European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Turkish Airlines Open

2018 Turkish Airlines Open Preview

After what feels like an eternity, the 2018 season the European Tour at last enters its final throes with the Rolex Series finals.

First up is this week’s Turkish Airlines Open, followed by the Nedbank Challenge in Sun City, South Africa next week and finally the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai a week thereafter.

There’s lot of money up for grabs and plenty of points towards the final Rolex Series standings, which will then be converted into more cold, hard cash. That’s not to suggest that the pro golfer is motivated by the coin, of course….

If they were, you’d probably expect a stronger field to be heading to Turkey this week. There’s the Ryder Cup trio of Justin Rose, Tommy Fleetwood and Thorbjorn Olesen, but otherwise the event is lacking the pizazz and quality you might expect from such a potentially lucrative payday.

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Still, that means there’s plenty for the rest to sink their teeth into this week. It’s a no cut event with a field of roughly 78 players, which includes the top 70 from the Rolex Series standings – or those who can be bothered to show up, anyway – and a selection of invites and local triers.

So what will they be faced with? Nothing too daunting, it has to be said, at Regnum Carya Resort & Spa in Antalya, a holiday destination in Turkey popular with Brits in particular.

Perhaps that is what has influenced this classic English heathland inspired design, which features narrow tree-lined fairways and large green complexes that feature plateaus and shelves; your archetypal ‘green within a green’.

Players will stroll through pine forests and wander past more than one million heather plants – it all sounds rather pleasant, doesn’t it? That relaxed vibe has been confirmed by the winning scores here, with Olesen (-20) and defending champion Rose (-18) shooting plenty of red numbers throughout the week.

Water is in play on ten holes, but there is little else to trouble the players other than the prospect of hitting from the tee box on the sixteenth hole, which is actually located on top of a villa on the course’s grounds!

With all of the above in mind, who makes our team for the Turkish Airlines Open?

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This Week’s Turkish Airlines Open Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Turkish Airlines Open Fantasy Picks

Haotong Li – $10,400 – An obvious headline pick this week is Justin Rose, who boasts the class to win these Rolex Series events at a canter.

But we thought the defending champion looked strangely out of sorts through the final 36 holes at the WGC-HSBC Champions, despite contending, and so we’re happy enough to give him the swerve.

Instead, let’s take a chance on Haotong Li, whose form is traveling nicely.

We wouldn’t normally favor the Chinaman at a tree-heavy layout – his best work tends to come on Links courses and in the desert, but a T2 finish here in 2016 suggests it’s a track he enjoys playing.

That bodes well the given his current form, which shows top-10s at the Alfred Dunhill Links and British Masters and a T11 amongst classy company in the WGC-HSBC.

It just feels like Li is trending towards victory at the moment, an the fact that he has been crushing his driver in recent weeks bodes very nicely indeed at this tight Regnum Carya course.

Thorbjorn Olesen – $10,300 – The Dane is one of those guys who can often defy expectation.

When you watch him play he doesn’t appear to be all that special, but five European Tour wins- including holding off home favorite Francesco Molinari in the Italian Open during the summer – suggests otherwise.

Often wayward off the tee, the chance to club down on this track’s tight driving lines will suit, and of course as a former winner here – backed by a T5 return 12 months ago – Olesen’s chances are simply too strong to ignore.

This year he has established himself as one of the best European players around. What a way to cap it with victory this week.

Alexander Levy – $8,000 – The Frenchman tends to get overlooked by the sportsbooks and the DFS kingpins, which is surprising given that he has won three times on the European Tour since the summer of 2016.

Levy has shown bits and pieces of form lately with top-20s at the European Open and KLM Open, as well as a T28 in China last week which would have been so much better but for a third round of 76.

He held the co-lead after the first round at the British Masters too, and with rounds of 64 and 65 in his last two trips to Regnum Carya this too is a course that suits his eye.

Julian Suri – $7,900 – There’s a few players on the European Tour who are expected to ‘break out’ in 2019, and one of them is Julian Suri.

And so timing it right in terms of drafting him is key, and for this excellent driver of the golf ball this Regnum Carya assignment looks perfect.

With a pair of top-five finishes in his last seven starts, the American appears to be closing in on what would be a second European Tour title, and a top-10 here a year ago hints that it might just be this week where he gets over the line.

Nacho Elvira – $6,800 – The Spaniard continues to impress with his tee-to-green game, and he often springs to mind when shortlisting players for slightly fiddly tests of ball striking.

Flick through the driving stats from the past couple of months on the European Tour and Nacho’s name often appears towards the top, and as such it’s no surprise to see that he has banked top-10s at the European Masters and Alfred Dunhill Links.

The four-time Challenge Tour winner has yet to step up to the winner’s enclosure at senior level, but perhaps he can lay those demons to rest at a track where he finished T9 in 2016.

George Coetzee – $6,600 – Here’s a risky bargain basement play, but one with potential for tremendous upside.

Coetzee is a smart pick in no cut events because he is a birdie machine – he ranks 17th on Tour for Birdie Average – and so the occasional dodgy hole can be forgiven without the spectre of the cut line looming.

The South African seems to enjoy it here, taking the first round lead in 2016 before settling for a T5 finish, and also closing with a round of 66 a year ago.

He played some good stuff at the WGC-HSBC last week too, driving very nicely and ranking third for Putts per Round. At a price of $6,600, Coetzee really is a gift not to be missed.

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