Austrian Alpine Open 2026 FRL Tips: Three to peak early in Kitzbuhel

The Austrian Alpine Open kicks off at Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith tomorrow, where it may pay to side with the early starters in the first-round leader market.

Our resident golf tipster Jamie Worsley is back with three picks he fancies to start fast in his Austrian Alpine Open 2026 FRL Betting Tips, which you can check out below...

You can read Jamie's full Austrian Alpine Open Preview here..

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Play begins at 7.30am amidst bright and warm conditions with the smallest hint of a 3mph breeze. That will steadily rise as the day progresses, hitting 7mph by midday and gusts will also intensify, reaching highs of 17mph during the afternoon.

With a couple of spots of rain also forecast for those later tee times, I’m hoping the morning starters will be able to take advantage of the flat calm, dry conditions and have selected three players from that side of the draw.

1 pt Martin Couvra each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 45/1

Start time: 8.00am

With four first-round top-10s across his last six appearances, few players are consistently starting as quickly as Martin Couvra. His irons looked extremely sharp last week and, possessing some handy form at a number of the comp courses, he looks well placed for another strong first-round showing.

Couvra has been in fine form in 2026, recording seven top-25 finishes in 12 appearances. He was 10^th at the Catalunya Championship two starts ago and followed with a 24^th-place finish at the Soudal Open, where he continued his resurgence with the irons, ranking 8^th in SG: Approach.

Perhaps more encouraging is the fact that the Frenchman ranks 3^rd in this field in first-round performance over the last two months. He opened with a five-under 66 at Rinkven to sit 5^th after round one and fired further rounds in the 60s at the Catalunya Championship, Turkish Airlines Open, Indian Open, and Hainan Classic to finish the first round in no worse than 16^th place.

With a 3^rd at the Euram Bank Open in 2024 and 8^th in this event last year, Couvra has a great record in Austria. His runner-up finish in Italy in 2025 could also work out well and, having felt his outright price was a little on the short side, he holds much more appeal in this market considering recent form.

0.75 pts Calum Hill each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 55/1

Start time: 8.10am

As a former winner in Austria who ranks among the top 10 first-round performers on tour, Calum Hill can fly out of the blocks on Thursday. His ability to catch fire on the greens always makes him a danger in this regard and ranking among the top birdie makers, I expect him to go low around this layout.

Hill produced some serious golf in the Middle East at the beginning of the year, recording back-to-back runner-up finishes at the Bahrain Championship and Qatar Masters. He secured a third top-10 at the Indian Open two starts ago when finishing 6^th and was also placed to go well in Belgium, sitting 24^th entering the final round, before a 73 saw him slip to 59^th.

He ranks 9^th in birdie average and has put this ability to good use several times this year, with his 11-under 61 in the second round in Bahrain a particular highlight. Many of the others have come on day one, which sees him rank 6^th in first-round performance this year.

Hill won the second pro title of his career in Austria at the Euram Bank Open in 2019. He’s also got a top-10 finish at the Omega European Masters and, as another player with a top performance in Italy last year, finishing 3^rd, I’m confident he’ll enjoy the challenge at Golfclub Kitzbühel-Schwarzsee-Reith.

0.75 pts Lucas Bjerregaard each-way (1/4 - 5 places) @ 100/1

Start time: 8.30am

Lucas Bjerregaard has two first-round top-10s in three appearances, and as a former runner-up at Crans, he can make that three from four tomorrow.

Without full status on tour, this two-time DPWT winner has found starts hard to come by. He did offer some promise three outings ago in Turkey, where he opened with a three-under 69 to sit 10^th after 18 holes, before eventually fading to 61^st by the end of the week.

The Dane built on that the following week in Catalunya, beginning with a six-under 66 to finish day one in 5^th place, backing it up with a 67 to share the lead at the halfway point. A difficult weekend saw him drop to 17^th there, though he again showed positives at the Soudal Open despite missing the cut, finding improvement in approach to shoot a 68 in round two.

Bjerregaard has a best of 7^th at the 2017 Austrian Open and also finished a solid 14^th at the Euram Bank Open in 2024. However, it’s his record at Crans that increases my interest in him here – a course at which he finished 2^nd in 2018 and recorded additional top-10s in 2017 and 2025.

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