Bernd Wiesberger

The 36-year-old Austrian made his ninth start in the PGA last week, where he made his third cut in the event, although he did not match his best finish of T-15 in 2014. Wiesberger carded one subpar round at Southern Hills, shooting a 3-under 67 in the second round and finishing with an even-par 70 on Sunday. On the season, Wiesberger has made seven cuts in eight DPWT starts, with his best finish being a solo eighth at the Catalunya Championship in April. In five previous starts at the Dutch Open, he’s made three cuts with two top 10s – finishing solo second in 2016 and T-9 in 2017, the last time he played in the event.

The Austrian split 8-of-14 fairways and landed 13 greens in regulation today. Neither particularly worthy of writing home about, but his putter got hot by round's end. He splashed home a trio of putts from outside of 13 feet including a 35'4" birdie bomb at the sixth. He walked out of the scorer's tent with a +3.5 SG:Putting next to his name. His '67' matched Justin Thomas and Brooks Koepks for the low round of the morning wave. Playing in his 29th career major, the 36-year-old is still searching for his first top 10 in a big event (T15 at the 2014 PGA Championship being his best).

This week marks the first of a two-week stretch in Spain, which continues next week with Catalunya Championship at PGA Catalunya Golf and Wellness in Girona. The Spanish events take the place of two previously planned tournaments on the calendar: Due to travel restrictions caused by the pandemic, the ISPS Handa Championship in Japan will take place solely as a Japan Golf Tour event, and will be co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour in 2023, while the Volvo China Open was rescheduled to an unknown later date. Both Spanish events have a purse of $2 million are part of four consecutive tournaments on European soil leading up to the PGA Championship. The 36-year-old Wiesberger, an eight-time DPWT winner, has made three cuts in four starts this season with his best finish being a T-12 in Abu Dhabi in January. Last months, he finished T-57 at the MyGolfLife Open and also was T-33 at the Valspar Championship on the PGA Tour.

The 36-year-old Austrian will aim to keep his cuts-made streak alive at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship, where he’s made the cut in his last seven consecutive appearances and notched three top 10s. Overall, Wiesberger is 8-for-10 in Abu Dhabi, where he finished T-25 last year, T-8 in 2020, T-4 in 2017 and T-6 in 2015. However, this year’s event will be at a new venue, Yas Links, a par-72, 7,425-yard track. Last season, Wiesberger picked up his career eighth DPWT title, winning the Made in HimmerLand in May and became the first player from Austria to make the European Ryder Cup team in September. He made 20 cuts in 22 starts and finished off with a streak of 11 straight with three top fives including a T-5 at the BMW International Open, solo second at the European Masters and T-2 at the AVIV Dubai Championship.