The Tips returns this week with more expert insight to help you choose your Fantasy team ahead of events on both the DP World Tour and the PGA TOUR.
How it works: Every week a panel of industry-leading golf tipsters and special guests provide their expert tips for the week ahead.
Whether it’s making picks to update your Fantasy Team or keep your eye on the betting markets, our experts provide their insights into the ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics and the BMW Championship on the PGA TOUR through our podcast - The Tips.
Joining regular host Ollie Silverton this week are golf writers Martin Mathews and Matt Cooper, who outline their picks and reasons for both tournaments on this weeks podcast, which you can find here: https://linktr.ee/dpworldtour.
If you have not done so already, you can sign up to play the official 2023 DP World Tour Fantasy game and submit your six-man team before round one gets under way on Thursday: https://fantasy.dpworldtour.com/
The 2023 season-long winner will win a trip to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next year, enjoy a lesson with a DP World Tour professional and a round of golf on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. For more information on this amazing prize and others, read here
ISPS HANDA World Invitational presented by AVIV Clinics
The ISPS HANDA World Invitational returns to Northern Ireland for a third consecutive year after its inaugural edition was co-sanctioned by the European Challenge Tour in 2019.
A unique format sees some of the best players in the men’s and women’s game compete on the same courses, at the same time, while being co-sanctioned by the DP World Tour, LPGA Tour and the Ladies European Tour.
Past experience may prove to be important at parkland venue Galgorm, but with the addition of new co-host Castlerock, located in Co. Londonderry, the added element will see players test themselves over the links layout.
According to our experts, the last three years have all been about strategy tee to green. Even with the links test they still believe it's going to be about finding fairways and greens this week, but who do they think can master two styles of courses in the difficult weather conditions predicted earlier in the week?
Matthew Jordan
MM: I'm hoping he can take momentum from his great week at Hoylake, step up and bag that first win. The Open wasn't just a sort of out of the blue big performance on his home track, but it was a culmination of some really good play that he's been putting together over recent months. He was 16th at the KLM, 22nd at the Porsche European Open, 9th in the Volvo Car Scandinavian Mixed, 17th in the Made in HimmerLand. We know how psychology is a big thing, and he's performed well in the other co-sanctioned men and women event recently. So he's produced a lot of really, really good golf of late. He's solid in his approach play and he's up there in the top 30 on on tour for GIR so he's the type of player I'm looking for. He's also a bit of a links specialist, and with there being the other course here too, that was a big plus point. I'm taking him to build on what he's done and push on, really ride the wave, as it were.
Marcus Kinhult
MC: I'm going with a bit of that links expertise that I think will do well here, and Marcus Kinhult won the Lytham Trophy as an amateur and then pottered down the coast a little bit to finish first at Hillside for his first win on the DP World Tour. He was then third when they went back to that venue a couple of years ago. He also has got a good record on parkland courses between the trees. He has got top 10s at Valderrama, Wentworth and Kenya. He's also made ten of his last 10 cuts and two of those were top 20s on the PGA Tour co-sanctioned events. I think he's in great form. He's never quite done his best golf in this event, but I think he's got a chance to do it and also he might be have sort of a family connection this week as his sister Frida is in the ladies field.
Fantasy Insight: As it stands, Frenchman Romain Langasque is the favourite for players of our Fantasy Game this week, featuring in 53.90% of teams. Other popular players include Victor Perez (48.91%), Matthew Jordan (47.76%), Robert MacIntyre (45.76%) and Tom McKibbin (35.56). Comparatively, some of our other expert choices feature much further down the ranks in terms of players chosen, with Calum Hill in 14.89%, Marcus Kinhult in 13.83%, Daniel Gavins in 3.70% and Casey Jarvis in 1.63% of teams chosen by players.
