Metz, June 14^th, 2024- After the first round of the 21^st Open International de la Mirabelle d’Or, France’s Maxime Legros is in the lead with a 6 under-par. In a 2-way tie for 2^nd place at 5 under-par: France’s Nicolas Muller and Netherlands’s Vince Van Veen. Italy’s Davide Buchi and Austria’s Maximilian Steinlechner are in a 2-way tie for 4^th place at 4 under-par.

The first round of the 21st edition of the Open International de la Mirabelle d’Or, being played at its regular host, Golf Domaine de la Grange Aux Ormes near Metz, France, began at 7:30 a.m. local time from the 1st and 10th hole. The 144 players in the field disputed today’s round 1 under complicated weather conditions, as there were mostly cloudy skies, on-and-off rain showers, windy conditions, and a temperature around 16° Celsius. This is the 21st edition of the tournament, and it has been part of the Alps Tour schedule since 2005.

Round 1 Player Quotes

Maxime Legros, 22, from France, leads after the first round of the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or with a fabulous bogey-free, 6 under-par, 64 He made 2 birdies on the front nine holes, and, after making the turn, he went on to make 4 more birdies on the back nine to conclude his day. After his round, Legros commented: “My 64 bogey-free, today was a grind! The wind was blowing 50km/h, so I had to stay focused and patient the entire round. I’m really happy about my attitude and the way I’ve been playing the past couple of weeks! It’s very rewarding.” He added that he found: “The course is playing tough this week. As I said, a lot of wind and some high rough on both sides of the fairway. The course is super firm as well, and it’s tough to hit your target. I believe patience will 100% be the key to being successful here this week. I want to remain calm and patient and don’t be too aggressive with my decisions.” Legros also mentioned how: “I’m happy with the strategy I had off the tee today, so I’ll try to do the same for the rest of the tournament!”

France’s Nicolas Muller, 23, is in a 2-way tie for 2^nd place after the first round of the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or with a bogey-free 5 under-par, 65. He made 3 birdies in a row to start his round and then added one more birdie on the front nine and one on the back nine to end his day. His best finish so far this season was at the 2024 Ein Bay Open and the 2024 Gösser Open, where he tied for 4th place. After his opening round, Muller commented on how: “My game today was very solid, especially my short game and putting. I’m happy because the conditions were tough with the wind and the rain we had. The weather conditions influenced my game in some aspects but I tried to hit simple shots, just try to hit the maximum of Fairways and greens. Basically, my main goal was just to stay in play, and only if I was in a position then I was a little bit more aggressive, but to be honest with you, in most holes, I tried to respect the course.”  Muller added that: “over the last few months, I trained a lot my wedges because that has been my weakness. Right now, I want to be focused on the process for tomorrow and Sunday and not think about the score. That’s for me the most important.” 

The winner of the 2022 Fred Olsen Alps de La Gomera, Netherland’s Vince Van Veen, 27, is in the 2-way tie alongside Muller for 2^nd place after round 1 with a score of 5 under-par, 65. After making a hole-in-one back in 2019 here at Golf Domaine de la Grange Aux Ormes, Van Veen made another hole-in-one during today’s round 1 on the par 3, 5^th hole with a Pitching Wedge from 153 meters. Alongside his fantastic hole-in-one, he made a total of 4 birdies and 1 bogey during his 1^st round of the tournament. His most recent best finish occurred at the 2024 Lacanau Alps Open, where he concluded the tournament tied for 3^rd place. Van Veen explained that he experienced: “a very enjoyable round of golf today with some challenging winds. I found that I managed myself well and got a little run going on my back nine, the course’s front nine. We had almost all 4 seasons in one, sun, rain, and wind. It affected some shots I must say, but you can adjust to that fortunately.” He plans on: “focusing on hitting a little more quality shots over the next two days. The bad ones I hit in good spots, luckily, but I can be a little better overall.” Van Veen also commented on how he: “likes the mixture of holes and the shot shapes you have to use around this golf course, so I really enjoy playing here.”

