After the postponement of round one of the Bank Austria GolfOpen presented by Telekom Austria, The European Tour Tournament Director for this week's event, Miguel Vidaor, made a brief statement.
“Round one will now be played on Friday, and round two will now be played on Saturday. With regards to the cut, we will have to make a decision on whether or not we go for four rounds or reduce to 54 holes. If we go for four rounds we will probably have to make the cut for the top 50 players and ties as opposed to the top 65 players and ties.
“If we don’t cut to 50 players and ties, we may have to play three rounds. That decision, whether the cut is going to be altered, will be made before the start of the second round.
“Since Tuesday, until 5am this morning we had 35 millimetres of rain. From 5am until 10am this morning we had another 35 millimetres. That is almost three inches of water in the space of two days. The course has taken it well. The bunkers have a lot of water in them but I am sure the greens staff can cope with that. The biggest problem we are facing now is the fairways. No matter what the greens staff do, the fairways are unplayable and will need a few hours to dry out.
“According to our weather forecast, the rain will ease and we should see some sunshine this afternoon. Luckily the forecast for tomorrow and the weekend is generally good. We may get an isolated thunderstorm on Sunday afternoon but we will have to see how that develops over the next couple of days.
“There is obviously a possibility that we could reduce to 54 holes but there are a number of factor that have to be considered. The promoters and television people naturally want to try and avoid any clash with Austria’s opening match of the Euro 2008 football championships which kicks off at 6pm on Sunday evening.
“If we decide to try and play 72 holes and get caught out by the weather again then we are looking at a Monday finish and the implications of that include every person involved in the tournament staying an extra night, changing flights which obviously carries massive cost implications.
“We will have to sit down with the promoters, sponsors and television to try and find the best solution. That decision, as I said, will be made before the start of round two on Saturday morning.”
