Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – 2017 Andalucía Valderrama Masters

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2017 Andalucía Valderrama Masters

2017 Andalucía Valderrama Masters Fantasy Preview

This European Tour event feels like the calm before the storm, with a reduced purse of $2 million up for grabs ahead of the lucrative WGC HSBC Champions event in China next week and the Road to Dubai finals starting thereafter.

So there’s a thin field for the Andalucía Masters this week, and many might have been put off by the horror stories of host venue Valderrama’s complexity.

This is a major-style course that has hosted the Ryder Cup in years gone by, and yes it is a difficult stretch to navigate: Andrew Johnston won the Open de Espana here last year with a score of +1!

Sergio Garcia of Spain plays into the 17th green whilst standing in…

Sergio Garcia of Spain plays into the 17th green whilst standing in the water during the third round of the Andalucia Masters at Valderrama on October 29, 2011 in Sotogrande, Spain. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

But that event was played in rather different conditions in April 2016, when it was wet, windy and wild. The weather tends to be rather better in Spain at this time of year, and the forecast this week is for largely calm and clear conditions.

One of the most noteworthy aspects of Valderrama is just how short it plays: just 6,991 yards for its Par 71. It is a tight and tree-lined test that tends to favor accurate drivers and tidy iron hitters: Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston, who won that Spanish Open named above, did so by ranking first for Driving Accuracy and GIR.

To elucidate the point further, Sebastian Gros ranked first for Total Driving but only 30th for Greens in Reg. – he finished on +16 at T45!

So good course management is key this week as is some red-hot iron striking, and we would even go as far as to say a light-hearted, jovial personality can help. Beef and another former winner here, Graeme McDowell, are as laidback as it gets, and that ability to shake off the occasional missed green or putt is essential at a venue of this nature. Perhaps swerving volcanic personalities like Jon Rahm, the bookmakers’ favorite, is wise!

So the tournament this week looks set to be rather different to the norm on the European Tour, and we’re looking forward to watching the grind unfold. But who are we drafting to our roster? Let’s have a look…

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This Week’s Andalucía Valderrama Masters Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Andalucía Valderrama Masters Fantasy Picks

Joost Luiten – $9,800 – Getting to grips with the salary slate this week is tricky. Instinctively we are drawn to Jon Rahm and Sergio Garcia, of course, but we have to have question marks about the pair. Will Rahm’s notorious short fuse hold on his first competitive visit to Valderrama? Is Garcia putting well enough to justify his price (he ranked 87^th for Putts per Round at the Italian Open)?

Either of those players could win this week and win handsomely, but there are enough seeds of doubt to save some of your salary cap to splash elsewhere.

We’ll level with you: we’re not massive fans of Joost Luiten’s game. He seems to bob along and play quite well without getting into contention enough. In the past when courses have suited and we’ve drafted the Dutchman, he has rather inconspicuously let us and himself down.

But this is a bargain price for a player with two top-5s in his last trio of visits to Valderrama – and as we know, those don’t come easy. What Luiten does do is hit plenty of greens (he ranks 13th for GIR this season), and his no-frills game is well suited to the dogfight here.

He’s a five-time European Tour winner as well, and that nous could come in handy down the back straight on Sunday.

Alexander Bjork – $8,900 – There are some fine young talents emerging on the European Tour, and Alexander Bjork is among the pick of the bunch.

The 27-year-old has had a breakthrough season of sorts, collecting ten top-20s in a campaign of uber consistency.

His best work has come at tracks where it is more difficult to score: T3 at the Open de France, T14 at the BMW PGA Championship, and T15 at the Lyoness Open. Bjork also noticeably stood up to the grind at the KLM Open, compiling two rounds of 65 on his way to T20.

The Swede ranks inside the top-30 on Tour for Driving Accuracy, GIR and Scrambling – all key assets this week.

Nacho Elvira – $7,800 – Sergio Garcia has won five times on Spanish soil in his career, and while he is a player of elite class surely those efforts will spur on his countrymen this week.

Nacho Elvira turned 30 in February and it seems to have been the catalyst for improved performances. He’s banked top-20 finishes in more than 50% of his most recent outings (7/13), with two of his finest – T7 at the Portugal Masters and T11 at the British Masters – coming at the end of September.

Like Garcia, Nacho has won in Spain albeit on the Challenge Tour, and it seems as if these homegrown talents thrive when playing in front of their home supporters. Can Elvira become the latest in a lineage of Spanish winners on the European Tour?

Alejandro Canizares – $7,600 – The career of Alejandro Canizares has been a strange one. A fine amateur player, he quickly racked up two European Tour titles and looked set to be the next Spanish star of the game.

But a barren couple of years have left Canizares in the doldrums, and fighting for his tour card.

His performances have started to improve of late, fired oddly by reaching the last four of the Paul Lawrie Matchplay event. In his last four starts, Canizares has fired twelve rounds under par, and his improving formline saw him finish T15 at the Italian Open last week.

And you won’t find many that can boast Canizares’ 11-7-21 return from three trips to Valderrama.

Nino Bertasio – $7,300 – The Italian has been strangely under-priced this week given that his form has been excellent of late.

Bertasio has finished in the top 15 in three of his last four starts, and while his Driving Accuracy stats are a little worrying to the naked eye he is a player that can reign in his booming drives when the need arises: his T14 at tree-lined Wentworth earlier in the season is testament to that.

He has ground out top-10s (almost) at Valderrama in 2016 (T11), the Australian PGA Championship (T9) and the Trophee Hassan (T5) when scoring was not easy, and that suggests there is more to Bertasio’s game than just big booming drives.

Gregory Bourdy – $7,100 – The complexity of Valderrama hints at an almost major-like level of difficulty, and that should suit Gregory Bourdy rather nicely.

The Frenchman finished inside the top-20 of both the PGA Championship and US Open in 2016, and has bagged top-20s in the last two editions of the Spanish Open as well – one held at Valderrama, and the other in Barcelona.

It’s not been a great season for him by all accounts, but with Road to Dubai places up for grabs he has improved markedly recently: T4 at the Alfred Dunhill Links followed by T30 at the Italian Open (where he closed out with a round of 65) testament to that.

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