| EXPERT | PLAYER | REASON |
|---|---|---|
| Martin Matthews | Matthew Jordan | I'm hoping he can take the momentum from his great week at Hoylake, step up and bag that first win. The Open wasn't just a sort of out of the blue big performance on his home track, but it was a culmination of some really good play that he's been putting together over the recent months. He's solid in his approach play and he's up there in the top 30 on on tour for GIR so he's the type of player I'm looking for. He's also a bit of a links specialist, and with there being the other course here too, that was a big plus point. I'm taking him to to build on what he's done and push on, really ride the wave, as it were. |
| Calum Hill | He had a bit of a horror time last year and was out for the bulk of last year after developing strong nerve hypersensitivity from an insect bite which caused muscle spasms. Come back and starting to remind us how good he is. He’s a proven winner, was fourth at the British Masters, third at the other ISPS event earlier this year after a month off, and his strength is tee to green play, which is obviously what we're looking for. Most importantly, of course, he is a former winner of this event, albeit when it was on the Challenge Tour, and was seventh in his defence. | |
| Daniel Gavins | A very simple selection, I just thought that his price was too big, really. He's a past winner here, and won the Ras Al Khaimah earlier this year. He's a proven winner, and while he's not playing particularly well his last couple of starts or so, he was 12th at the Scandi Mixed. Again, an interesting sort of sideline, the fact that he performed again well at the other mixed event earlier this year. | |
| Matt Cooper | Marcus Kinhult | Has links expertise that I think will do well here. Kinhult won the Lytham Trophy as an amateur and then pottered on down the coast a little bit to finish first at Hillside for his first win on the DP World Tour. He was then third when they went back to that venue couple of years ago. He also if necessary, got a good record on parkland courses between the trees. Valderrama, Wentworth, Kenya, he's got top 10s within the trees there. He's also made ten of his last 10 cuts. and two of those were top 20s on the PGA Tour co-sanctioned events. I think he's in great form. He's never quite done his best golf in this event, but I think he's got a chance to do it. |
| Casey Jarvis | Many winners at Galgorm have also got a really good record on Adamstal in Austria: Calum Hill won there, Ewen Ferguson has been second twice, Daniel Gavins has a top ten. Jarvis was this year’s winner. He just turned 20, and is a really highly regarded young South African – who carded a 59 in South Africa earlier this year. He also had a 65 to open the Scottish challenge last week, and I think he's got a really good, good chance this week. | |
| Victor Perez | A lot of the reasons why I like him are fairly obvious, but. Leaning on the links connection, he’s a past winner of the Dunhill Links. He’s also played this course once, in 2018, and he was co-leader after 54 holes before finishing fourth. He’s a classy player, and if he’s going to make the Ryder Cup he’s going to need a pretty good three or four weeks. So foot to the gas for him, and this looks like a place where his best golf can content. |
BMW Championship Picks
For those who are interested not only in our Fantasy Game but also tips for the PGA TOUR, our experts also outlined their favourites and outsiders for the BMW Championship, held at 2003 U.S. Open course Olympia Fields for the first time since 2020.
With thick rough bound to play it's part and our experts drawing on experience of tougher courses, find out who they think can mount a challenge on a week where hitting greens and mental fortitude will be essential.
| EXPERT | PLAYER | REASON |
|---|---|---|
| Matt Cooper | Xander Schauffele | He's very good on U.S Open golf courses, six out of his seven stats have been top 10s. He likes this sort of test. His form has been a bit sort of stuttery in recent weeks, but his approach was really, really good last week and I'm taking that as a as a good hint. He can hit the ball a long way and can find as many fairways as anybody who hits that distance. He's sort of trending towards finally getting the win that he's not he's not picked up since the middle of last summer. |
| Keegan Bradley | Twelve of the 15 winners of this tournament have been major championship winners. So I wanted a major championship winner on side, and the math for me is Keegan Bradley. He won the PGA Championship about a decade ago on a course that’s very similar to this one. And this year he’s won the Zozo Championship and the Travellers at River Highlands, and he knows how to grind if he needs to. | |
| Corey Connors | He just hits a lot of greens in regulation. I think that's going to be important this week. If you just take a little glance at this year's U.S. travelling majors, he didn't do very well at the US Open but never has, which is a bit of a concern. But he was top two through 54 holes in the PGA Championship, looking really good nick until struggling in the final round. I think he's got quite a good chance. | |
| Martin Matthews | Jon Rahm | He won here last time BMW was at Olympia fields. He has such a great history of playing well on comparable type of classical tests if you like. He started slowly last week and on Thursday 73 he was basically saying he couldn't play anymore and then by the weekend, he had it on a string off the tee. I expect a really big performance from him this week. He's got everything that we need for this type of test. He's right up there for all the tee to green stats, but unlike Scheffler, McIlroy the putter doesn't misbehave quite as much, so I’m on for a three peat at Olympia fields for Rahm. |
| Hideki Mastuyama | I think he will ride that wave of momentum onwards. On Sunday afternoon, he wasn't anywhere near being in this field this week, then produces five on the run from 13 through to 17, and suddenly he’s in. I'm sure thought his season was done, then found it out of nowhere. Obviously, he's struggled a little bit with his neck injury that seems to be a common factor for him, but he looked fine last week, he is another player who has a track record on tough courses. He's won at Muirfield Village. He was third here back in 2020. He's now got what I suspect was an unexpected chance to produce. | |
| Sahith Thegala | I see him as a player who likes these tough classical tests. He's performed well at Riviera, Torrey Pines and he has a top five at Muirfield Village. He's a player who rises to the challenge. He produces the big performances in the big events, obviously ninth in his Masters debut earlier in the year, but the summer has been a little bit slower for with miss cuts over in the UK. But he's now showed a bit of something last week. He's right on the bubble. | |
| Patrick Rodgers | He loves and knows this course and won back to back here in college. It’s three hours from where he grew up in Indiana, and he’s played well at the John Deere and spoke about how it reminded him of home, similar grasses, temperatures etc. He does also have a great record again on tough golf courses, and has popped up at a lot of the courses we've been talking about in the past. I can see him producing a big week. |
