The Masters – Fantasy DP World Tour ones to watch

The world’s best are all gathered at Augusta National Golf Club this week as the 87th edition of the Masters Tournament marks the first men’s Major Championship of 2023.

Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm will lead the European charge, World Number One Scottie Scheffler will look to join an exclusive club by defending his title, while Ryan Fox and Adrian Meronk are among the debutants in the field.

If you haven’t 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 to be in with a chance of winning some prizes exclusive to this week: 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 – Rory McIlroy  

Is this the week that the Northern Irishman ends his wait to win the Masters and complete the career grand slam? Well, the 33-year-old arrives at Augusta National in good form and high in confidence. The four-time Major Champion began the year by winning his first Rolex Series title in Dubai, while he has since finished runner-up in the Arnold Palmer Invitational and third at the WGC-Dell Technologies Match Play. Last year, he registered his best finish at the event in 14 attempts after a closing 64 – the lowest final round in Masters history – saw him make an unexpected late charge for the Green Jacket. With a new driver and putter now in the bag after their successful introduction at the WGC-Match Play in Austin, he is so far the most popular pick, featuring in almost 88 per cent of teams. He was also the most popular pick ahead of the Hero Dubai Desert Classic in January and users of the game will be hoping he can once again have them smiling on Sunday evening.

Form player – Scottie Scheffler

It’s fair to say that with his own recent run, the World Number One could have been selected in the Favourite category. The American returned to the summit of the men’s game by winning for the second time this year on the PGA TOUR at The PLAYERS Championship. Last month’s five-shot victory at TPC Sawgrass came just a few weeks after Scheffler had won the WM Phoenix Open, while he reached the semi-finals of the WGC-Match Play before losing to McIlroy in the third/fourth place play-off in his most recent event. The Texan is looking to become just the fourth player – after Jack Nicklaus, Sir Nick Faldo and Tiger Woods – to win back-to-back at Augusta, and it will come as no surprise to most if he does indeed join that esteemed company. That is underlined by him being selected in more than 70 per cent of Fantasy squads, with McIlroy the only player picked more.

Wild Card – Corey Conners

The Masters features one of the smaller field sizes, with arguments easy to make for a host of players to slip on the Green Jacket. Conners is definitely one to watch this week, with the 31-year-old boasting top tens in his last three appearances at Augusta since his debut in 2019. After beginning the year with back-to-back top 20s, he missed just his second cut of the 2023 PGA TOUR season at The PLAYERS Championship but displayed his ability at the Valero Texas Open last week. Despite an uncharacteristic three-putt from four feet in the second round, the Canadian showed his temperament to recover and go on to win his second PGA TOUR title at the scene of his first. His performance has also seen him climb from 40th to 28th on the Official World Golf Ranking. Despite this, he has still surprisingly only been selected by 4.10 per cent of players for this week.

Looking back – Jonsson Workwear Open

Nick Bachem became the fastest German winner in DP World Tour history as he won in just his 12th event at The Club at Steyn City. The Qualifying School graduate was selected by just 2.45 per cent of players, while 23 Fantasy users (0.1 per cent) were left extra pleased with their foresight after making him captain. Great work if you were one of those! It wasn’t our best week for the column though, with Favourite Adri Arnaus and Wild Card Oliver Bekker both missing the cut. Hopefully we’ll be back on a roll this time around!

2023 DP World Tour Fantasy player rankings