European Tour Fantasy Golf Predictions – Trophee Hassan II

2018 Trophee Hassan II Fantasy Preview

Last week’s Open de Espana was one of those tournaments where you didn’t need to be Inspector Clouseau to identify the winner. Jon Rahm, one of the best players in the world, was playing on his home course in a weak European Tour field. The rest, as they say, is history.

The Spaniard didn’t have it all his own way, with countryman Nacho Elvira and Paul Dunne both contending, but in the heat of a Sunday battle it was Rahm’s greater ‘experience’ – okay he’s still a young guy, but we mean in the sense of winning golf tournaments – that proved decisive.

Jon Rahm of Spain acknowledges the crowd on the 18th green during Day…

Jon Rahm of Spain acknowledges the crowd on the 18th green during Day Four of the Open de Espana at Centro Nacional de Golf on April 15, 2018 in Madrid, Spain. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

There’s a change of tact this week as the European Tour drops down to Africa for the Trophee Hassan II, hosted by the Royal Golf Dar es Salam course in Rabat, Morocco.

We’ve had two editions of this event on the venue’s Red Course, and unfortunately for DFS gamers there has been little recurring evidence to help our draft this week. In 2016 the young Korean, Jeunghun Wang, scrapped his way to victory, and last year Edoardo Molinari ended a seven-year title drought with his win.

Curiously, the stats aren’t particularly revealing either. The two playoff protagonists in 2017, Molinari and Paul Dunne, missed lot of fairways despite not being the longest off the tee, but made up for that with sublime putting. Paul Waring, in third, was outstanding off the tee, found lots of greens but couldn’t make a putt. Victor Dubuisson, in T4, actually clubbed down (average drive length 274 yards) but made GIR and plenty of putts.

There is no single way to succeed here it seems, and maybe this week’s action will help to solidify what exactly it takes to win at Royal Golf Dar es Salam. Unfortunately, that means this week’s draft remains something of an exploratory affair.

There have been changes made to the course too ahead of this third hosting of the event. Some of the holes have been extended and the course remains a behemoth at 7,600 yards (remember, distance isn’t necessarily a factor), with greens enlarged and contours added. It may well be tricky, but perhaps less so than in recent years with more players finding the dancefloor; putting, however, will remain very much key.

Oh yes: and this is a Par 73 layout, which means FIVE Par 5s to attack. It will come as no surprise to learn that these were the easiest holes on the course last year, with Molinari playing them in -8 and Dunne in -11 of their final -9 total!

That said, these are strategic Par 5s where making birdie is more likely than finding the green in two and putting for eagle. Indeed, there were only five eagles made all tournament, which isn’t a huge amount in the grand scheme of things.

So, we are out on a limb to some extent this week, but who makes our draft?

This Week’s Trophee Hassan II Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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