Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open

Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the Scottish Open

The Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open Fantasy Preview

The European Tour will be in focus this week after the unfortunate destruction of the Greenbrier forced a cancellation stateside.  This week the players across the pond will be setting their sights on the large prize at the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open.

For this installment of the tournament, which was first established in 1935 for two years and then brought back in 1972, the golfers will head back to Castle Stuart Golf Links for the first time since 2013.  The course offers plenty of challenges to every type of player with its classic links style layout and should once again bring out the best from the entrants this week.

With the Open Championship coming just a week after this event, plenty of the big names come out to get warmed up and get used to the time change.  That is certainly evidenced by the elite talent which has been able to claim the title here over the past few years.

The last time that this tourney was held at Castle Stuart, it was 42-time PGA TOUR winner Phil Mickelson who was able to come away with the victory, and since his name sat atop the leaderboard a pair of well know players in Justin Rose and Rickie Fowler have found a way to stave off the rest of the field and claim the top prize.  The players have been able to see their score go very low while playing here from 2011-2013 as both Mickelson and Jeev Milkha Singh won with a 17-under and as Luke Donald dominated over the field by four strokes with his 19-under-par showing in 2011.  A playoff would not be a surprise either, as both Mickelson and Singh needed extra holes to top the leaderboard while defeating the likes of Branden Grace and Francesco Molinari in the process.

It could be another top man getting it done again this week as the field coming in is stronger than most on the European Tour.  Official World Golf Rankings No. 21 golfer Phil Mickelson will be back to defend his 2013 title at this venue and will be joined by a slew of solid names.

Vegas is giving No. 6 Henrik Stenson the nod as the top option for the week as he comes to Scotland on the heels of his 10^th European Tour victory, winning the BMW International by three strokes just a few weeks ago.  Among the favorites will also be No. 10 Branden Grace, No. 13 Patrick Reed, No. 20 J.B. Holmes, No. 24 Chris Wood, No. 26 Shane Lowry, No. 27 Russell Knox, No. 28 Rafael Cabrera Bello, No. 37 Thongchai Jaidee, No. 40 Andy Sullivan, No. 41 Matthew Fitzpatrick, No. 47 David Lingmerth, No. 48 Danny Lee, and No. 49 Soren Kjeldsen from the top-50 in the world.  A slew of returning champions including Luke Donald, Martin Kaymer, and Graeme McDowell will also be teeing it up as the trio will be looking to add to their combined 39 victories between the two major tours.

As you can see, there are a lot of names to choose from this week so we’ve outlined below some of the golfers who you should be thinking about inserting into your daily fantasy lineup.  The addition of the European Tour really has allowed for some new fun on the DFS front and hopefully these players below can make some noise in Scotland by week’s end.

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Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open Fantasy Picks

Top Option – Branden Grace – $11,600 – Grace has really made his presence felt this year between the two major tours while ranking 23^rd in the FedExCup standings stateside and seventh in the Race to Dubai.  This is thanks to a string of five consecutive top-eights, including a victory at the Qatar Masters, to begin the 2016 season in Europe along with five top-10s in 12 PGA TOUR outings.  Among those starts was a fifth at the WGC HSBC Champions, fifth at the U.S. Open, and his first PGA TOUR win at the RBC Heritage back in late April.  Also, the last time that this event was held at Castle Stuart Golf Links, Grace took home a runner-up finish after posting a score of 17-under and losing a playoff.  All pieces of his game are on point, ranking fifth in stroke average (70.37) on the European Tour thanks to an average drive of 303.6 yards (5^th on TOUR), 72.8% GIR (21^st on TOUR), and 1.178 putts per GIR (9^th on TOUR).  Grace just missed in his last visit here and has all the tools needed to make another run in Scotland.

Mid-Tier – J.B. Holmes – $8,800 – Besides major events, Holmes has not played much golf professionally across the pond, but comes in with some nice recent finishes and a tremendous background.  He has four PGA TOUR wins to his name and once again proved he can play with the best after a fourth-place showing in the Masters.  Holmes has missed a couple of cuts of late, but has gone 12-for-14 (86%) at making it to the weekend and has the skill set to dominate any golf course that is put in front of him.  The 34-year-old has the longest drive (312.8 yards per) on the PGA TOUR and can more than hold his own in other parts of the game as seen by top-40 marks in strokes gained from tee to green (0.769, 35^th on TOUR) and birdie average (4,19, 6^th on TOUR).  Holmes may not play in Europe very often, but certainly needs to be considered one of the top options as this event kicks off.

Mid-Tier – Gregory Bourdy – $7,600 – Bourdy has been an extremely consistent golfer on the European Tour this season, banging out 10 consecutive made cuts since the end of March with his best results coming in the most recent half of that stretch.  He has managed to jump into the top-25 in each of his last five outings, including two top-10s, and now sits in 20^th for the Race to Dubai.  His consistent game has stemmed from a top-40 performance in stroke average (71.13, 19^th on TOUR), driving accuracy (65.8%, 26^th on TOUR) and GIR (70.2%, 36^th on TOUR).  Although he is coming back to a course where he has not fared too well in the past, doing no better than 26^th overall and 49^th at this venue since 2009, he is playing some great golf and should be poised to outperform those marks with ease in 2016.

Mid-Tier – Tyrrell Hatton – $7,400 – Hatton has inched his way into the OWGR top-100 this season thanks to a career-best 70.64 stroke average (6^th on TOUR) which has earned him an average finish of 33.42.  The 24-year-old is coming into his own with three top-10s over 13 outings and has shown he can get hot in a hurry with five finishes in the top-13 over six events from the start of February through the end of May.  His ability to perform against top fields is strong as well and he was able to get into a tie for seventh at the BMW PGA Championship and has finished fourth and 22^nd respectively here over the past couple of seasons.  There are a lot more experienced golfers hitting the links out there this week, but Hatton has the talent to take a stab at his first career European Tour victory.

Bargain Buy – Julien Quesne – $6,600 – Quesne is now nearly three years removed from his second European Tour win, but he has putting together a solid, yet inconsistent, 2016 campaign.  Over his last ten events, Quesne has shown up with five finishes in the top-25, including a very impressive fourth-place at the BMW PGA Championship, but has also faltered a few times and missed the cut on three occasions.  The past would not agree with this selection, though, as he has failed to get to the weekend in any of his last four attempts in this tournament, but he is having a career season and should be considered a nice sleeper pick at Castle Stuart.

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