SDC Championship – Fantasy DP World Tour ones to watch

The DP World Tour is back in South Africa for the fourth time this season as St Francis Links hosts the inaugural SDC Championship.

Thriston Lawrence and Ockie Strydom headline the local stars on home soil this week, while fellow 2023 season winners Antoine Rozner, Daniel Gavins and Dan Bradbury are also in the field.

If you have not done so already, you can sign up to play the official 2023 DP World Tour Fantasy game and submit your six-man team before round one gets under way on Thursday: https://fantasy.dpworldtour.com/

The 2023 season-long winner will win a trip to the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai next year, enjoy a lesson with a DP World Tour professional and a round of golf on the Earth Course at Jumeirah Golf Estates. For more information on this amazing prize and others, read here.

Favourite – Antoine Rozner

The Frenchman arrives in the Eastern Cape targeting his fourth career DP World Tour title and second of the season. His triumph in Mauritius at the end of last year was influential in him being selected for the inaugural Hero Cup in Abu Dhabi where he formed part of the winning Continental Europe team. Rozner has since registered back-to-back top tens in Singapore and Thailand to sit 14th in the Race to Dubai Rankings in Partnership with Rolex. The 30-year-old will be eager to bounce back from a missed cut last week in Kenya as he makes his first appearance at a new venue on the Tour schedule. So far this week, he has been picked by just over 17 per cent of players, which is perhaps lower than might be expected when looking at his form so far this season. He is the 24th best-performing player in 2023 Fantasy so far but would be considerably higher had his points gained by winning the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open counted in this season’s game, which began at the start of the calendar year.

Form horse – Joost Luiten

There are several players we could have highlighted in this category but it’s hard to ignore the recent results of the six-time DP World Tour winner from the Netherlands. Luiten will this week be making his eighth DP World Tour start of the season, having only missed one cut. The 37-year-old registered back-to-back third place finishes in Thailand and India to catapult him into the top 20 on the Race to Dubai Rankings. Refreshed after missing last week’s stop on the schedule in Kenya, he arrives at St Francis Links having only carded one round over par. Perhaps surprisingly, he only had 4.14% of players smiling after the Hero Indian Open when they had him as captain. However, users appear to be alert to his form as he is currently in over 25 per cent of squads for this week.

Wild card – Dylan Mostert 

Among a host of local players chasing a home victory, there can’t be many coming into this week’s event with better form than Mostert. The 24-year-old claimed his maiden European Challenge Tour title in his homeland at the Nelson Mandela Bay Championship last month to climb to second in the Road to Mallorca Rankings. Following that, he continued that momentum with a 64 in the first round in Kenya to hold the early share of the lead at Muthaiga Golf Club. Earlier this season, he also finished in a tie for fourth at the AfrAsia Bank Mauritius Open – another co-sanctioned event between the DP World Tour and Sunshine Tour. While this week’s venue is a new destination for the DP World Tour, he does have some experience at St Francis Links. In last year’s PGA Championship, a Sunshine Tour event, he shot no worse than a level-par 72 to finish ninth. That course knowledge combined with his recent form makes him a player to watch out for.

Looking back 

Last time out, just 1.79 per cent of players were left celebrating their decision to pick Jorge Campillo as their captain after he claimed his third DP World Tour title at Kenya’s national open. After a good recent run for this column, last week’s Form Horse and Wild Card missed the cut but we were partially saved by Favourite Robert MacIntyre, as the Scotsman earned 167 points for the 18.37% of participants who picked him. We’ll be looking to get back on a roll this week!

2023 DP World Tour Fantasy player rankings