European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

2018 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Preview

The European Tour rumbles on as it edges towards its Race to Dubai conclusion, and at this week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship the top four players, as decreed by the daily fantasy sites, are all Ryder Cup combatants.

From Team America there’s Brooks Koepka and Tony Finau, who have decided to stay in Europe and try their hand at another selection of Links courses.

And from Team Europe there’s Tommy Fleetwood, who has enjoyed almost God-like status across the Atlantic for his bromance with Francesco Molinari, and Tyrrell Hatton, who will be looking to complete a three-peat in this event after taking the honours for the past couple of years.

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You have to wonder how each will fare given the stunning highs and catastrophic lows they would have felt in the aftermath of the Paris battle, and it’s telling that another former Alfred Dunhill Links champion and Ryder Cupper, Thorbjorn Olesen, has decided to withdraw from the event. The Dane has certainly earned his rest.

From a strategic perspective, it might be wise to swerve that quartet in your draft. Fleetwood and Hatton will still be on cloud nine – and probably hungover, and the heroes welcome they will receive in Scotland may just be enough to put them off their game.

As for Koepka, revelations of an alleged bust up with Dustin Johnson at the Ryder Cup after party have surfaced, and despite having a good record in this event it may be wise giving the dual major champion a week off here.

And Finau, well, he just doesn’t win enough trophies, does he?

That leaves us with a more traditional European Tour to sift through for our picks this week in an event that offers a number of unique angles in.

First off, it’s a multi-course event, with rounds played on a rotational basis at Carnoustie, host of this year’s British Open, Kingsbarns and the spiritual home of golf, St Andrews.

You might be thinking ‘wow, Carnoustie is tough!’, but the course managers do a decent job of simplifying the challenge for this event, and if the wind doesn’t blow it actually becomes quite a scoreable layout: Fleetwood producing a course record of 63 here 12 months ago.

The other courses can both be got at, and as is the case with Links golf it really does depend on how fierce the wind blows as to what score can be achieved. There are a few stiff ones forecast, and it will be darn cold to boot, and so a war of attrition is expected.

Tactically, there are a few schools of thought on how to play things. Is it best to draft players who play Carnoustie, the toughest layout of the three, in the most benign conditions? Or is it smarter to have them play Kingsbarns, arguably the most straightforward, when the going is good?

We would argue that the former strategy is arguably the best, so keep an eye on the tee times and the weather forecast to ensure your guys are playing Carnoustie in the easiest conditions. It’s one of those weeks where making your draft at the last possible moment is probably wise.

With all of the above taken into account, who makes our Alfred Dunhill Links Championship draft?

This Week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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