With qualification for Team Europe continuing to be a key storyline, The Tips returns to provide more expert insight to help you choose your Fantasy team ahead of the D+D REAL Czech Masters.
A host of players looking to force their way into Captain Luke Donald’s team have made the trip to Albatross Golf Resort.
The D+D REAL Czech Masters is the penultimate opportunity for players to secure Ryder Cup points and earn automatic qualification.
Donald – who is in action this week on the DP World Tour alongside three of his Vice Captains – will then select a further six Captain’s Picks to complete his 12-man team to face the United States at Marco Simone Golf & Country Club next month.
Joining regular host Ollie Silverton this week are golf writers Tom Jacobs, Ben Everill and broadcaster Kitt Alexander, who outline their picks and reasons for both the D+D REAL Czech Masters and the PGA TOUR’s Tour Championship on this week’s 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.
D+D REAL Czech Masters
The Albatross Golf Resort is playing host to the event on the outskirts of Prague for the ninth time, with Maximilian Kieffer returning as defending champion.
The course measures almost 7500 yards, with both nines beginning with par fives and water acting as its biggest defence.
As a result, a combination of accuracy and length off the tee is likely to prove a key asset in determining this week's winner as the week progresses.
"It's just the ultimate risk and reward golf course," said Jacobs.
"You'll see people go and shoot 64s or 63s and then they'll go and shoot at 71 because they found water three times in a round. That's what you've got to factor in.
"But I've honestly never seen a golf course that correlates success so much to driving distance.
"If you are not leading or in the top 10 for driving distance charts you are going to have to be absolutely spot on everywhere else.
"Maximilian Kieffer is not a long hitter but he was unbelievable with his irons and his putter."
But it isn't just driving distance that Jacobs has taken into the equation when selecting his first outright pick, opting for Antoine Rozner as he cited strategy as also being crucial.
Everill opted for Ludvig Aberg ahead of the rising Swedish start making just his second start on the DP World Tour as a professional.
TJ: I have gone with a player with experience. I've listed off all these big stats about strokes going off the tee and I've led you to the biggest hitters on Tour. Rozner isn't one of the longest but what he does do is he blends in that little bit of accuracy where I think he's got a little bit of strategy just to avoid that bit of water. He was 20th at The Open Championship where he was fourth after both round one and round three and that was really impressive. Of course, he fell away and I think the pressures of trying to find your first major top 10 got the better of him and that's absolutely understandable I think. But he is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour. It is not like he is completely new to these type of scenarios. He was 13th here last year and he led the field for strokes gained tee to green and approach.
BE: If Ludvig Aberg's PGA TOUR stats had have qualified for all his results, he's had five top 25s including a couple of top fifteens, he would be second on the entire Tour off the tee in strokes gained off the tee. He would be third in driving distance on the PGA Tour, 28th tee to green, 20th in strokes gained total. So across everything he would be 20th on the PGA Tour with the numbers he put up over the summer. He's first for eagles and tenth for birdies. The bloke can hit it a mile, he's going to be a superstar. There's no doubt in my mind about that and I think he should be if he's not absolutely on Luke Donald's radar. If he can throw up something big in an event like this, then he's the type of Captain's Pick I think the Europeans might need to take down the Americans in the Ryder Cup.
Fantasy Insight: As it stands, Shane Lowry is the favourite for players of our Fantasy Game this week, featuring in 77.63% of teams. Other popular players include Adrian Meronk (46.18%), Nicolai Højgaard (44.71%) and Alex Fizpatrick (37.67%). Despite their popularity, none of those four feature among our expert picks with Antoine Rozner the leading among those with 19.81%.
Comparatively, some of our other expert choices feature much further down the ranks in terms of players chosen, with Ludvig Aberg in 10.03% of teams and Wilco Nienaber in 6.63%.
