After the drama of the Rio Olympics, the European Tour touches down in Prague this week for the third edition of the D+D REAL Czech Masters. We give you the lowdown on the penultimate event of the Ryder Cup points race…
Rewind
Last year’s D+D REAL Czech Masters provided a breakthrough for the talented young Belgian Thomas Pieters.
The 24 year old showed composure and assuredness beyond his years after recovering from a double bogey on the front nine to fire four birdies in the final ten holes and storm to a three-shot triumph over Sweden’s Pelle Edberg.
After such a commanding performance, it came as little surprise when Pieters proceeded to claim a second victory in successive appearances at the KLM Open two weeks later en route to finishing 29th in the 2015 Race to Dubai.
Having impressed at the Olympics in Rio last week, where he finished just outside the podium places in fourth position, the Antwerp player enters his title defence high on confidence.
The field
This is the strongest field this tournament has assembled in its three-year history, with Ryder Cup legend Lee Westwood making his debut at Albatross Golf Resort alongside two of his compatriots who are almost guaranteed of their places in Darren Clarke.
Andy Sullivan returns to Prague having played in the inaugural edition in 2014 but he has since become a three-time European Tour winner and all but earned himself a Ryder Cup debut at Hazeltine next month.
He is joined by Matthew Fitzpatrick, who currently occupies the ninth and final automatic qualification spot in the Ryder Cup points list with just two counting tournaments to go. A good finish this week for the 21 year old from Sheffield, who finished third at Albatross last year, would go a long way to rubber-stamping his place in the team.
Pieters flies straight in from Rio to defend his title while Jamie Donaldson, the inaugural winner of this event, returns to Albatross for the first time since his victory two years ago secured his place at The 2014 Ryder Cup, where he proceeded to strike the winning shot for Paul McGinley’s charges.
The course
The beautiful Keith Preston-designed Albatross Golf Resort has become a hugely popular stop on the European Tour schedule.
The 7,467-yard parkland, which has been voted the number one course in Czech Republic by Golf Digest, was last March added to the European Tour Properties portfolio and has in the last 12 months been subject to some exciting changes.
Four new lakes have been added to the testing lay-out, two of which come into play – beside the first green and in front of the 12th green.
The 18th is a superb finishing hole, with a lake flanking the left side of the fairway all the way up to the green, which is itself guarded by the same water feature to test the nerves of any potential winner.
Did you know?
• The 2014 D+D REAL Czech Masters was the European Tour’s first event in the Czech Republic since the 2011 Czech Open, which was won by Englishman Oliver Fisher.
• This is the third D+D REAL-sponsored event in 2016. The first two were on the European Challenge Tour - the D+D REAL Czech Challenge, won by Damien Perrier and the D+D REAL Slovakia Challenge, claimed by Espen Kofstad.
• Defending champion Thomas Pieters will be looking to make his first successful defence of a European Tour title. Following his maiden European Tour success in the Czech Republic he went on to win in his next appearance in the 2015 KLM Open, meaning he became the only Belgian to record multiple European Tour titles in the same season.
• Former European Tour Number One Lee Westwood is making his first appearance in the D+D REAL Czech Masters. The Englishman played in the Czech Open in 1995, 1996 and 1997. He claimed top ten finishes in all three years. He was tied ninth in 1995, tied fifth in 1996 and tied seventh in 1997.
• The European Tour first played an event in the Czech Republic in 1994. Per-Ulrik Johansson won the Czech Open. The tournament continued then between 1995-97 and 2009-2011.
