Thailand Classic - Fantasy DP World Tour ones to watch

The DP World Tour returns to Thailand this week for the first time since 2016 as the Asian Swing continues with the Thailand Classic.

Recent winners Daniel Gavins, Antoine Rozner, Thriston Lawrence and Dan Badbury all tee it up alongside Nicolai Højgaard, Robert MacIntyre and Guido Migliozzi, with Rafa Cabrera Bello and Thorbjørn Olesen among those bringing some Ryder Cup class to 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 - Nicolai Højgaard

The Dane has enjoyed an excellent start to the 2023 season and will be looking to turn consistency into a third DP World Tour win at Amata Spring Country Club. He has not missed a cut yet in five appearances this campaign and sealed top tens at the ISPS HANDA Australian Open and in the Rolex Series at the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship. He finished a creditable 13th in his defence of the Ras Al Khaimah Championship last time out and arrives in the Far East fresh after a week off. The 21-year-old also secured 3½ points from four for victorious Continental Europe at the Hero Cup and arrives at a venue with some match play pedigree of its own, having hosted the Royal Trophy on four occasions. He is 21st in Fantasy scoring for 2023 but that rank increases to third for players who have only played in three of the four counting events. Fantasy players are clearly taking notice as he is currently the most-picked player for this week - featuring in just under 50% of teams.

Form Horse - Zander Lombard

The South African has long been an early-season specialist and he has continued that theme in 2023. In 2016, he had registered a fourth, a second and a seventh before Valentine's Day and last season he had a second and a third, plus another third on the European Challenge Tour, before the end of February. He arrived in Ras Al Khaimah off the back of four missed cuts but finished second there before adding a tie for sixth last week in Singapore. Those results have catapulted him up to 18th in our Fantasy rankings but so far, less than 15 per cent of players have him in their team for this week. Across the first three counting events, a total of just 17 people had him as their captain and, while that jumped to 304 in Singapore, that was still just 1.25 per cent of players. Could our form horse also be a sleeper this week?

Wild Card - Jamie Donaldson

The Welshman's last DP World Tour victory may have come in 2014 but he has won at Amata Spring since then, lifting the Thailand Golf Championship on the Asian Tour in 2015. Since then it has been a roller coaster ride of few years, with the 2014 Ryder Cup hero losing his card and playing off a career-money exemption in 2019, before a brilliant late-season run in 2020 took him back to the DP World Tour Championship. He has had no fears for his playing privileges since and this season has made all three of his cuts shooting seven-under-par totals of 281 on each occasion. That consistency makes him the 38th top points-scorer this season but he is currently in less than ten per cent of teams. A proven winner on this track and a man for the big occasion - could this be Donaldson's week?

Looking back - Singapore Classic

There were big gains to be made on your rivals last week if you picked Ockie Strydom, with less than five per cent of players having him on their team and just six players (0.02 per cent) having him as their captain. The South African birdied the last in a brilliant closing 63 to take the title but his 223 points moved him only to 31st on our Fantasy rankings, perhaps justifying the lack of pre-event takers. Our most popular pick last week was Ryan Fox, whose tie for 17th earned him 166 points and kept him third in the rankings.

2023 DP World Tour Fantasy player rankings