Fantasy Golf Predictions – Trophee Hassan II

European Tour Fantasy Golf Picks and Predictions for the 2017 Trophee Hassan II

The Trophee Hassan II Fantasy Preview

After more than a month off to allow for the various co-sanctioned events and, of course, The Masters, the European Tour is back and, well, not exactly with a bang with this Trophee Hassan II event but at least it gives daily fantasy players a chance to flex their muscles a little.

Forgive our belligerence towards the event, but if you thought the post-Masters lull was bad on the PGA TOUR then you’ve seen nothing yet.  The headline acts in Morocco will be Jeunghun Wang, the defending champion and fresh from his maiden Augusta jolly, Brandon Stone, Joost Luiten, and Tshwane Open winner Dean Burmester.  See, it’s not exactly an elite field.

The Trophee Hassan wasn’t even a European Tour event until 2010, and even more annoyingly for stat fans it hasn’t been hosted at this Red Course at Royal Golf Dar Es Salem since then.  It returned last year, but even then the data reported was mixed: the European Tour failing to record Wang’s winning numbers.  Happily, they did record the stats for 15 of the first 20 players home.

The Korean picked up the first European Tour win of his career here 12 months ago; the first of what is now a haul of three titles to his name.  With such a decent year behind him, Wang deserves favoritism with the sportsbooks here.

But he didn’t have things all his own way here last year, and in fact he needed three playoff holes to see off Nacho Elvira.

And even that was fraught with nerves.  Wang drained an 18-foot putt on the 72nd hole to force extra time, and then he downed an outrageous 50-footer to keep the tournament alive at the first playoff hole.

Nacho must have thought the golfing gods were against him, and so it proved when Wang putted the lights out again on the third extra hole – this time from 20 feet – to take the spoils.

Conditions had not been easy all week with squally rain and heavy winds disrupting proceedings, and the winning mark of -5 is reflective of that.

The Red Course is one of the longer stretches on the European Tour at 7,487 yards, and with prevailing winds it played a lot longer last year; the likes of Clement Berardo, Nino Bertasio, Renato Paratore, and Adrien Saddier – all huge drivers but little else – finishing inside the top 20.

The track is made up of Kikuyu fairways, and so you might think this would have given the South Africans in the field the edge.  But no: only one player from the country finished inside the top-25.

And the greens were thought to be slow at around 10.5 on the stimp, but with winds and a slick, rather than soaking, top it was no surprise to learn that nine of the first fifteen players home ranked top-20 for Putts Per Round.

So realistically, we’re looking at long drivers who can putt well this week.  We have little else to go on after all!

That said, here are six guys who should do a decent job for your daily fantasy teams this week:

Our Trophee Hassan II Fantasy Picks and Predictions

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Cover photo via Instagram