Austrian Lukas Nemecz is hoping a good result at the Interwetten Open can boost his chances of earning one of 15 DP World Tour cards he so narrowly missed out on last year.
Entering the Rolex Grand Final supported by The R&A in 19th on the season-long Road to Mallorca Rankings, a disappointing week at the season finale saw the Austrian drop out of the top 20 that received cards last year, and relinquish a spot on Golf’s Global Tour.
But the 36-year-old is not letting the near miss get him down.
“I had a pretty solid season last year,” he said. “I obviously came close to being promoted to the DP World Tour again, finished 22nd, so it was a good season but not with the ending I would have wished for.
“Every day you get some setbacks from which you have to recover. At the end of the day you have to look and say okay, at least I’ve been close. I played good golf so there was nothing major I had to deal with to be honest.”
Nemecz leads the Austrian charge in the Rankings this year, currently sitting in 40th with no other player from this week’s host nation in the top 150. His best finish came at the DP World PGTI Open in March, where he finished fourth.
Yet after 160 starts on the HotelPlanner Tour, and several years spent on the DP World Tour, he is still looking for a breakthrough win. Five times the Austrian has finished runner up, the most recent coming through a play-off loss at the 2025 Kolkata Challenge.
And he is aware how big a win would be in helping him take the step that he couldn’t quite manage last year.
“It is possible to get to the DP World Tour without a win but its way tougher,” he added. “Obviously I want to get at least one win this season, and there wouldn’t be any better place than here.”
Nemecz will be hoping to replicate last year’s fine form in Austria this week as he looks for his maiden title.
He followed up a slow start in the 2025 Interwetten Open with weekend rounds of 63-64 at Schladming-Dachstein Golf Club, ultimately resulting in a seventh-place finish at a venue he has fond memories of.
“The game right now is in pretty good shape, just recently I’ve missed a few cuts by one shot which hurts a little bit,” he said.
“It’s really nice to be back here. I played a little bit of amateur golf here, and enjoyed last year especially because I remember first round I had been playing really badly in bad weather and I fought back into seventh spot so I know what’s possible on this course.
“It gives you opportunities, and I really like it.”
Nemecz is part of a strong field at this week’s Interwetten Open including last week’s winner Matthew Southgate and four-time HotelPlanner Tour winner David Horsey.
The Austrian gets his first round under way at 8:15am on Thursday alongside Finland’s Tapio Pulkkanen and Peruvian Julian Perico.
