The draw is out for the D+D REAL Czech Masters and 156 players are set to tee it up at the Albatross Golf Resort in Prague. England’s Marcus Armitage will get play, and the 2018 Ryder Cup points race, underway when he hits the opening shot off the first tee at 7.15am and the draw has produced some intriguing groups.
Three of the most promising, young European Tour stars line up at 7.55am on the tenth tee in the form of Renato Paratore, Jordan Smith and Dylan Frittelli. All three are 27 years old or younger and whilst they have taken different routes to get to the Tour, each have picked up their maiden victories already this season. Paratore at the Nordea Masters, Smith at the Porsche European Open and Frittelli in a play-off at the Lyoness Open powered by ORGANIC+.
Immediately behind the young trio is the defending champion Paul Peterson, who will try to become the first player to successfully defend the title. The American won here last year by a single shot over Thomas Pieters for his first victory in just his 23rd start on Tour. His reward this year is an opening round tee time at 8.05am with Ryder Cup stars Lee Westwood and Jamie Donaldson.
There is also a Ryder Cup theme in the group at 8.15am on the tenth tee with the 2016 captain Darren Clarke playing alongside 2018 Vice Captain Robert Karlsson and 2014 Ryder Cup rookie Stephen Gallacher. The trio have 28 wins and more than 275 top tens between them as well as a combined 29 matches played in the Ryder Cup.
Champion two years ago, Thomas Pieters, tees off in the afternoon on Thursday at 1.05pm with Matt Fitzpatrick and Martin Kaymer for company. Kaymer will make his tournament debut and will no doubt be seeking guidance from his playing partners, who have both finished in the top five here in each of the last two years.
As for last week’s winner Julian Suri, the
American will look to make it back-to-back wins when he tees off at 12.55pm on
the first tee alongside John Daly and local Czech player Filip Mruzek. Daly made
the cut here last year and finished in the top ten in Denmark last week. At 51
years old he would become the oldest ever European Tour winner if he could take
home the trophy in Prague on Sunday.
For a full list of groups and tee times, click here.
