Fantasy Golf Predictions – 2017 Australian PGA Championship

2017 Australian PGA Championship Fantasy Preview

Australian PGA Championship 2017 Fantasy Preview

Despite being in that post-Thanksgiving, pre-Christmas lull period, the big bucks have persuaded many of the world’s finest players to dust off their clubs and head to the Bahamas – never a bad place to be – for the Hero World Challenge, where a field of 18 (yep, including one Mr T. Woods) will duke it out for the $1 million top prize.

There’s also the Mauritius Open, co-sanctioned by the European, Asian and Sunshine Tours, to enjoy, but for our DFS money the pick of the tournaments this week has to be the Australian PGA Championship.

This is very much a major for the folks Down Under, and the thought of being announced as his country’s champion has persuaded Marc Leishman to creak back into action alongside the likes of Sergio Garcia and Adam Scott.

Adam Scott of Australia plays his shot from the third tee during the…

Adam Scott of Australia plays his shot from the third tee during the third round of the Deutsche Bank Championship at TPC Boston on September 4, 2016 in Norton, Massachusetts. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

There are plenty of other intriguing names in the field, including defending champion Harold Varner III, Cameron Smith – a maiden PGA TOUR winner in 2017, hot prospect (and former Jordan Spieth roommate) Kramer Hickok, former world number one amateur, Curtis Luck, and last week’s Hong Kong Open champion, Wade Ormsby.

They’ll all make their way to the RACV Royal Pines Resort in Queensland for what can be a low-scoring shootout or a complete grind, depending on the wind. HVIII triumphed at a mark of -19 a year ago, and yet 12 months prior to that he got himself into a play-off at Evens with Dylan Frittelli and Nathan Holman, which the latter would win at the first extra hole.

The weather forecast this week is rather alarming. There’s an 83% chance of rain on Thursday, according to early reports, with wind speeds tickling 13 mph. There’s a similar theme on Friday too, although conditions should be optimal for low scoring at the weekend with the sun out but the greens softened by a good few heavy downpours in the preceding 72 hours.

This isn’t, on paper at least, the easiest course in the world. It is tight and tree-lined, measuring in at 7,364 yards for its Par 72, and the players really must take advantage of the four Par 5s: Varner III played them in -11 on his way to the title 12 months ago.

There are some tough decisions for DFS gamers to make this week. At the head of the market you have Leishman, arguably the hottest player in this field right now but somebody who hasn’t recorded a top-20 at Royal Pines since 2014. There’s Sergio Garcia, who has played in Dubai and Hong Kong in the past two weeks as he racks up the air miles. With new equipment in tow, he is a risky draft this week.

But then Adam Scott isn’t in the best of form, and Cameron Smith – as precocious as he is – has not set the world alight since winning the Zurich Classic alongside Jonas Blixt in May.

So with that all in mind, who are we drafting in Australia this week?

[membership level=”0″]

This Week’s Australian PGA Championship Fantasy Picks & Predictions

You must be a Premium Member to view our exclusive fantasy golf picks.

Already a member?  Sign in Here.

[/membership]

[membership level=”1,2,3″]

This Week’s Australian PGA Championship Fantasy Picks

Adam Scott – $10,500 – There has been no great form from this major winner of late to speak of, but can we really ignore a player who has recorded ten top-three finishes in his last eleven events on home soil?

Royal Pines is his home course, and while that association doesn’t always guarantee success Scott’s course form of 3-2-1 speaks volumes.

You sense that the laidback Aussie is content with what he has achieved in the game, and while that hasn’t necessarily dampened that competitive spirit that is associated with Australia as a nation, you sense there is less pressure on him to perform than, say, Leishman, who is the sportsbooks’ favorite and searching for a first win in his homeland.

There is an element of risk – as we say, Scott has not been in the best of form of late – but he’s been home for a while now since the WGC HSBC Champions event, and that will have given him plenty of time to hone his game and reacquaint himself with his beloved Royal Pines.

Harold Varner III – $9,200 – Course form is generally an excellent indicator of how well a player should, theoretically, perform, and what makes Varner’s 1-2 record at Royal Pines even more impressive is that he has done the business in swirling winds and also in A1 conditions.

That suggests this track suits his eye perfectly, and the other bit of good news is that he is surely playing well enough to take full advantage: he’s racked up six top-25 finishes worldwide in the past couple of months.

Rather than putting his feet up, HVIII has been slogging his way around Japan and Hong Kong lately, and that suggests he is taking his title defense ultra-serious.

Brett Rumford – $8,300 – If the weather conditions do take a turn for the worse in Queensland this week then it might be wise to draft an experienced old campaigner who has been there and done it on Australian soil.

And they rarely come more experienced than Brett Rumford, who has recorded 13 top-ten finishes in his last 15 events in his native Australia.

That haul has been added to impressively in 2017, with a T12 finish at last week’s Australian Open backed by victory at the World Super Sixes event in Perth earlier in the season.

Rumford was T5 here 12 months ago, and should have something of an edge on his younger opponents if grinding and course management becomes a pre-requisite this week.

Rhein Gibson – $7,400 – The Aussie announced himself to the wider golfing world in 2014, when making the cut at the British Open he got to play in a three-ball with Tiger Woods and Jordan Spieth in the third round.

He would go on to finish tenth in the Web.com Tour finals of 2015, securing his PGA TOUR card for the 2016 campaign.

That didn’t go so well, but Gibson has kept trucking and delivered some decent returns in the past few months, including T5 at the Nashville Open on the Web.com Tour earlier this year as well as consecutive top-25 finishes at the Alfred Dunhill Links, New South Wales Open and Australian Open in his last trio of starts.

The 31-year-old has connected five consecutive top-20 finishes on Australian soil, and was T15 here a year ago.

Chris Hanson – $7,200 – The Englishman is one of those players many would have expected to break through into the winner’s circle on the European Tour by now, and despite a few close shaves it hasn’t quite happened as yet.

But patience is a virtue, and an event like this might just be the catalyst for Hanson to cash in on his undoubted potential.

He shot a second round of 71 here in 2015 while all around him 80s were being shot with gay abandon, and he proved his ability to grind on tight, tree-lined tracks when finishing T18 at Valderrama a matter of weeks ago.

Hanson’s last outing – T41 at the Hong Kong Open – doesn’t appear much on paper, but he was one of the strongest performers in the field from tee-to-green. If the putter heats up, who knows what he can achieve this week.

Thomas Detry – $7,100 – It was quite a surprise to see the young Belgian so routinely overlooked by the DraftKings’ salary-makers this week.

After all, he finished T10 at the Hong Kong Open last week with a sublime show of ball-striking, and that continued a decent run of form which delivered T20 at the Portugal Masters and T38 at the KLM Open – a return spoiled by an opening 75.

There have been experiences in this 24-year-old’s career that set him up for a bright future, from recording the largest ever winning margin for a Challenge Tour event – some 12 strokes – at the Bridgestone Challenge, to playing in the Junior Ryder Cup against Jordan Spieth, Justin Thomas et al.

The Australian PGA Championship could be the event where he cashes in on that potential.

[/membership]

Cover photo via Instagram