Fantasy Golf Predictions – 2017 BMW South Africa Open

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the BMW SA Open hosted by City of Ekurhuleni

The 2017 SA Open Fantasy Preview

The BMW SA Open is one of the longest standing tournaments out there with the first event coming near the beginning of the 20^th century in 1903.  It became co-sanctioned with the European Tour in 1997, but still saw a strong contingency of South Africans taking home the trophy.

The players will be teeing it up at Glendower Golf Club for the fifth consecutive year where the par-72 course maintains 7,564 yards with 64 bunkers and water hazards on a majority of the holes.

The big news is the No. 2 golfer in the world, Rory McIlroy, leading the entrants list and looking to build on his 2016 season in which he won the TOUR Championship and finished in the top-10 at both the Masters and Open Championship.  He ended the year fifth in the Race to Dubai, failing to win the season long championship for the first time since 2013, but nailed down his first FedExCup Championship on the PGA TOUR.

McIlory is the clear favorite, but will be faced with some difficult competition in former champions Andy Sullivan (2015) and Brandon Stone (2016) as well as a slew of South African’s aiming to hold down their countries’ Open.  Richard Sterne, Dean Burmester, Hayden Porteous, and Thomas Aiken are among the best representing South Africa, but joining McIlroy and Sullivan from Europe will be a trio of big names in David Horsey, Matthew Southgate, and Richard Bland.

Last year, Brandon Stone snapped a three year run in which players from outside of South Africa went home the champion with his 14-under, two-stroke win over runner-up Christiaan Bezuidenhout.  His finishing score was right in line with past victors as the average mark is 15.5 shots under par over the last decade.  At a mere 22-years-old, this was Stone’s first career victory on the European Tour and it did not come without an up-and-down final day which saw the champion get seven birdies, but also six bogeys.

Stone became the 13^th South African to win the tournament in the 20 years since it became a mainstay on the European Tour and will look to join a group of 18 other golfers to win the event on at least two occasions.  It is no surprise that the man with the most wins here is Gary Player who won an astonishing 13 times between 1956 and 1981.

This will be the second season that DraftKings is hosting games for the European Tour and that means there will be more fantasy players out there with experience and knowledge of the ins and outs of golf overseas.  So, you’ll have to dig a bit deeper to be successful in European Tour DFS this year.  But fear not because we’ve done the leg work for you by outlining a few players we believe could take to Glendower with ease and perform well at all different price levels.

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Our 2017 SA Open Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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2017 SA Open Fantasy Picks

Rory McIlroy – $13,500 – Rory is very expensive for this event due largely to the minimal elite competition coming up against him.  McIlory has never made a start in this event, but he is just on a different level than the other players here and is a near must play.  At his price point you are getting the 2015-16 FedExCup Champion who owns three Race to Dubai Championships and another two runner-ups in the season long, European Tour equivalent to the FedExCup.  At 27-years-old, McIlroy owns 13 wins on both of the major professional tours and is missing just The Masters to complete his career grand slam in Majors.  In 2016, McIlroy finished in the top-10 at 10-of-12 European Tour events and ranked third in stroke average (69.7) behind an average drive of 302.4 yards (10^th on European Tour), 77.5% greens in regulation (2^nd), and 1.722 putts per GIR (4^th).  This pick is a no-brainer and you will need to plug him in and focus on finding the right players on the cheap to play along with him.

Jbe Kruger – $7,600 – The South African presence in this group begins with 30-year-old Jbe Kruger who was able to notch his only European Tour victory back in 2012.  Since he has not done much to back up the win; ranking worse than 130^th three times in four years in the Race to Dubai.  However, he has been able to put together a few nice rounds to start this season, and has a 32^nd and 10^th in his first pair of outings.  He now returns to this event in hopes that he can build on a near win here back in 2012 when he came away as the runner up after going 17 shots under par and falling to Morten Orum Madsen by a pair of strokes.  In his first two events this year, Kruger has put up a solid overall effort, ranking in the top-50 in stroke average (69.75, 28^th on Tour), driving accuracy (64.3%, 45^th on Tour), putts per GIR (1.75, 49^th on Tour), and putts per round (28.9, 25^th on Tour).  Kruger has some good experience here and should feel very comfortable this week.

Carlos Pigem – $7,500 – Pigem has never played more than 11 tournaments on the European Tour, but he is making the most of his early season events.  Through his first two tournaments, Pigem has a fourth at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and 14^th at the Hong Kong Classic while having rounds of 70 or better in 7-of-8 attempts.  His putter is what will get him up the leaderboard, and over his 11 starts in 2016 he averaged 29.1 putts per round (37^th on Tour).  Although Pigem has yet to play in this event, he is someone to take a chance on thanks to a hot early start to 2017.

Trevor Fisher Jr. – $7,400 – Fisher Jr. has missed eight of his past 10 cuts, but he is not here for his recent performances, but rather for his domination of this course in the past.  He has played here three times since 2013, getting into the top-15 in each of those starts while combining to go 26 shots under par.  Fisher is not going to blow you away with any of part of his game, but he did finish 69^th overall last year with a stroke average of 71.4 and pinpointed 69.7% of GIR (56^th on Tour).  Trevor is just a few years removed from his first European Tour victory when he finished 63^rd in the Race to Dubai and will be a nice addition to your roster as he attempts to put up yet another impressive week at Glendower.

David Drysdale – $7,100 – Drysdale has not exactly been tearing it up in his last 10 events played, but he has been able to make it into the money nine times with his best finish being an 11^th at the Alfred Dunhill Championship.  He has had some success in this event over the past few years as well, ranking as high as 11^th in 2015 while making it to the weekend in each start.  The 41-year-old has been fairly consistent in recent years, finishing in the top-100 of the Race to Dubai four times in the last five seasons behind a tremendous swing which put his ball in the fairway off the tee 69.6% of the time (6^th on Tour) and on the green in regulation 74.4% of his opportunities (11^th on Tour) during the 2016 campaign.  Drysdale is more of a cash game play with a high floor and low ceiling likely for the veteran.

Paul Maddy – $6,600 – Maddy is a real wildcard as he spent his entire 2016 season on the Challenge Tour and actually didn’t do that great with just 11 visits to the money in 23 starts.  He did have one third during that stretch and has been playing some of his best golf over the last few months.  Qualifying events earned him some starts at this level and he took advantage of his first this year; putting together four rounds of 69 or better at the Alfred Dunhill Championship and getting a tie for 11^th.  Not many will be on the journeyman this week, but without many big names on the entrants list, he could come out with a huge performance as he rides his recent hot streak.

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