| EXPERT | PLAYER | REASON |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Jacobs | Antoine Rozner | Rozner isn't one of the longest but what he does do is he blends in that little bit of accuracy where I think he's got a little bit of strategy just to avoid that bit of water. He was 20th at The Open Championship where he was fourth after both round one and round three and that was really impressive. Of course, he fell away and I think the pressures of trying to find your first major top 10 got the better of him and that's absolutely understandable I think. But he is a three-time winner on the DP World Tour. It is not like he is completely new to these type of scenarios. He was 13th here last year and he led the field for strokes gained tee to green and approach. |
| Wilco Nienaber | He has played here twice; finishing 51st and eighth. He was the leader for strokes gained off the tee last year and on his debut he was second. | |
| Louis de Jager | The correlation between driving distance and performance is something I've never seen so clear. He was third in driving distance here last year, fourth off the tee and crucially second in putting, so while he didn't have the razor hot irons that you want, he was just great off the tee and in putting, which is a great formula for this kind of golf course. I think he's elevated his game a little bit over the last couple of seasons. I know there is not a better golf course for him on the DP World Tour than this one because he's never finished higher than third, which he finished here last year, outside of Africa. | |
| Ben Everill | Ludvig Aberg | If Aberg's PGA TOUR stats had have qualified for all his results, he's had five top 25s including a couple of top fifteens, he would be second on the entire Tour off the tee in strokes gained off the tee. He would be third in driving distance on the PGA Tour, 28th tee to green, 20th in strokes gained total. So across everything he would be 20th on the PGA Tour with the numbers he put up over the summer. He's first for eagles and tenth for birdies. The bloke can hit it a mile, he's going to be a superstar. There's no doubt in my mind about that and I think he should be if he's not absolutely on Luke Donald's radar. If he can throw up something big in an event like this, then he's the type of Captain's Pick I think the Europeans might need to take down the Americans in the Ryder Cup. |
| Robert MacIntyre | Robert McIntyre can get in the top five or at least contend, I'm not necessarily thinking he's going to win this week, but I feel like he's going to fight to lock up third place on the European Points List. I'm literally going for him on that tenacity that I saw at the Scottish Open where Rory took him down. I know he missed the cut at The Open but that makes sense after all that energy he had used previously, and I just think he's somewhat rested and ready to kick it back up. | |
| Wilco Nienaber | He is another young gun that I have had my eye on in the past. |
The TOUR Championship
The 2022-23 PGA TOUR season comes to a close this week at the TOUR Championship at East Lake Golf Club in Atlanta.
The top 30 players who qualified will compete for the coveted
Those in the 30-strong field include FedExCup leader Scottie Scheffler, Viktor Hovland, who won the BMW Championship last week, three-time FedExCup champion Rory McIlroy and Masters champion Jon Rahm.
Here, our experts outline their favourites with the FedExCup trophy up for grabs.
| EXPERT | PLAYER | REASON |
|---|---|---|
| Tom Jacobs | Rory McIlroy | When it comes to East Lake, there is one person who has won it three times - Rory McIlroy. This week he is only giving up a three-shot headstart to Scheffler. It's just the fact that he's just so good here and he talks about the kind of value he finds in the FedExCup wins. People kind of mock it because he says it right after not winning a Major Championship. But he takes value in it, and he enjoys it and ultimately he's figured out whatever it is that he needs to do at East Lake. So I think he's going to do it. |
| Max Homa | I've just been really impressed with the uptick in form again. It feels like his season has gone in waves. Look, he's a multiple winner on the PGA TOUR. He had four points at the President's Cup so he is very happy to contribute to a team golf as well and I think he's just going to want to go into that Ryder Cup in to form his life like everybody does. But crucially, he was third in the 72-hole scoring here last year on his East Lake debut despite opening with 71, so he actually finished 62, 66, 66 to finish fifth in the handicap leaderboard and I think him starting at minus four and six shots back, he is about the lowest you can go and still think you can win. | |
| Ben Everill | Scottie Scheffler | I think that there's going to be a revenge factor here. In the past we've had guys who have not done well with that, have struggled with that lead and not necessarily gone well from that point. But I think he's just so immune to other things that he will tee to green everybody to death. It's interesting to note that he's in the top five in basically every statistical metric we have this season. But he is 145th in strokes gained putting. The last two weeks he played on Tour, he lost 2.4 maybe to the field on putting, well he is two shots ahead. So he is been given the two shots and that's to Viktor Holland who yes was amazing last week but is not the greatest putter over a long stretch of time. I don't know if he can recreate what he did through four rounds at East Lake but with Scheffler getting a headstart and not needing to make every putt, it's going to be very hard to bring him down. |
| Xander Schauffele | This is a long shot pick for the outright with the starting strokes, but a definite pick for me if you're just doing the 72-hole score is Schauffele. He’s an Eastlake specialist, won there, six top sevens and a scoring average of 67.25 across his career there. He's on the plane for the Ryder Cup which helps him but, just speaking to him the last few weeks, he feels like this is a year that has not gone to the standard of the year before. He wants to finish with a bang and there is no better place for him to do it than East Lake. |
To listen to the picks in full, and who else they mentioned, click here:https://linktr.ee/dpworldtour.
