The Race to Dubai heads to Dom Pedro Victoria, Vilamoura for the return of this year's Portugal Masters. It's a venue known for it's low scoring, but who is likely to contend? Read on below to find out who our experts think.
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Expert Picks
Our expert picks will be brought to you every week by Sky Sports Presenter Kit Alexander and former Ladies European Tour player, coach and presenter Sophie Walker. The duo also co-host their own weekly Fantasy Golf Youtube Channel.
Kit's picks
You can follow Kit on social media here: @KitOnTheCourse (Twitter), @KitOnTheCourse (Instagram)
Matt Wallace
The world number 66 has had a quiet year on the European Tour at 82nd in the Race to Dubai, but he’s found some form on the PGA Tour in recent weeks with a T14 and a T4 in his last two events. He hasn’t missed the cut in three Portugal Masters appearances and finished T8 here in his last visit in 2019. The first of his four European Tour wins came on Portuguese soil and he’ll be amongst the favourites this week.
Laurie Canter
The 31-year-old has been knocking on the door for a maiden European Tour win since the resumption last summer, notching eight top-5s in that period. Three of those have come in his last three starts, and another of them was a runner-up finish at Dom Pedro Victoria last year. He’s an elite ball-striker – ranked 2nd in ‘strokes gained - tee to green’ – and that win will come with a little more consistency on and around the greens.
Andrew Johnston
I put ‘Beef’ forward for the Mallorca Open and he finished T7 to continue a pleasing trend of improving finishes. This will be a low-scoring event with a total close to -20 or better likely to be required to get into contention and he has the 3rd best scoring average on the European Tour this season with 69.38. He’s 63rd on the Race to Dubai so a good couple of weeks is needed to get to the DP World Tour Championship.
Sophie's picks
You can follow Sophie on social media here: @SophWalks (Twitter), @SophWalksGolf (Instagram)
Min Woo Lee
The long hitting Australian has had a break through year with his Rolex win at the Scottish Open.
Lee is 12th on the distance rankings and 6th in the Race to Dubai standing. When you look at past winners around the Victoria course they hit it better than most (Westwood, Quiros, Harrington)
The 23 year old finished 2nd in his last start and will be pushing for his 3rd European Tour win this week.
Sean Crocker
The Portuguese Masters often throws up a maiden winner. Crocker’s game tee to green is amazing, he averages 312 yards from the tee and is 5th in SG tee to green. Due to this he eats up the par 5’s which is vital in Portugal. His scoring average for these holes ranks him 2nd on tour.
A bit of an outsider but it’s time to separate yourself from the rest with only 3 weeks of the season left.
*Sam Horsfield *
The English man was in my team every week in the first part of the year but his form has dropped. Sam hasn’t tee’d it up in Europe for a month but returns to a course which should suit him. The 25 year old rips resort courses to pieces as he showed by winning twice in England last year.
His long hitting and aggressive play means Horsfield leads the tour birdie average. A stat which is important as the average winning total around the Victoria course is 20 under par
