The European Tour heads to Sweden this week for the Scandinavian Invitation hosted at Hills Golf and Sports Club. The venue hosts the event for the second consecutive year and our stats guru has studied the form to offer three suggestions for your teams.
Favourite – Alex Noren
Alex Noren enters the week as one of the strong favourites and it comes as no surprise given his form and history at this event.
In recent weeks, the Swede has showed signs he’s nearing his best, finishing inside the top 15 at both The Open Championship and WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational.
Noren also has a sensational record at the Scandinavian Invitation. In his last six appearances, the 37-year-old has finished no worse than 15th and has won the event on two separate occasions in 2011 and 2015.
It goes without saying, but The 2018 Ryder Cup star relishes playing in front of his home crowd.
Form Horse – Andrea Pavan
Enjoying a steady season on the European Tour this year, Andrea Pavan comes into the event off the back of three top five finishes in his last six starts, including a valiant defence of his D+D Real Czech Masters title last week. It’s safe to say his confidence is sky-high.
Of players in the field this week, the Italian ranks fifth in strokes gained per round, since the Made in Denmark tournament, picking up an average of 1.5 strokes per 18 holes.
On top of this, the BMW International Open winner has fond memories of Hills Golf and Sports Club as he finished sixth at the event last year, shooting a final round of 64 to climb up the leaderboard.
Wildcard – Robert Karlsson
Although Robert Karlsson has made just two cuts in his last six starts, the 11-time European Tour winner does well when back in Sweden, regularly making the most of home comforts.
He may have never won the event, but the 49-year-old does have eight top ten finishes in 25 starts at the Scandinavian Invitation.
No player has made more birdies or better (223) in the history of the event, and the former European Tour Number One ranks third in score to par (39 under par), having played 990 holes in his home tournament.
Last year, Karlsson finished in a respectable 17th position after carding rounds of 67, 71, 68 and 68. The Swede was also in contention heading into the final round of the D+D Real Czech Masters last week, but a final round 73 saw him finish in tenth position.
Those are our picks, did we do enough to convince you? Add them to your European Tour Daily Fantasy Game and your line-up in the Fantasy Race to Dubai before the action begins on Thursday.
