European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Rocco Forte Sicilian Open

2018 Rocco Forte Sicilian Open Preview

After a brief foray into team golf with last week’s largely irrelevant Golf Sixes, the European Tour will return to the traditional strokeplay format this week with the Rocco Forte Open at Verdura GC in Italy.

It’s a rather underwhelming return, it has to be said, with a field mostly lacking in star quality meeting on the coast of Sicily. The life of the fantasy golf fanatic is rarely straightforward!

Measuring 7,217 yards for its Par 71, the Verdura layout has been a happy hunting ground for bombers in recent times. Alvaro Quiros is the defending champion here having seen off the challenge of another long-hitter, Zander Lombard, 12 months ago, while the prior European Tour event to stop off here – the Sicilian Open in 2012 – saw Nicolas Colsaerts finish T3 and the grandaddy of all bombers, John Daly, bag a T11 return!

Andy Sullivan of England is seen on the 17th hole during Day One of…

Andy Sullivan of England is seen on the 17th hole during Day One of the Trophee Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam on April 19, 2018 in Rabat, Morocco. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

So that has to be the guide this week at a stretch which has a Links-style feel. Nine of the holes are played along the coast, which brings with it high winds, and there are few trees to speak of on this Kyle Phillips layout.

The Bentgrass greens are large and undulating, and the general theme is this: the course is easy when the wind isn’t blowing, and tough when it is!

There are plenty of opportunities here for established pros to get back into the winner’s circle, and up-and-comers to stamp their authority on a senior level event. So who makes our draft?

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This Week’s Rocco Forte Sicilian Open Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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This Week’s Rocco Forte Sicilian Open Fantasy Picks

Andy Sullivan – $11,600 – Sullivan has been playing some fine golf in 2018, and if he can just connect four or even three good rounds in Italy he stands an excellent chance of landing a fourth European Tour title.

He has shot 67 or lower in 33% of his rounds played this calendar year, with a couple of 63s thrown in for good measure.

That is the Englishman’s style – lots of low numbers but a few bogeys sprinkled in for good measure, but this Verdura layout isn’t all that tricky, and an accomplished wind player like Sullivan shouldn’t get tangled up in too many knots.

He is the most likely winner by some margin this week, now he just needs to go and convert!

Julien Guerrier – $9,400 – There are quite a few players in this field who will be eyeing their first European Tour title this week, and we can certainly put Julien Guerrier in that camp.

The Frenchman has enjoyed a fine start to the campaign, contending at the Oman Open, where he finished third after playing in the final group, and banking another top-10 at the Open de Espana.

Twice a winner on the Challenge Tour last season, Guerrier is long off the tee and putts really well on Bentgrass – ranking top-five for Putts per Round in two of his last three starts in Spain and China.

Tapio Pulkkanen – $7,800 – The best dressed man in golf (or the worst, depending on your outlook) is developing into a quality player, and in a low-quality event like this he may just make his breakthrough on the major stage.

Already a Challenge Tour winner, the Finn went close at the Joburg Open earlier in the campaign; contending well but being blown away by Shubhankar Sharma’s heroics on the Sunday.

Nine starts on the European Tour this term have yielded three top-25s, and we know he can step up when in the mi having won and finished second three times on the Challenge Tour in 2017.

Nino Bertasio – $7,600 – This Italian really is a curious character. Huge off the tee and blessed with a fantastic touch with the putter, why Bertasio hasn’t won a European Tour event – or rarely contends – remains a mystery.

You would like to think a return home would inspire him this week, particularly as he had such a fantastic amateur career in Italy, and a layout that suits his natural game should pay dividends – or that’s the idea anyway.

With a top-10 in the Australian PGA Championship and T15 at last year’s Alfred Dunhill Links, Bertasio clearly doesn’t mind playing in a breeze, and it’s high time he capitalised on his obvious talent in a low-quality event like this.

Sebastian Heisele – $7,200 – This seriously tall German is quite a classy sort by Challenge Tour standards, and he has already shown his abilities in the few European Tour events he has started.

He opened last season with a pair of top-20s, before finishing T4 in the co-sanctioned Open de Portugal. Heisele then opened up 63-69 in this event before falling away over the weekend.

The German resurfaced later in the season with a third place at the KLM Open, before a solo second at the Challenge Tour’s Foshan Open earned him a place in their Grand Final.

After a sluggish start to 2018, the 30-year-old finished T4 in his last start at the Turkish Airlines Challenge.

Justin Walters – $7,100 – This is one of those weeks where we are going to have to take a leap into the unknown on occasion, unfortunately, and the lower salary points really are tough to find players worthy of our draft.

We could take a chance on an unproven Challenge Tour sort, of course, but it might just be worth calling up an experienced pro who has arguably underachieved on the European Tour.

You probably know the drill with many South African players by now: excellent on home soil, they tend to struggle when the Tour moves east to Europe or Asia.

That is arguably the case for Justin Walters, a two-time winner on the Sunshine Tour who hasn’t quite cashed in on international turf.

But he’s in good form with a pair of top-10s to finish up the Sunshine Tour campaign, hits the ball a mile off the tee and has occasionally come up with the goods in Europe: T3 at the KLM Open in the Netherlands last season complimented by T14 at the Made in Denmark event.

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