Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – 2016 Lyoness Open

Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2016 Lyoness Open

2016 Lyoness Open Fantasy Preview

A great performance by Matthew Fitzpatrick in the Nordea Masters last week vaulted him up the world rankings to 32^nd as he shot 16-under-par despite a Sunday 71 and outlasted runner-up Lasse Jensen from Denmark by three strokes.  This week, the European Tour will travel to Austria for the Lyoness Open, formally the Austrian Open, which has flip-flopped between this TOUR and the Challenge TOUR.  The players will be faced with the Diamond Country Club in Atzenbrugg, Austria, which features 7,458 yards of par-72 golf.

The course has given way to some impressive finishes since rejoining the European Tour in 2006 and was first won by local Austrian Markus Brier that year.  Brier had actually won the event twice, in 2002 and 2004, when it was on the Challenge TOUR and had no trouble against the tougher competition with three strokes separating him and runner-up Soren Hansen.  In the following nine years since, there have been four victors decided by a playoff and another two by a single stroke.

Last season, it was this year’s BMW Championship winner and current world No. 23 golfer Chris Wood who beat out runner-up Rafael Cabrera-Bello by two strokes after shooting 15-under-par for the week.  Wood had been trailing the leader by five strokes heading into the final day, but carded an immaculate 67 to take home the hardware.

Wood will be back to defend his title and will be one of the top names in the field as he looks for his fourth career European Tour victory.  Top names No. 47 Bernd Weisberger and No. 69 Joost Luiten will also be favorites heading into the week.  Weisberger and Wood will be joining six other players–Soren Hansen, Lee Slattery, Mikael Lundberg, Gary Stal, Gregory Bourdy, and Matt Baldwin–who are heading to the United States next week for the U.S. Open.  As the season moves along, the Race to Dubai also begins to heat up and with his victory last week; Chris Wood was able to jump into the top five.  Some players looking to make some big moves in this year’s long chase are No. 9 Joost Luiten, No. 26 Gregory Bourdy, No. 31 Bernd Weisberger, and No. 32 Richard Bland from the top 35.

The field seems to be quite weak for this tournament, and will allow for plenty of lesser-known names to put up a nice final standing.  It is important to know these names so that you can gain an extra edge on the DFS competition in the new European Tour slates.  Below are a few of the players that you should think about slotting into your lineup when making decisions this week.

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Lyoness Open Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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Lyoness Open Fantasy Picks

Top Tier – Joost Luiten – $11,900 – Luiten is the top option here and it is represented in his price.  You will need to pay up for the 3 -year-old out of the Netherlands, but if you are looking to gain consistency in a shallow field, he is the way to go.  He has four trophies on the European Tour and currently sits in ninth in the Race to Dubai with eight top-15 performances over 12 outings this season.  Twice he has come in as the runner-up, and his week-to-week prowess comes from the fifth-best scoring average on TOUR (70.27).

He is hitting 74% of GIR (14^th on TOUR) and has been able to nail 64.1% of fairways (39^th on TOUR) as he looks to match or do better than his third-place finish here when he last visited in 2014.  In that outing, he was able to shoot 11-under despite two rounds of par golf, falling a mere shot off the pace of eventual winner Mikael Lundberg.  Watch out for Luiten in Austria this week as he continues on his torrid 2016 campaign.

Mid-Tier – Callum Shinkwin – $8,700 – At just 23 years old, Shinkwin is just finding his footing on the European Tour, and he is coming through in a big way of late.  He was very successful as an amateur and on the Challenge Tour, beating the likes of Matthew Fitzpatrick in the 2013 English Amateur Championship.  In his first full season on the European Tour, Shinkwin has finished in the money in seven of nine attempts, and is playing his best recently with three top-25 finishes in his last four outings.

During that stretch, he has put up four rounds of 69 or better and really showed what he was capable of on Saturday at the Shenzhen International, shooting an immaculate 62.  The youngster hits the ball a mile, averaging 304.3 yards per drive (11^th on TOUR) while backing it up with great accuracy (64.2%, 37^th on TOUR).  His putting is what is keeping him back, but as he matures that will certainly improve, and he will become an exciting player to watch as his career progresses.

Mid-Tier – Nino Bertasio – $7,400 – Bertasio has been working hard at making it to this point over the past handful of years, and is finally getting the opportunity to play each week on the European Tour in 2016.  Through 10 events, he’s finished in the money eight times and owns four top-12 finishes.  Three of his last four outings have finished in that range and he should feel confident while coming off a 12^th last week in the Nordea Masters, carding three rounds under par in the process.  The Italian-born golfer will not wow you in any one area, but he is taking advantage of his chance to play at this high level and seems to have found his stroke going into this midseason event.

Mid-Tier – Chris Hanson – $7,200 – Hanson is yet another player putting together his most successful career season, already playing in nine events on the year while taking home his first top-10.  His last three events have resulted in a finish no worse than 34^th, including that lone top-10, a tie for fifth at the Trophee Hassan II in early May where a Sunday 75 kept him off the top of the leaderboard.

He won’t have any trouble getting off the tee, averaging 292.7 yards per drive (73^rd on TOUR) and can get out of trouble as evidenced by going 62.9% in sand saves (34^th on TOUR).  This is the type of tournament that is wide open for a player like Hanson, and he has shown he has the skill to put up some nice numbers this week at the Diamond Country Club.

Bargain Sleeper – David Dixon – $6,700 – Dixon may be cheaper than the last three golfers mentioned, but he has more experience and even owns a European Tour victory0.  Early on, the 39-year-old out of Bridgewater, England really struggled, but has figured it out in the last few months with five straight performances in the top-50.  The best of those came at the Trophee Hassan II when he took down a solo seventh behind a score of six-under between Friday and Saturday.  After 241 career European Tour events, Dixon does not possess the flare that others in the field do, but he knows how to get things done and could prove a solid cash game option for daily fantasy players.

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