European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Oman Open

2019 Oman Open Preview

After a couple of weeks down in Australia, the European Tour returns to the desert for this week’s Oman Open.

Picture the desert and you probably imagine wide-open spaces, lots of sand and dry heat, but this assignment in Oman is a little different.

Okay, so it will be hot this week with the mercury touching 86 degrees, but the players will be treated to lush green landscapes and flat fairways reminiscent of traditional Links layouts.

Indeed, the designer is one Greg Norman, whose love of old-fashioned Links tests is well documented, and so there is something of the European about this Middle Eastern stretch.

Joost Luiten of Netherlands plays a shot on the 13th hole during Day…

Joost Luiten of Netherlands plays a shot on the 13th hole during Day Two of the Abu Dhabi HSBC Golf Championship at Abu Dhabi Golf Club on January 17, 2019 in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

A number of holes are played along the seafront too, so it’s no surprise to learn that the wind could be a chief factor; an eye-watering 22mph gale has been forecast for the Saturday.

The ‘Links in the desert’ feel is confirmed by an almost complete absence of trees, although bunkering and water hazards will at least give those in the field something to avoid.

But the Paspalum green complexes are mammoth in size, and with such easy approaches it really could be a case of who best handles the wind – and who putts the best – as to who gets their hand on the trophy this week.

Here’s the roster we are taking into battle for the Oman Open.

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This Week’s Oman Open Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Oman Open Fantasy Picks

Joost Luiten – $11,100 – Assuming he can overcome the jetlag from his Mexico trip, Joost Luiten looks to be a great pick this week.

The Dutchman has been playing well since coming back on Tour following wrist surgery, and the defending champion will surely be confident of adding to his title haul on familiar ground.

A top-10 in the WGC event last week was his third in four starts, with the other two coming in the deserts of Saudi Arabia and Abu Dhabi.

As for Links form, Luiten has won at Celtic Manor and has top-fives in the Irish, Scottish and Welsh Opens. There’s stacks of it, basically!

Paul Waring – $9,300 – The Englishman enjoyed a fine time on the Desert Swing, banking T3 and T6 finishes in Dubai and Abu Dhabi.

That form should propel him to a good run in windy conditions that tend to suit his game, and as he showed in opening with a round of 65 here last year to take the first-round lead.

Waring bagged his first European Tour title last year at the Nordea Masters; a long overdue victory for a player of his talents, and he will be looking to enter the winner’s enclosure again as soon as possible.

Marcus Kinhult – $7,900 – The Swede is one of the most talented young stars to graduate from the Challenge Tour in years, and he will surely claim his first European Tour win in 2019.

It might well come at a layout at which he finished second in 2017, and followed up with T16 in one of his early Tour starts a year later.

Kinhult is a decent player in the wind and on the Links, finishing T5 at the Open de France last summer, and was also solo third in the correlating Qatar Masters in 2018.

Clement Sordet – $7,700 – The Frenchman won at Al Mouj in 2017 on the Challenge Tour, and he looks well place to go well again this week too.

T8 in the Vic Open over in Australia, Sordet followed up by reaching the knockout phase of the Super 6 in Perth a week later, where his long, straight hitting proved very useful indeed.

There have been strong showings in windy tests at both coastal and inland Links, with T11 at the Mauritius Open and T16 at the classy British Masters, and assignments like these offer the talented Frenchman a chance to break his European Tour duck.

Zander Lombard – $7,100 – Ordinarily the South African’s wayward driving is something of a concern, but here at Al Mouj he will have plenty of room off the tee, and as somebody who tends to favor wide-open tests Lombard can go well this week.

You may recall he was inside the British Open top-five last summer at the halfway stage, and also banked a T6 finish at the Irish Open. And his biggest payday in the sport came courtesy of his solo second at the Rocco Forte Open, played at a similarly coastal Links location.

With a pair of top-fives in his last quintet of outings, how low can Lombard go on a track that should suit?

George Coetzee – $6,900 – Answers on a postcard as to why the South African is so lowly priced here.

He opened with a 67 at the WGC Mexico last week, and while he tailed away from there he still finished tied with Bryson DeChambeau and ahead of the likes of Marc Leishman; not too shabby.

A six-time winner, Coetzee should be respected in this weak field; especially as he has triumphed at a visually-similar layout at the Mauritius Open and has also recorded a T2 at the correlating Qatar Masters.

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