Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – 2017 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2017 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship

2017 Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Fantasy Preview

For the sixth week in a row, we were very much on the edge of our seats as a couple of our picks had very live title chances at last week’s British Masters.

Tyrrell Hatton led by three at the halfway stage, while Graeme Storm was barely out of the top-five from the get-go. Unfortunately, neither could capitalise as some fine golf from a resurgent Rory McIlroy propelled him up the leaderboard.

But it was another fine young talent in Paul Dunne who would outstrip them all to claim his first European Tour title. The Irishman compiled a final round of 61 that featured the perfect blend of skill and luck to take the honors.

Amateur Paul Dunne of Ireland waves to the crowd on the 18th green…

Amateur Paul Dunne of Ireland waves to the crowd on the 18th green during the third round of the 144th Open Championship at The Old Course on July 19, 2015 in St Andrews, Scotland. Get premium, high resolution news photos at Getty Images

The European Tour remains on UK soil this week for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, which is a unique rotational course format often used on the PGA TOUR but very rarely seen on European shores. The players play the three host venues in rotation Thursday through to Saturday – St Andrews, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie. At this point the cut is made, and those remaining battle it out at St Andrews for the crown on Sunday.

This is a pro-am event that tends to ease things up for the celebrities, and so St Andrews and Kingsbarns in particular are set up in forgiving fashion with wide fairways and huge landing areas on the greens. Last year Tyrrell Hatton won in -23, which is roughly the average winning score here, and that’s surprisingly low given how cold it can get and how hard the wind blows on the Scottish coastline.

Perhaps the key for gamers this week is determining which rotation they want their players to be on. The wind is set to blow real hard on Thursday – 20mph is forecast but you just know it will feel stronger than that, before dropping to 12mph on Friday and Saturday.

So, do we want our guys to be playing the easy course (Kingsbarns) on the windiest day, or do we want them to play the toughest course (Carnoustie) on the Thursday so that they can cash in on the easier stretches on Friday and Saturday?

For what it’s worth, Hatton went Carnoustie-Kingsbarns-St Andrews, as did Richard Sterne who finished T2 and fourth-placed Joakim Lagergren. It may be an angle, it may not.

With all of the above in mind, who makes our team this week?

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

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This Week’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship Fantasy Picks

Shane Lowry – $9,800 – Much of the focus this week will be on Rory McIlroy after he bounded back to form at the British Masters last time out, but at $12,500 do we really want to be spending 25% of our salary cap on a player noted for not always performing consistently week to week?

Instead, we’re taking a look at Shane Lowry, who at almost $3,000 less appears to be a sound investment. The Irishman topped the GIR standings in the British Masters last week – that’s iron-striking that will bode well in windy Scotland – and of course he grew up playing choppy, coastal golf.

Lowry has landed four strong finishes in this tournament of 3-6-19-18 in consecutive years, and really you couldn’t wish to build a better Links player than the three-time European Tour winner.

Branden Grace – $9,500 – We’ve long had the South African down as a Links specialist and a future Open Championship winner, and boy did he prove us right at this year’s British Open – firing the first ever round of 62 in major history.

That T6 followed T15 at the Scottish Open the week prior, and confirmed our theory that Grace is one to watch when the wind is up and low-bore ball striking is the order of the day.

His last activity was in the rather one-sided Presidents Cup last week, but the International team’s fightback on singles Sunday will have filled all of those with plenty of confidence; Grace, for what it’s worth, halved his encounter with Dustin Johnson and bagged a respectable haul of two points for his team.

Martin Kaymer – $8,500 – There’s an element of the gamble to this pick, but when he’s confident and playing well Kaymer is the match of anybody in this field.

And last week, for the first time in a while, he proved it, finishing T20 at the British Masters but even more eye-catchingly ranking second in the GIR standings.

That’s a sign that he’s striking the ball cleanly – essential in Links golf – and Kaymer actually plays his golf as well as anyone in these parts. He’s a former Alfred Dunhill Links champion from 2010 and that came two years after finishing runner up, while last year he posted a T6 return in this event.

Kiradech Aphibarnrat – $7,600 – After a trio of top-20 finishes in a row, it is slightly insulting for Aphibarnrat to be such a low salary point and so we might have just bagged ourselves a bargain.

His GIR stats have been excellent of late, and he really should have catered home in the KLM Open before a Sunday meltdown.

He battled back with a T20 finish last week, finishing eighth for GIR, and lest we forget his brilliant form in Scotland: the portly Philippine has won the Paul Lawrie Matchplay and finished T4 in his sole start in this event back in 2015.

Matthew Southgate – $7,400 – There aren’t many who can boast better Links records in recent times than Matt Southgate, an ‘under the radar’ kind of player who will surely be low owned in DFS games this week.

The Englishman finished in T6 at the Open Championship this summer, as well as a second place at the Irish Open. And his current form stacks up nicely as well with T5 at the Boise Open a fortnight ago, which is one of the Web.com Tour’s big events.

Florian Fritsch – $7,000 – And how about this for a price on the non-flying German?

Fritsch finished T4 at the British Masters last week, just three shots behind McIlroy who played some sublime golf all week, and that is testament to how well the German is striking the ball. He hit 75% of greens and putted well, too.

The German has shown a penchant for Links golf in Scotland too, finishing T7 here last year and T19 the year prior to that.

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Cover photo via Instagram