This week we return to the beautiful Austin Country Club for the fourth straight year for the WGC- Dell Technologies Match Play – a match play event contested over five days between 64 of the world’s top players.
With so much class and talent in the field, it’s a tricky task picking out just three players, but that’s precisely what our stats guru has done after crunching the numbers.
Favourite: Justin Rose
Justin Rose heads into the week as World Number Two and with form as consistent as he has produced over the last year, it is difficult to look past the Englishman.
Although not a winner at the Austin Country Club, the Ryder Cup star has advanced as far as the quarter-finals in 2007 and will take confidence from the fact the number one and number two seed have won the event in the past three times the event has been played at the Texas venue.
Form Horse: Jon Rahm
Rahm will still feel he has unfinished business in Austin. Two years ago the Spaniard – in his first full season as a professional – played his way into the final before succumbing to eventual champion Dustin Johnson one up, in a match that went right down to the wire.
The 24-year-old also comes into this week in fine form having recorded six top-15 finishes in his last seven starts, including a share of sixth place in his last outing at the Players Championship – where he held a one-shot lead going into the final round.
Add in the fact that in his last match play head-to-head he downed Tiger Woods 2&1 at Le Golf National in The Ryder Cup, and you’ll see why Rahm warrants inclusion in your fantasy teams this week.
Wildcard: Kiradech Aphibarnrat
There are many reasons why Thailand’s Aphibarnrat merits a place in your side.His track record in match play events is undoubted, with the 29-year-old having both the 2015 Saltire Energy Paul Lawrie Match Play crown and, more recently, last year’s ISPS Handa World Super 6 Perth title in his trophy cabinet.
Aphibarnrat has also enjoyed success at Austin Country Club before, with the four-time European Tour winner making it to the last eight here 12 months ago.
The World Number 41 has shown that he is a heavyweight of the match play game, and we expect him to put up a good fight against all his challengers this week.
Those are our picks, did we do enough to convince you? Add them to yourEuropean Tour Daily Fantasy Gameand your line-up in the Fantasy Race to Dubai before the action begins tomorrow.
