Fantasy Golf Predictions – 2017 Tshwane Open

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

The Tshwane Open Fantasy Preview

With the world’s elite chasing a huge payday in Mexico, the rest of the European and Sunshine Tours are left to duke it out in South Africa once more at the Tshwane Open.

It follows hot on the heels of last week’s Jo’burg Open, which was won by veteran Darren Fitchardt.  The wily old campaigner played solid golf through the back nine while his playing partners and closest competitors Paul Waring and Jacques Kruyswijk faltered.  It was a masterclass in sensible, no-risk championship golf.

The move inland to Pretoria will at least bring some respite from the heavy rains and thunderstorms that battered Jo’burg last week and reduced the event to a 54-hole affair.  It’s humid inland so some ‘electrical activity’ is expected, although happily the rain is expected to stay away.

Defending champion Charl Schwartzel is off chasing the dollar in Mexico, as are many of the European Tour’s leading lights, and so this event has a genuinely open feel to it.  A course specialist could make their local knowledge count, or a rookie could burst through the field and take advantage of what is – with all due respect – a low quality field.

Pretoria Country Club has hosted the Tshwane Open for the last two years, and once again the South Africans have enjoyed the better of things.  Prior to Schwartzel was another native winner in George Coetzee, and all-in-all three of the last four champions of this event have been from the homeland.  That has to be an angle in this week.

The Pretoria track is a tight and testing affair.  Measuring just 6,830 yards for its Par 70, scoring opportunities are kept to a minimum with only three players in the last two renewals finishing double digits under par.  Indeed Schwartzel finished on -16 here 12 months ago and was eight shots clear of the field!

Kikuyu grass can be torturous to play from and especially within the rough.  If you can, check out Pep Angles’ Twitter feed, on which there is a video of him lobbing his ball into the rough stuff in practice.  It literally disappears from view.

So driving accuracy and greens in regulation will be key this week, but then Schwartzel also ranked second for driving distance in his victorious lap around Pretoria, so a game in decent all-around shape is key.

That said, here are six players to watch out for when making your daily fantasy draft this week:

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Our Tshwane Open Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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The 2017 Tshwane Open Fantasy Picks

George Coetzee – $11,600 – This is a pick based on self-preservation as much as anything else.  Coetzee is the most likely winner in the field and yet sits second behind Dean Burmester in the DraftKings salary ratings; get him on board and get one over on the casual gamers.  Big George has been a member of Pretoria CC since he was ten-years-old, and so it’s little wonder he triumphed here in 2015 before backing that up with a respectable T14 twelve months ago.  A handy run of form (7-14-MC-7) also catches the eye, as did his charge through the Jo’burg Open field on Sunday when a 65 brought him the clubhouse lead.  It wasn’t enough to convert, but back on his favorite track he should have the confidence of home comforts.  Coetzee, on paper at least, is the best player in the field this week.

Romain Langasque – $9,500 – We’ve been waiting for a tough little test like this to get the gifted Frenchman on board, and in what is a low-quality field this could be his breakout moment.  He’s played in five tournaments this season and finished inside the top 40 of each, with a T10 at the Australian PGA Championship just edging out last week’s T11 at the Jo’burg Open as his finest showing to date.  Langasque announced himself to the world by shooting 31 on the back nine at Augusta as an amateur last year, and a Tshwane Open title will confirm his upward progress of the past 18 months.

Dylan Frittelli – $8,500 – We had earmarked the South African for this event at the start of the South African Swing, and so we were delighted to see him show up well at the Jo’burg Open last week; it’s not an event in which he has particularly enjoyed in the past.  That T16 follows up an 8-2 run on the Sunshine Tour in his homeland, so confidence has to be high at present.  Frittelli’s last two trips to Pretoria CC have returned 14-10, and just last week in Jo’burg he ranked 24 for GIR.  Long off the tee, Frittelli also hits around 65% of fairways on average, so there is no reason why he cannot contend this week.

Mikko Korhonen – $7,800 – We were torn between Korhonen and Paul Peterson at this price point, but expect the Finn’s greater scoring power to be a huge advantage on a track where birdie chances are minimal.  He missed the cut here in 2015 but we’re not too devastated about that; his game has improved exponentially since then.  A T7 at the South Africa Open in January confirms his fondness for golf in these parts, and his game looks ideally suited to this Pretoria test too: he is long enough off the tee (averaging 288 yards this season) to get involved, and plugs around 65% of fairways.  From there he hits 72% of greens, on average, and as we’ve mentioned those all-around stats are crucial on this track.  If the putter fires then Korhonen will bag plenty of fantasy points this week.

James Morrison – $7,500 – Morrison has returned to his former coach Hugh Marr for guidance this season, and so far it appears to be working for the Englishman.  James has made 4/5 cuts this term and finished no lower than 25th, with last week’s T4 at the Jo’burg Open his best.  The key to that run was pegging greens (he ranked 31st for GIR) and putting well (6th for Putts per Round), and for a guy who averages 286 yards off the tee with an accuracy rating of 65% we’re happy that his all-around game is tight at the moment.  Morrison is a two-time European Tour winner, and in a field lacking in obvious champions he stands out nicely and at a decent price with DraftKings too.

Ashun Wu – $6,800 – Wu and fellow countryman Haotong Li are taking Chinese golf to the next level at present, and both have a live chance this week after decent showings in Jo’burg last time out.  It was Wu’s final round of 66 – only bettered on the day by Coetzee – that really caught the eye, and delivered a T16 finish.  He’s made five of his last six cuts, and is a two-time European Tour winner; crucially, while a triumph in his home China Open can be accounted for, he backed that up last year with victory in the Lyoness Open in Austria, so this isn’t a one-trick pony.  Wu peppers greens (he ranked sixth in Jo’burg for GIR), features inside the top 40 players on the European Tour when he does miss the dancefloor, and offers up a nice 290 yards/66% driving distance/accuracy coefficient.

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Cover photo via Instagram