Fantasy Golf Picks & Predictions – Porsche European Open

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2017 Porsche European Open

The 2017 Porsche European Open Fantasy Preview

After the brilliance of Jordan Spieth and the epic battle of the Open Championship, it’s back to basics on the European Tour this week with the Porsche European Open.

Held in Germany each year, 2017 will be the first time that the tournament heads to the Green Eagle course in Hamburg. This has never held a full tour-level event in the past, but intriguingly the European Open website claims that this is one of the longest courses on the European Tour (official literature says 7,582 yards for its Par 72), among the ten largest worldwide and boasts the highest slope rating and is the most difficult course in Germany.

How true any of the clues is remains to be seen, but it’s likely we will find out in due time.

Before we launch into any notion that this might be a bludgeon-fest, the track features a number of stunning lakes and reservoirs, with water said to be in play on 17 holes! So, accuracy off the tee will also be appreciated.

There’s some rain and strong winds around in Hamburg, and so really DFS aficionados are onto a bit of a hiding to nothing this week. Hopefully, the six players we have identified below will give line-ups a decent performance:

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Our 2017 Porsche European Open Fantasy Picks & Predictions

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The 2017 Porsche European Open Fantasy Picks

Joost Luiten – $9,500 – The paucity of this field means that Luiten is one of the most experienced in the hunt for the European Open trophy, and as a prolific European Tour winner he will certainly fancy his chances.

The five-time champion has won events in Holland and Austria, highlighting his penchant for golf on the mainland, and has a whopping 27 career top-tens at this level. He is head-and-shoulders above most in his company this week.

The Dutchman finished T44 at the Open Championship last week – not bad considering making the cut was a feat in itself – and by the end of round three was one of the few players at level par or better.

That follows some other good form of late, notably T7 at the Lyoness Open and T14 at the BMW International Open, and realistically at this price he is a must play this week.

Jimmy Walker – $9,100 – We’ve mentioned that drafting your line-up this week is a leap into the unknown of sorts, but what cannot be denied is how good a value price the PGA Championship winner in 2016 is. $200 less than Kiradech Aphibarnrat and $200 more than Richie Ramsay? Walker cannot be missed this week.

It’s a leap of faith as he doesn’t play much golf in Europe for obvious reasons, but the fact that he has even entered this event suggests he is feeling good about his game and within himself after his much-publicised health scare earlier in the year.

The six-time PGA TOUR winner was diagnosed with Lyme Disease, which affected his ability to play the game due to feeling tired all the time. But early in June he said “Health-wise, I’m starting to feel pretty good. The energy levels are feeling like they’re back up. I’ve only been off the medication for a week, so time will tell if it did its job. As of right now, I feel pretty good.”

Since that declaration, Walker has missed the cut at the US Open but finished T18 at the Greenbrier Classic and made the cut at the Open Championship, which suggests his health is good to battle through those condition.

Like we say, it’s risk and reward time with this pick, but can you name many better players in the field?

Alexander Bjork – $8,600 – It may be that a low-key event like this with a low quality field may provide a young talent with the platform to claim their maiden tour win, and if that’s the case then Bjork might just be at the head of the queue.

The Swede endured a mixed run in the recent Links based events, but will relish a return to traditional European parkland courses. In his five starts prior to the ‘Links season’ he recorded T3 at the Open de France, T14 at the BMW PGA Championship, and T15 at the Lyoness Open as if to highlight the point.

He’s not the longest off the tee, but like we say accuracy might just be the key with so much water in play. Bjork has the air of a future European Tour winner about him, so why not here?

Jordan Smith – $7,900 – There’s been plenty to admire about Smith’s first campaign on the European Tour.

For large swathes of it he has occupied the top five in the Total Birdies count, while a statistical make-up that reads Driving Distance (80th), Driving Accuracy (31st), and Greens in Regulation (44th) suggests he has the tools to at least get the ball in play….and a lot closer to the flag than most, too.

He won twice on the Challenge Tour in 2016, and this year he has gotten into contention a few times on the main tour: T3 at the BMW South Africa Open, T6 at the Qatar Masters, and T8 at the Trophee Hassan testament to that.

A mid-season lull followed, but three top-30s in his last five starts at least offers encouragement.

Julian Suri – $7,300 – We could copy and paste Alexander Bjork’s preview here, particularly the part about an exciting young talent looking to break through.

This young American, who broke all records at Duke University in North Carolina, opted to come to Europe to further his career rather than climb the ladder in the US, and so far the decision appears to have paid dividends.

A winner on the Challenge Tour in May, Suri followed that a week later with a T3 finish – signs of a young, hungry player not willing to rest on his laurels, and just prior to that recorded his first top-five finish in a n event co-sanctioned by the full European Tour.

Huge off the tee, Suri gives us a chance to test the theory that length off the tee WILL be important in Hamburg.

Laurie Canter – $6,900 – There was some excellent golf played over the weekend at the Open Championship as the conditions eased, and while the game’s big guns made their moves a lesser-known youngster rolled up his sleeves.

Laurie Canter birdied the first three holes on Sunday morning, and while he played the rest in +1 he can be delighted with his efforts. Hitting 64% of fairways and 72% of greens in reg, Canter ended up finishing T37 alongside the likes of Sergio Garcia, Martin Kaymer and Steve Stricker.

So he will head to Germany with a spring in his step, and by ranking 19th on tour for Driving Distance he *may* just have an advantage over the rest of the field.

He’s yet to really make his mark on a European Tour event, but in his second full season on the tour his stroke average has dropped from 73.26 to 71.36 already. Perhaps Canter is one of the next generation of stars to watch out for.

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