After Romain Wattel’s win at the Dutch last week, the European Tour is this week back in Portugal for the second time this year for the eleventh edition of the Portugal Masters.
With plenty of birdies on offer as always at the highly scoreable and ever-present host venue Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course, and plenty of sunshine forecast, our stats guru has poured through the history and form books to come up three players you might want to consider for your Fantasy sides this week in Vilamoura.
Pick of the Favourites: Andy Sullivan
After finishing eighth in the Race to Dubai in 2015 and 14th last year, 2017 hasn’t been quite as straightforward for Andy Sullivan, who is 41st in the money-list coming into the week with two top tens to his name so far this season. However, the Englishman still ranks highly in the list of favourites for the title in Vilamoura – and with good reason. Sullivan won this event with a tournament record low score of 261 back in 2015 and came very close to becoming the first to defend the Portugal Masters in finishing second last year. The 30 year old’s scoring average for his last eight rounds here is a staggering 65.38 and he has made, on average, 5.3 birdies per round in 18 career rounds here, dropping an average of just 1.8 shots per round and gaining +2.1 shots on the field, per round, in the process. Essentially, he’s scored better than anyone here. Discount him at your peril…
Form Horse: George Coetzee
Fresh from a tied third place last week in the Netherlands – his sixth top ten of the 2017 season – George Coetzee returns to what has been a happy hunting ground in the Dom Pedro Victoria Course. The South African has a third place and sixth place to his name here, having shot in the 60s in 12 of his 14 career rounds at the Portugal Masters. With birdie-making the most important facet at this course, Coetzee will be much fancied by some as the joint leader (with Dean Burmester) in the field in terms of birdie or better percentage vs the field this year at +4.9 per cent. Par five scoring is also crucial here and Coetzee has also ranked top in this category over the last few years in the Algarve alongside Lucas Bjerregaard, beating the field by +0.31 strokes per hole at 32 under par from 46 par fives played.
Wildcard: Justin Walters
Four years ago, Justin Walters made a name for himself at the Portugal Masters by sinking a big birdie putt at the 72nd hole to finish second and secure his playing rights for the following season, just two weeks after the death of his mother. The South African, currently 122nd in the Race to Dubai, returns to Vilamoura this week in need of another good showing at this year’s event to help make his way to card safety once again. Despite missing eight cuts in a row between May and July, there have been signs of a return to form for the 36 year old Joburg native, not least with a tied 14th at the Made in Denmark and a third place finish last week at the KLM Open. Having finished 17th-37th-21st in his last three appearances on the Victoria Course since that runner-up, Walters has averaged 5.6 birdies per round in 14 career rounds at the Portugal Masters. No one has averaged more. With an average score of 67.9 (only the aforementioned Sully comes in lower from this week’s field), he has birdied 31 per cent of his holes at the Portugal Masters (tied with Robert Karlsson for the best birdie or better percentage) and statistically has the best putting at this event of anyone in the field, having come in at 1.67 Putts per GIR here. One to keep an eye on…
Those are our three picks, now it's time to make yours. Pick your seven-man Daily Fantasy team for each round of this week's event and play in either free or money games.
