Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – 2016 Italian Open

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2016 Italian Open

The 2016 Italian Open Fantasy Preview

The Italian Open, the seventh event which has been featured on the European Tour since its inception back in 1972, is the next tournament up overseas.  A very strong group of golfers will be making the trek to Monza, Italy and the Golf Club Milano for an outing that typically features an above-average field thanks to the PGA TOUR being on break until next week for the TOUR Championship.  The par-72, 7,156-yard course seems to be ripe for scoring and will be looking for its first home winner since Francesco Molinari did so back in 2006.

Last season it was amateur Lorenzo Scalise who was the low Italian, finishing in a tie for 11^th behind a 16-under performance as he found himself looking up to the top of the leaderboard at champion Rikard Karlberg.  The Swedish-born golfer was able to gain three strokes on Martin Kaymer over the final day of competition, tying him at 19 shots under par after 72 holes.  He then was able to grab his first career victory on the European Tour with a birdie on the second playoff hole.  A win this week for Karlberg would mark the first time that a player has successfully defended his Italian Open win and would put him in the company of Sandy Lyle (1984, 1992), Sam Torrence (1987, 1995), Bernhard Langer (1983, 1997), Ian Polter (2000, 2002), Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (2007, 2012), and Hennie Otto (2008, 2014) as multiple-time victors here.  It was no surprise to see Karlberg’s low score or that the event went into extra holes as the winner has averaged 19.3 strokes better than par with 8-of-10 tournaments ending with a margin of victory of two or less in the past decade.

The field should be a fun one to watch this week, with the likes of Martin Kaymer, Byeong Hun An, Matthew Fitzpatrick, current Race to Dubai leader Danny Willett, and last week’s winner, Joost Luiten, leading the charge.  Some other big names making the trip to Italy include Lee Westwood, Rafael Cabrera Bello, top Italian Francesco Molinari, Soren Kjeldsen, and Andy Sullivan.  With the Ryder Cup on the horizon, it will be interesting to see how the European team is playing as the big event comes just a couple of weeks down the road, and four of the already mentioned players (Kaymer, Westwood, Fitzpatrick, and Sullivan) along with Chris Wood will be warming up while looking to defeat the United States for the fourth consecutive year starting September 30^th.

The plethora of scoring and big names joining the entrants list for this week’s event should provide an exciting atmosphere in daily fantasy sports as we continue to hone our skills with the players overseas.  There certainly will be plenty of eyes on this event with the PGA TOUR being on break, and hopefully our selections can give you a leg up on the field as you look to make some money in both cash and GPP leagues.

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The Italian Open Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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The Italian Open Fantasy Picks

Top Option – Rafael Cabrera Bello – $10,100 – Rafa has been having a spectacular season all over the world and has jumped into fourth in the Race to Dubai.  It seems like his name is popping up everywhere in majors and WGC events as over the course of 2016 and Bello has been able to make the cut in each of the majors; his best finish coming at the masters where he came away with a tie for 17^th.  Most recently he put up big numbers on the largest of stages, just missing out on a medal in Rio with a fifth-place behind a score of eight-under.  Although none of his two career European Tour wins have come this season, Bello has earned himself two runner-ups and a fourth while just narrowly missing in the WGC Dell Match Play Championship where he ended in third.  The 32-year-old is having by far his best career campaign, doing no better than 17^th in the Race to Dubai previously, and has the ninth-best scoring average (70.60) thanks to hitting nearly all the greens in regulation (75.1%, 8^th on TOUR) while knocking in 1.772 putts per GIR (52^nd on TOUR).  His past results on this course may scare some other DFS players off of Bello this week as some of the other top options are certainly in play, but this could end up being a great pivot to a golfer who is playing some amazing golf.

Mid-Tier – Nicolas Colsaerts – $8,700 – Some of the middle-of-the road players this week are quite unattractive thanks to the top heavy board featuring some fantastic names, but Colsaerts intrigues me in the next tier of players.  The 33-year-old out of Belgium has not been able to grab a trophy on the European Tour since 2012, but he has been flirting with the possibility of late, landing two thirds in his last 10 events while finishing in the top-25 on another four occasions during that stretch.  Colsaerts has one of the best combinations of driving and approaches in the game, destroying the golf ball for an average of 304.4 yards per drive (9^th on TOUR) and converting those into 74% of greens in regulation (14^th on TOUR).  With that said, his putting is well below-average and has been his crutch on the season, but he has shown up here before with a 20^th just last year and will be in line for a huge amount of scoring over the four days of competition.

Mid-Tier – Miguel Jimenez – $8,100 – At 52-years-old, there probably isn’t a ton left in the tank for the 21-time European Tour winner, but he has shown some signs of late recently and put up an 11^th here just last season.  Jimenez is coming off consecutive visits to the top-25 with an 18^th at the Open Championship followed by a 23^rd in the Omega European Masters.  He does not have a big drive (276.6 yards per), but that has allowed him to hit a ton of fairways (67.1%, 16^th on TOUR) and convert those into scoring opportunities.  Jimenez is not the best of cash game options, but could really differentiate your lineup and give you someone who knows a thing or two about winning in the golf world.

Mid-Tier – Richard Bland – $7,500 – Bland is playing his best golf since becoming a mainstay on the TOUR back in 2002.  He is 33^rd in the Race to Dubai after his previous best in Europe’s playoffs was 65^th back in 2010.  Much of his success has come from his consistency; making it into the money on 19-of-22 attempts (86%) while owning an average finish of 31.10 over the course of 2016.  Bland is a solid cash game option at this price and over his past four tournaments is averaging just over 85 PPG on Draft Kings; including a near win at the Omega European Masters where he tied for fifth.  He has one of the best scoring averages on the TOUR (70.78, 12^th on TOUR) with his greens in regulation (70.8%, 25^th on TOUR) and putts per GIR (1.74, 11^th on TOUR) both being elite.  Bland has played 394 events on the European Tour and will be salivating for his first win in the near future.

Bargain Buy – David Howell – $6,900 – Howell may be past his prime, but the five-time victor on this TOUR is still playing some solid golf and is priced right at a tournament in which he has a runner-up and 25^th over the past couple of seasons.  He should be feeling some more confidence on top of that with his recent play, as he has made it into the money on four occasions over his last five outings, including a third at the Czech Masters, after failing to get to the weekend in seven of his first 12 starts on the year.  It hasn’t been since 2013 that Howell earned himself a win, but he is in the right position to have a nice showing at such a low price.

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Cover photo via Instagram.