Ahead of the Omega European Masters, one of the founding events on the DP World Tour, The Tips brings expert insight to help you choose your Fantasy team.
Every week a panel of industry-leading golf tipsters and special guests provide their expert tips for the forthcoming tournament on both the DP World Tour and PGA TOUR.
Whether it’s making picks to update your Fantasy team or keep your eye on the betting markets, the panel provide their thoughts before the final qualifying event for the European Ryder Cup team in Switzerland.
Joining regular host Ollie Silverton this week are golf writers Dave Tindall and Ben Coley, who outline their picks and reasoning 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.
Ahead of this week's event, Fantasy DP World Tour is delighted to launch our brand-new Second Chance League, giving you the chance to compete for fantastic prizes between now and the end of the season! And as a prize draw, it really is simple. All you need to do is sign up to play Fantasy today here for the chance to win:
- A two-night stay and play at the five-star Terre Blanche Hotel, Spa and Golf resort
- Tickets for a 2024 DP World Tour event
Fantasy Insight: As it stands, Matt Fitzpatrick is the favourite for players of our Fantasy Game this week, featuring in 83.71% of teams. Other popular players include Matt Wallace (64.60%) and Nicolai Højgaard (45.71%). Despite their popularity, none of those three feature among our expert picks with Yannik Paul the leading of those with 19.50%.
Comparatively, some of our other expert choices feature much further down the ranks in terms of players chosen, with Antoine Rozner in 16.48% of teams and Alexander Björk in 15.70%.
Omega European Masters
The European Masters is renowned internationally and boasts a long list of prestigious winners, including Severiano Ballesteros, José Maria Olazabal, Ernie Els and Team Europe Ryder Cup Captain Luke Donald.
Located in Crans-Montana at the heart of the Swiss Alps, the Crans-sur-Sierre Golf-Club is hosting the event for the 76th time this year.
Thriston Lawrence is the defending champion having claimed his second DP World Tour title 12 months ago during a breakthrough campaign which saw him become the first South African crowned Sir Henry Cotton Rookie of the Year.
At 6808 yards, the course is one of the shortest on Tour and has a recent history of being decided by a play-off with seven of the last nine editions being decided by extra holes.
“It is definitely one for the course specialists,” he said.
“It doesn't really matter what you do off the tee, you're often clubbing down and hitting irons. You've got to hit as many of those small greens as you can. When you do miss them, it's important to have a really sharp scrambling game, short game around the greens.
Miguel Angel Jimenez will probably be in the top 10 until he is about 70, won't he? Matt Fitzpatrick has really loved the course. It's one where when I was beginning my research, I did very much get the course form stats up as a kind of starting point because it's just been such a reliable way to find the winner. It does make sense, doesn’t it? It's so different to so many courses that if you do fall in love with it and it does suit your eye and you start to produce there, then I think it's one that you go back to thinking you have worked this out last time. So, it’s definitely a course horse tournament, this one.
However, the last three winners of the event in Lawrence, Rasmus Højgaard and Sebastian Söderberg were all making their debut at the event.
Reflecting on that, Tindall added: “That would almost be the other category of player. It's almost like, well, we don't know that they don't like it. They might well like it and we don't know until they play, so I would much rather pick a first timer than someone who's been there four or five times and finished no better than 30th.
By comparison, Coley believes past performances at altitude could be a more significant indictor of how the field will fare.
“Sebastian Soderberg was a winner in Kenya back in 2016, and I think if any event were to guide you to this one, the Kenya Open both when it's been at Karen and at Muthaiga is a really good guide for that reason," he said.
“If you think back to last year, runner-up Matt Wallace played the Kenya Open once in 2017 and finished third. You have the likes of Jorge Campillo who has gone on to win the Kenya Open this year. Masahiro Kawamura has contended too as has Wu Ashun, a Kenya Open winner.
"The play-off that Soderberg was involved in, Lorenzo Gagli was in that too and he's a Kenya Open winner. So, altitude form, particularly in Kenya, is really valuable."
As their leading pick, Tindall opted for Antoine Rozner while Coley has picked Yannik Paul as the German targets a late move to overhaul Robert MacIntyre into an automatic qualifying spot for the Ryder Cup.
DT: I'm going to steer clear of the Ryder Cup hopefuls. I don't think Antoine Rozner will be playing in the Ryder Cup if he wins this week, but I do think he could win this week. He has got course form on his side. He's played here twice, finished 13th and fourth, and shot a final round 62 on debut which really caught the eye. As a three-time DP World Tour winner, he knows how to get over the line. I think he's got a really good game, particularly solid wedge play, for this course.
BC: There's one guy I think the Ryder Cup scenario is really black and white for, and that is Yannik Paul. I think he has to win to be in the team. He can qualify with third place or better, but it would depend on how others play. So obviously the bar is very high for him this week. I think if he doesn't do that, he won't be picked. I think that's appropriate. He's had a very good year. It's only his second year on the Tour. He's been a model of consistency, but he has not got that proven form at a higher level that some of the other prospects have. But he's very, very close to qualifying for the side and I really think it's possible this week. He is one of those course debutants and arrives in form, after finishing 10th last week. He doesn't miss greens by a long way and it's therefore a lot easier to get up and down, which is always important here. He also went to the University of Colorado and spent I think four years there at a comparable altitude to this one. He lives in Arizona when he is not playing and will go back to Scottsdale with his twin brother and that's been their base for a number of years now. So, playing altitude is something he does all the time and hopefully that can be reflected in an immediate level of comfort here.
| Expert | Player | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Dave Tindall | Antoine Rozner | He has got course form on his side. He's played here twice, finished 13th and fourth, and shot a final round 62 on debut which really caught the eye. As a three-time DP World Tour winner, he knows how to get over the line. I think he's got a really good game, particularly solid wedge play, for this course. |
| Alexander Björk | It's a fairly simple argument, he has loads of good form this year and is coming to a course where he's played well before. Just maybe with all the Ryder Cup chat on other people, this is his chance to sneak in and get what would be an overdue win it has to be said. There's enough there in his profile in terms of course form. He's got a 13th, couple of 16ths and 28th in the four times he's completed. He had to withdraw one year. So, it's a course that he's consistently playing good golf on. I just think if he's going to win it, this is the year because his level has really gone up. | |
| Ben Coley | Yannik Paul | He is one of those course debutants and arrives in form, after finishing 10th last week. He doesn't miss greens by a long way and it's therefore a lot easier to get up and down, which is always important here. He also went to the University of Colorado and spent I think four years there at a comparable altitude to this one. He lives in Arizona when he is not playing and will go back to Scottsdale with his twin brother and that's been their base for a number of years now. So playing at altitude is something he does all the time and hopefully that can be reflected in an immediate level of comfort here. |
| Edoardo Molinari | He has switched to the broom handle putter. Now obviously it doesn't mean he's going to do as Lucas Glover did and become a fantastic putter immediately, but he did produce his best putting figures of the year last week and some of his best putting figures in several years. We know the putter is the only thing that has kept him from winning a tournament the last three years. He's one of the premier ball strikers on the DP World Tour. He's not the longest, so shorter courses definitely would help. He’s quite open when he talks about the courses that he thinks suits him and this would be one where he has said he could go and win. |
To listen to all the picks from the panel on the latest episode of The Tips, click here: https://linktr.ee/dpworldtour.
