News : Golf – the wrist, a trifle – sport

Even a good last putt did not really improve Bernd Wiesberger's mood on Friday afternoon. The Austrian had punched three meters from the final hole of the day, now he sorted his bag a little, patiently signed some autographs, then retired to the player lounge - except for the putt on his 18 hole, nothing worked so well, always again he had shaken his head after his blows. The good news is that Wiesberger needed 70 strokes at the BMW International Open in the second round, played two under par, so that he easily made the cut and will also miss the weekend in Eichenried.

Many players would envy him for this, Marcel Siem for example, who clearly missed the step into the weekend as split 112th. Wiesberger does not want to deal with such questions at first, for the Austrians count on the European Tour Top 10 placements or actually only: victories. But that was not expected a year ago.

At the beginning of May 2018, Wiesberger injured his wrist during a leisure tour, first he tried to treat the blessing conservatively, but in July 2018 he finally had to undergo surgery. The result: a good six months no golf and much uncertainty. "If you look at the big picture, a wrist injury is of course a trifle," says Wiesberger today: "But you just need a rather complicated operation and then a lot of patience until you feel comfortable again with your hand."

Injuries happen comparatively rarely in golf, if so, but then they can have long-term effects - most famous example of the past years is Tiger Woods, who had to rebuild his entire swing after a back injury. Although Wiesberger was spared such an undertaking, in retrospect he still speaks of a "very difficult" time, in which he had to build up a little distance to his sport: "During my injury, I hardly ever looked golf." Other sports now and then, but watching the tournaments where I could have been at the start, I can not do that. " Before his injury, the Austrian counted among the best golfers on the continent, belonged for a long time to the top 50 in the world and qualified for the big major tournaments.

Wiesberger was far from that when he started playing tournaments again at the end of 2018: "I had to get back into the right mode for the first time in a few weeks, and finally I can do a good round of golf for four laps," he says , The really big comeback he succeeded in late May. At the highly endowed "Made in Denmark" Wiesberger won his fifth tournament on the European Tour, it was the highlight of his comeback, as he says: "For a long time myself, I was a bit unsure how quickly I would get back to the level, to win and I put a certain amount of pressure on myself as well, and with the win I was finally able to pull off the whole last year. "

At the BMW International Open, Wiesberger arrived from Pebble Beach, directly from the US Open. Martin Kaymer and Matt Wallace, the leader in the European ranking, sat with him on the plane. The Austrian is now among this elite group of world-class golfers. When the Spaniard Sergio Garcia, Masters winner of 2017, passes by during the conversation, he calls Wiesberger in German "My friend", both laugh. Casual sayings of major winners not every professional gets. Not everyone is annoyed about laps with two punches under par, which gives a clue that Wiesberger is far from satisfied: "I would like to qualify for all majors again, these are the events where I want to go."

Wiesberger's distance to the leader is nine shots before the weekend

Wiesberger's temporary annoyance was still understandable on Friday, at least if you look at the result after two rounds. His gap to the leader is already nine shots before the weekend in Munich, but this is not only due to the suboptimal performance of the Austrian Martin Kaymer could improve his outstanding starting position from the first day again and is with two strokes lead on the South African Christiaan Bezuidenhout Leading into the weekend. Also promising is the position of Max Schmitt. The 21-year-old is four shots behind Kaymer in fourth, together with Lee Westwood: The Englishman brought on Friday a round with 69 strokes to the finish. Westwood, 46, is one of the best European golfers of his generation and participated in ten editions of the Ryder Cup. On Friday, Westwood played in a group with Bernd Wiesberger, who also moves with the players in Munich over the place, to which he wants to count himself: with the best.