Profile / Editor / 04 June 2007 / Leave a Comment

Markus Brier made his big breakthrough in 2006 by claiming his maiden victory and he has wasted no time in following that up over the last 12 months to establish himself as a player to watch on the European Tour.

A relative latecomer to the game, Brier did not turn professional until the age of 25 but he has shown signs this season that he could be one of those players in the Vijay Singh and Mark O'Meara mould, who get better as they get older.

Brier's big moment came on his home course in Vienna last year when he became the first Austrian to win a tour event by claiming the BA-CA Golf Open title.

Nobody should have been too surprised by his victory as the 38-year-old had twice before won Challenge Tour tournaments on the course, but it is the progress he has made since then that has made people sit up and take note.

After finishing 46th in the Order of Merit list in 2006, Brier has been quick out of the blocks this season winning the Volvo China Open by an impressive five shots in April and only narrowly failed to secure a second title when he lost a play-off to Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano at last month's Italian Open.

When you consider he also finished in a tie for fifth place in a strong line-up at the BMW Asian Open, it is easy to see that he is a player heading in the right direction.

Brier will be back on home soil this week when he defends his BA-CA Golf Open title on his home course at Fontana Golf Club.

The Austrian public will be desperate for him to do well and he is trading at 14.5 to record back-to-back wins in the event and 3 to register his fourth top-five finish of the season.

No part of Brier's game particularly stands out but he is a good, solid putter and the one thing he does possess is the crucial ability to turn promising positions into winning ones - as he demonstrated in China when he pulled away from the field on the final nine holes.

A player to be feared in Asia, Brier only has limited experience of playing in Grand Slam tournaments, missing the cut by one shot at the 2006 Open Championship.

But his joint-12th place at last month's BMW PGA Championship will fill him with confidence for the rest of the summer and it would be no surprise if he were to add to his silverware before the end of the season.