Davide Buchi from Italy, 27, concludes his round 1  in a 2-way tie for 4^th place with a score of 4 under-par, 66. He has earned numerous good finishes over the years but is looking for his first title on the Tour. During today’s opening round, he made 5 birdies, 2 bogeys, and 1 double bogey on the front nine holes and then made 3 more birdies on the back nine to end his round. Buchi was: “satisfied with how I played today also because the conditions were not easy, there was a lot of wind and rain so I am overall very pleased. The goal, of course, is to keep playing well and play each hole like its own and not get too far ahead.”

Alongside Davide Buchi in the 2-way tie for 4th place for a first-round score of 4 under-par, 66, there is the winner of the 2024 Gösser Open, Austria’s Maximilian Steinlechner.

A past winner on the Alps Tour, France’s Damien Perrier, 34, finds himself in a 6-way tie for 6^th place only 3 strokes off the 1^st round lead at the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or with a round of 3 under-par, 67. He made 4 birdies and 1 bogey throughout his opening round. He earned numerous top-10 finishes and won on the Alps Tour in 2009 at the Open International de Normandie. After his round, Perrier proudly commented: “I’m very pleased with my opening round. It’s a very tough course here, the set-up of the course is difficult as it requires a lot of thought, concentration and strategy. I played well, I hit 17 greens today and gave myself many chances. The only green I missed today was the only bogey that was on the card. This morning it wasn’t easy; the weather conditions were much different than what we had in the practice rounds. We went from basically summer during the pro-am and practice rounds to today, where it was pretty much winter, which made it very tough out there.”

Baptiste Achard, 26, from France, concludes his round 1 at the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or alongside Perrier in the 6-way tie for 6^th place with an opening round of 3 under-par, 67. Achard made 2 birdies and 2 bogeys on the front nine holes, once he made the turn, he made 3 more birdies to end his round. Once he concluded his first round, Achard was satisfied with how his day went as he was able to: “hit a lot of fairways today, that was mainly due to the adverse weather conditions which forced me to be more focused from the tees. Overall, I’m very happy with my first round and the position I’m currently in.  I would like to continue with the same mindset over the next two days and try to hit the same number of fairways, if not more, tomorrow. I really think that being in the fairways this week will be of big advantage.” 

Alongside Damien Perrier and Baptiste Achard with a first-round score of 3 under-par, 67 there is England’s Robert Holden, France’s Paul Elissalde, and amateur Louis Bonte and Austria’s Daniel Hebenstreit.

The 144 players are contending a prize fund of € 40.000 and 45,000 Order of Merit points. The winner of the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or, will earn the winning check of €5,800 and 6,525 Order of Merit points.

Round 2

The second round of the 2024 Open International de La Mirabelle d’Or will begin again at 7:30 a.m. local time from the 1^st and 10^th hole.

Once Round 2 is completed, a cut will be made to the top 40 players and ties. In case of a tie after 54 holes, a sudden-death play-off will determine the winner.

Tournament Promoter

The tournament is organized and promoted directly by the golf club, Golf Domaine de la Grange Aux Ormes.

The Institutional Sponsors that support this tournament are: Région Grand Est, Département de la Moselle, Ville de Marly, Inspire Metz, and Fédération Française de Golf.

The Private Partners at this event are: Crédit Agricole, Mercedes Kroely, Demathieu & Bard, Centre Porsche Lorraine and Opéra Théâtre.

The tournament’s Official Suppliers are: Eurogolf Luxembourg, Lemoy, Heineken, Château Sainte-Marguerite, Cristian Senez, Agence Grand Angle, Evian, Pernod Ricard, France Boisson, Metro, Fayard and Cafés Richard.

For more information, visit the official Alps Tour website, www.alpstourgolf.com, and follow the official Alps Toursocial media handles on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter.

Alps Tour Media Contact: [email protected]

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