good condition. The Greenkeeper team and the entire tournament team did a great job,” said the winner. Korinek's first round was especially great, he ended it with 63 strokes, by far the best result of the tournament. He made birdie eight times and only got one bogey. The 5000 ranking list points associated with the victory catapulted the man from Prague on the Pro Golf Tour ranking by exactly 100 places up to 11th position. Still in the lead: The French Julien Brun.
The next points for the Pro Golf Tour Order of Merit will be awarded at the Starnberg Open 2020, which is on the tournament calendar from August 17th to 19th. Then hopefully the full distance of 54 holes will be played again.