European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – The Portugal Masters

2018 Portugal Masters Preview

The European Tour is slowly winding down to its thrilling climax.

Next up we have the Portugal Masters, at the picturesque Dom Pedro Victoria GC in the stunning Vilamoura, followed by a week off as Team Europe and Team America do battle in the Ryder Cup.

After that, there’s a trio of beloved events in the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, the British Masters and the Valderrama Masters, and then a WGC tournament in China.

The season concludes thereafter with the three Race to Dubai playoff events.

And so while the Portugal Masters may feel like something of a lull in proceedings, there’s plenty of ranking points to be earned in the pursuit of a place in the lucrative end-of-campaign jolly or in the quest to retain a tour card.

The players will certainly enjoy themselves anyway. The weather is typically very nice in Portugal at this time of year, and the Dom Pedro course is a joy to play: not only does it look great, it’s a doddle too!

Marc Warren of Scotland plays in to the 18th green during day four of…

Marc Warren of Scotland plays in to the 18th green during day four of the Portugal Masters at Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Club on September 24, 2017 in Albufeira, Portugal. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

Lucas Bjerregaard, the defending champion, won at -20 a year ago, and prior to that both Andy Sullivan and Padraig Harrington triumphed at the -23 mark.

The reasons for that are obvious. The Bentgrass greens are large in size, which facilitates low scoring, with average width fairways and minimal rough – aided by lots of sunshine in the area.

It’s a Par 71 course so there are only three Par 5s, but crucially they are all easy to take down: last year, there were 26 eagles and a staggering 500+ birdies on the longer holes across the course of the week.

The 15th is a driveable Par 4 too, which saw three eagles and 160 birdies in 2017. Arnold Palmer was clearly in forgiving mood when he designed this layout!

In such conditions you would expect in-form players to thrive, and look out or course specialists: Bjerregaard, Harrington and Sullivan have all shown form at Dom Pedro before and/or after their title-winning year.

There’s no reason not to expect another winning mark in the low -20s, and here are the picks we’ve made to reach that magical figure.

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This Week’s Portugal Masters Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Portugal Masters Fantasy Picks

Chris Wood – This is the kind of course where a class act like Chris Wood can fill their boots, and he certainly appears to be in the kind of form to shoot low numbers in Portugal.

He opened with a round of 66 at the KLM Open, and that followed a series of strong showings in the past few months.

T2 and T14 in the French and Irish Opens in July, the lanky Englishman finished a respectable T28 in the British Open before ending up in T23 at the European Masters, where he closed out with a round of 66.

T2 at this very layout in 2015, Wood’s decent all-round game stands him in good stead to create lots of birdie looks; particularly when in the kind of form he is right now.

Lucas Bjerregaard – The defending champion has stacks of good form to call upon at Dom Pedro.

Back in 2015, he closed out his effort with two rounds of 66, ending up in T9 and ranking seventh for Greens in Regulation.

A year later, he was T12 on the back of an effort that read 67-67-70-63, and 12 months later he got the ultimate reward when landing his maiden European Tour at the venue, triumphing by some four shots in the end.

His form is very good right now with three consecutive top-10s, including a solo second at the European Masters.

Benjamin Hebert – Another with a decent track record at Dom Pedro is the talented Frenchman, Benjamin Hebert.

He ranked ninth for GIR here in 2015, aided by a second round of 64, to finish T31 – not bad considering he opened with a round of 75, and he was at it again a year later with 70-66-66-64 leading him to T10.

He opted not to play the Portugal Masters last year, but we’re confident in the Frenchman’s suitability for the test.

Hebert is in good nick right now too, with one round scuppering his chances of even higher finishes.

A T24 at the Nordea Masters was compromised by a third round of 75, and his T23 at the European Masters hampered by a 71 sandwiched in-between two 67s.

Padraig Harrington – The Irishman missed the cut on the number at the PGA Championship, but that marked a real turnaround in fortunes for the veteran.

He finished solo second at the Czech Masters in his penultimate start, recording four rounds in the 60s and looking like the probable winner until a final round of 69 scuppered matters.

Harrington got off to a decent start at the KLM Open too, so he’s got every reason to be confident heading to a course he won at as recently as 2016.

He was T25 here a year ago, opening up with a pair of 67s. He also ranked fourth for GIR.

Ashun Wu – Wu has been in decent form of late, finishing T11 at the Fiji International and T6 in his last-but-one start at the European Masters, where he fired a pair of 65s on Friday and Saturday.

And what a start he made at the KLM Open: carding a round of 64 to take the first-round lead.

Ashun has a strong tee-to-green game when he’s really firing, and it was noticeable how good his putting stroke looked in the Swiss Alps.

He finished T7 here last year on the back of a 65-70-67-69 run.

Nicolas Colsaerts – The Belgian is going through a hard time at the moment out on the course, but there are occasional glimpses of his class.

His T27 effort at the Made in Denmark was punctuated by a closing 66, and he followed up a week later with a T23 return from the European Masters, including rounds of 65 and 66.

Dom Pedro feels like one of those courses where players, who have played well there before, can catch light. And Colsaerts has done the job here before, having sat T5 at the 54-hole stage in 2015, ranking seventh for GIR and carding a 63 in 2016, and serving up a day’s best of 64 in the third round last year.

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