While the vast majority of golfing eyes will be firmly fixed on Royal Troon and the final men’s major of 2024, there is a lot at stake elsewhere as eight Irish head for Austria and the Challenge Tour’s Euram Bank Open.
Conor Purcell and Gary Hurley are within striking distance of the top 20 on the Road to Mallorca – the Challenge Tour’s Order of Merit – and graduation to the DP World Tour for 2025, while Dermot McElroy, Ronan Mullarney and John Murphy all need to finish the season strong if they’re to retain their Challenge Tour playing rights next season.
Daniel Mulligan gets a rare opportunity to tee it up on the Challenge Tour, while Royal Dublin amateur Hugh Foley also gets an invite to test his mettle against the Challenge Tour pros.
Robert Moran completes the lineup, as the Castle man makes the step up from the Alps Tour where he is contending for one of five Challenge Tour cards available for the leading players on the Alps Order of Merit.
A strong performance this week could be enough to see him secure a Challenge Tour berth for 2025 regardless, but competition is high with his fellow Irish to contend with as well as DP World Tour winners Alexander Levy from France, Scot Marc Warren, and Dane Lucas Bjerregaard.
In addition to these, a pair of Euram Bank Open past champions in Frenchman Joël Stalter, who won in 2020, and 2022-winner Marc Hammer from Germany are also in the field and Golf Club Adamstal is not for the faint of heart, so course knowledge could be a decisive factor.
Situated in the foothills of the Austrian Alps – with the impressive Unterberg peak in the near distance – Adamstal is one of the most breathtaking but physically challenging courses to play, with dramatic rises and falls throughout.
Relatively short at 6,475 yards and a par of 70, the altitude means that it plays even shorter, but is very much a strategic test as opposed to being a bomber’s paradise, and it may well suit the likes of Mullarney who’ll have fond memories of last year’s trip to Austria where he emerged victorious at the Gosser Open, his first Alps Tour win, and one that set him on the way to topping the season-long rankings.
Purcell is the first of the Irish to get his tournament underway off the first tee when he joins the marquee grouping of Finland’s Tapio Pulkannen and Dane Jonathan Goth-Rasmussen at 07:40 Irish time, while John Murphy goes out a little earlier on the 10th at 07:00.
Foley and McElroy both start at 08:20, albeit on opposite sides of the course, while Moran is in the first group of the afternoon wave and hits the first tee at 11:45. At the same time, Mullarney and Mulligan, who are paired together, head out on number 10, while Hurley is the last to get his tournament underway at 12:35.