Ahead of this week’s Porsche European Open our Stats Guru has crunched the numbers and makes a case for three inclusions in your fantasy teams this week.
Favourite: Xander Schauffele
The World Number Nine will tee it up in Germany for the first time this week in an event that will have added meaning given his heritage – the 25-year-old’s father Stefan was born in Stuttgart, while his grandfather played professional football in the country.
There is plenty to suggest that Schauffele can triumph on his first visit to the land of his forefathers too. The American is fresh from a runner-up finish in the PGA Tour’s season-ending Tour Championship and is the highest-ranked player in this week’s field – seven spots above World Number 16 Patrick Reed.
Lying in tenth place in the Race to Dubai after seven starts this term, Schauffele leads the way in numerous statistical categories, with every area of his game seeing him gain strokes on the field: off the tee + 0.99 strokes per round, approach +0.33 strokes per round, area around the green +0.11 strokes per round, putting +0.99 strokes per round.
We expect Schauffele to be firmly in the mix come Sunday in Hamburg.
Form horse: Cormac Sharvin
Quite simply, the Northern Irishman has been Mr Consistent over the last few months. In his last ten starts, the 26-year-old has recorded four top fives and two further top tens along with a share of 15th in the Dubai Duty Free Irish Open – a Rolex Series event.
In fact, over the course of his last 38 rounds Sharvin has shot over 72 just twice, with that formidable scoring record taking him to sixth in the European Challenge Tour Rankings.
Keep an eye on Sharvin this week.
Wildcard: Rikard Karlberg
Following an 18-month spell away from golf through illness – which Karlberg covered in-depth in a recent Player Blog – the one-time European Tour winner has been showing that the green shoots of recovery are starting to blossom on the field.
Since July, the Swede has recorded top-ten finishes on the second tier Challenge Tour – in Austria and Finland – as well as finishing in a share of fifth at the D+D Real Czech Masters.
Add in the fact that the 32-year-old has a good record in the German event – fifth in 2015 and tied 19th in 2017 – and you’ll see why we believe he merits a place in your team.
Those are the three picks, now it's over to you. Be sure to make your Fantasy picks and select your team before the first round kicks off on Thursday.
