Fantasy Golf Tournament Preview- D & D Czech Masters (European Tour)

OVERVIEW

After a month hiatus, the European Tour is back in action this week. The Czech Masters has been one of those events to produce unlikely winners since inception (with the exception of Thomas Pieters), so I think going off the beaten path may be a smart way to build lineups this week. None of the defending champions have ever repeated, though Pieters came close in 2016, but outside of that defending champions haven’t fared well in their defense year. The course has plenty of water to help keep scores close to par and the Tour added more water in play prior to last year’s edition (clearly it didn’t get the result they were looking for). Instead, I expect to see the rough a bit taller this week as the course setup has been changed in the past following a high scoring affair, and this is the best and fairest way to do so without pissing off the players. Outside of the water hazards and rough, the course is a pretty straight-forward parkland design with green bunkers and large greens. Hitting greens in regulation is vital, but also making sure you’re not lag putting every birdie opportunity. I expect scores to dip back down to the -15 range this week. We’re ramping up towards the end to the Race to Dubai championship, so there will be ample events on the Euro Tour from now until American Thanksgiving. We’ll get the European Tour’s best players back once the FedEx Cup Playoffs is over, but until then, we’ll only have one or two of their top players in the field.

TOURNAMENT BACKGROUND

• The Course
• Albatross Golf Resort
• Par: 72
• Yardage: 7,400 yards
• Greens: Bentgrass
• Location: Vysoky Ujezd, Czechia
• Past Champions:
• 2018: Andrea Pavan -22 over Padraig Harrington
• 2017: Haydn Porteous -13 over Lee Slattery
• 2016: Paul Peterson -15 over Thomas Pieters
• 2015: Thomas Pieters -20 over Pelle Edberg
• 2014: Jamie Donaldson -14 over Bradley Dredge

 KEY STATS TO TARGET

• Strong Emphasis – SG: OTT + SG: APP, Par 4 scoring, Par 5 Scoring, Birdies or better
• Important – Course History, Scrambling, Current Form

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