Spain's Miguel Angel Jimenez hopes he can enjoy some "home" support in this week's Lyoness Open at Diamond Country Club in Austria.

The 50-year-old has moved to Vienna after marrying Austrian Susanne Styblo in Malaga last month and the pair played together in the pre-tournament pro-am on Wednesday.

“I’ll be playing the US Open next week but Austria is my home now so I thought the best thing to do was play here, it should be good preparation for the US Open,” said Jimenez.

‘I married an Austrian’

“I married an Austrian girl and it’s my home now, but I’m Spanish and my heart is now divided a little bit. One of my sons lives in America where he is studying but the other one lives in Malaga where my brothers live.”

Jimenez will again look to become the oldest ever major champion at Pinehurst next week, having improved his own record as the European Tour’s oldest winner with victory in the Spanish Open last month.

But local favourite Bernd Wiesberger needs to repeat his 2012 triumph to qualify for the second major of the season by moving from 69th to inside the top 60 on the world rankings.

“I decided to change my preparation this year because I wasn’t very happy with finishing 14th last year. So I didn’t play in the US Open qualifier after Wentworth, because I’ve never played very well at Walton Heath in the past, and I also decided to miss Sweden last week so that I could focus fully on this tournament,” said the 28-year-old.

Defending champion Joost Luiten is already assured of a place at Pinehurst courtesy of his world ranking of 45th, but will be out to continue his recent good form to boost his chances of becoming the first Dutchman to play in the Ryder Cup.

“Once I get on the course I’ll forget all about the fact that I won here last year and just treat the tournament like any other week,” Luiten said.

“It’s obviously great that I have a good record here, but just because I won last year doesn’t mean I’m the favourite to win again.”