European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – DP World Tour Championship

2017 DP World Tour Championship Fantasy Preview

After nearly 12 months of hard work and toil – and the occasional slice of top notch golf – the European Tour campaign boils down to its curtain-call event: the DP World Tour Championship from Dubai.

As things stand, there are three players who can win the Race to Dubai glory: Tommy Fleetwood, the current number one ranked played, Justin Rose, and Sergio Garcia.

The permutations are as complex as these things always have a habit of being:

Fleetwood will win the Race to Dubai if he equals/betters Rose’s result at the Tour Championship and Garcia does not win.

Rose will claim the title if he finishes first or solo second, and Fleetwood finishes third or lower.

Garcia can triumph through the backdoor if he wins the DP World Tour Championship, Rose finishes fifth or lower and Fleetwood finishes outside of the top 20.

Simple, right?

And that’s before we’ve even factored in the bonus pool for the top-10 finishers in the R2D standings, with considerable amounts of cash up for grabs.

Justin Rose of England reacts to a put on the 18th hole during the…

Justin Rose of England reacts to a put on the 18th hole during the final round of the BMW Championship at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club on September 18, 2011 in Lemont, Illinois. Rose finished at -13… Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

It’s all a little confusing, so let’s focus on the matter in hand; which is drafting a fantasy team capable of winning some decent money!

The DP World Tour Championship is played at the stunning Jumeirah Estates on the Earth Course; a lengthy 7675-yard, Par 72 stretch. It was designed by Greg Norman, who has identified European parkland courses as his inspiration, which is perhaps why the elite-level players have taken to the layout very nicely.

It’s all lush green rolling fairways, white sand bunkers (99 in total) and crystal-clear lakes (which patrol the last four holes in particular). Conditions will be hot, dusty (i.e. no humidity), and windy, so it’s a physical test as much as one testing skill and psychology.

It will take one final big effort for the winner to emerge after a tough season, and then the players can put their feet up for a while: this is the last European Tour event of 2017, with just the co-sanctioned Hong Kong Open, Australian PGA Championship, Mauritius Open and Joburg Open to come.

So who looks set to make their mark on the DP World Tour Championship this week?

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This Week’s DP World Tour Championship Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s DP World Tour Championship Fantasy Picks

Matt Fitzpatrick – $10,600 – It’s never easy to defend a title, and it certainly won’t be easy doing so in this fine company, but at least Matt Fitzpatrick has given himself every chance by playing his way into form.

His formline reads 8-11-9-15-15-11-1, and that consistency will be key this week in an event which is, quite simply, going to be very difficult to win.

The Englishman won’t be overawed however, and in some ways his victory here 12 months ago was the making of him. He held off the challenge of much-vaunted countryman Tyrrell Hatton to claim the most prestigious title of his career, and confirm to the golfing world – and himself, most importantly – that he can hang in such company.

Fitzpatrick tied for third in the ball striking rankings at last week’s Nedbank Challenge and was eighth for Putts per Round at the Turkish Airlines Open, which provides some evidence that his all-round game is in fine working order at present.

Tyrrell Hatton – $10,100 – One last push….that’s what Tyrrell Hatton will be thinking to himself after a punishing few weeks of globetrotting.

But the good news is that his form is traveling with him; from England (T8) to Italy (first) and Scotland (first) and right through to China (T11), Turkey (T16), and South Africa (T19).

Hatton seems to enjoy desert golf, picking up a pair of top-10s in the Dubai Desert Classic as well as T13 at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship earlier this year, and so he is as well placed as any to get the job done.

Getting the job done has become his calling card, actually, with three European Tour wins to his name and all of those coming in the past 18 months or so.

We can call Hatton’s often sulky temperament into question, but the fact is that he makes it work for him; and particularly at this Earth Course (2-13-6).

Thorbjorn Olesen – $8,300 – It would seem that Thorbjorn Olesen has played his way into form at exactly the most prestigious (and lucrative) part of the season….great timing!

The Dane finished fifth at the Turkish Airlines Open courtesy of four rounds in the 60s, and ended up T12 at the Nedbank Challenge thanks to a fine closing round of 65.

Consequently, he has hoovered up plenty of prize money, and still stands a great chance of breaking into the top-ten of the bonus pool this week – but only by virtue of a strong showing in Dubai.

Olesen’s course form of 19-17-12-17-21-19 is a tantalizing glimpse of what could well be another fine week, and his penchant for desert golf (also T8 at the Dubai Desert Classic in 2016) as well as his fine putting stroke (he ranks 8th for Putts per Round in 2017) should both lend themselves to a good performance in Dubai.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello – $7,900 – Another outstanding player with some serious cash to protect this week is Rafa Cabrera-Bello.

The Spaniard currently sits seventh in the Race to Dubai bonus pool, which means he has the not-inconsiderable sum of $325,000 to maintain.

The good news for him is that he typically thrives in desert conditions: he’s finished no lower than T23 here in his last four trips, with T9 and T14 the standouts, and he has also recorded multiple top-20s in both the Abu Dhabi Championship and Dubai Desert Classic – including an agonizing second place in the latter in 2016.

Rafa’s game didn’t quite click at the Nedbank Challenge last week but he still ranked 13th for Putts per Round, which suggests there is significant scope for improvement in conditions he enjoys. In his penultimate start he was T5 at the WGC HSBC Champions event, too.

Thomas Pieters – $7,600 – After starring in Europe’s Ryder Cup effort and finishing fourth at the Masters, many pundits felt that 2017 would be the year that Thomas Pieters’ career went stratospheric. Ah, how wrong we were.

It has been a long, and largely fruitless, six months for the Belgian, whose hot temper and club-snapping antics are threatening to take away from what is a fantastically natural gift for the game.

But, and it is a but with caution, he seemed to find a touch of form at the Turkish Airlines Open, driving well and ranking 12th for GIR, so if that is a sign of good things to come then Pieters is well under-priced here given that, on his day at least, he is the equal of anybody in this field.

Haydn Porteous – $7,200 – The South African continues to bob around in the upper echelons of leaderboards. He was T5 at the Nedbank Challenge after 54 holes before settling for a T12 finish, he co-led after round one of the Turkish Airlines Open and was T4 after 18 holes at the WGC HSBC Champions.

If he could maintain those high standards over the course of four days then he would be a real handful, and his win at the Czech Masters earlier in the season confirms he is more than capable of that.

His prodigious length off the tee (he averaged 329 yards off the peg at the Nedbank Challenge) is always going to help on long old courses like the one in Dubai this week, and surprisingly he ranked second for Putts per Round in South Africa – if that hot streak travels with him, he could enjoy a fine week.

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