Each week, Dave Tindall and Matt Cooper will give their picks for the two main European Tour options – DraftKings and the official season-long 2019 Fantasy Race to Dubai game run by europeantour.com.
The latter is no-salary. Simply select a team of six golfers and nominate a captain whose points are doubled. Points are based on official Race to Dubai points earned by your players.
The DraftKings lineups will be entered into a large-entry Guaranteed Prize Pool. That means we need to take a risk or two, in order to separate ourselves from the field.
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The idea is to provide you a list of names to consider. We would not recommend copying these teams, golfer for golfer. Duplicate teams are no fun and don’t help anyone.
Dave Tindall
@DaveTindallGolf
DraftKings
We’re not seeing any European Tour game pop up right now, probably due to the mixed strokeplay/matchplay format. We’ll monitor that to see if anything becomes available nearer tee-off time.
2019 Fantasy Race to Dubai – European Tour
Last week: Looked good for a while but only Scrivener kept it going through the rough weather.
Pos: 1,728th
Lucas Herbert: Reached the semis in this event last year, losing to eventual winner Kiradech Aphibarnrat. Still describes the loss as “heart-breaking” so this means more to him than we may think. T6 in Dubai two starts ago.
Thomas Pieters: Helped Belgium to World Cup glory on his last trip to Australia in November so the good vibes should kick in. Solid if not spectacular on the Desert Swing (16-29-22) but this is a much weaker field.
Justin Harding: The highest-ranked player in the field and, at 65th, he’s sniffing around WGC events. Top four in last week’s Vic Open after T11 and T7 on the Desert Swing.
Jason Scrivener: Fourth in the inaugural edition of this event and also third when Lake Karrinyup staged the 2016 Perth International. Four top sevens on his last five worldwide starts. No-brainer.
Tom Lewis: Hasn’t got it going at Lake Karrinyup yet but keeps turning up (fifth visit) and now has the form to crack the Perth venue. One of the European Tour’s most improved players over the last nine months.
Min Woo Lee: Ryan Fox keeps getting in his own way at this event so I’ll give the final spot to Lee. It may go unnoticed by many that he’s a Perth resident so we’re getting low ownership on a player who made the top four in Saudi and put his local knowledge to good use last year when making the quarter-finals.
Matt Cooper
@MattCooperGolf
2019 Fantasy Race to Dubai – European Tour
Last week: Not an especially impressive effort by my selections. Leftfield pick Callum Shinkwin looked set to contend heading into the final lap T2 but he was the only player in the top 16 not to break par on Sunday!
Position: 1,725th
Thomas Pieters (captain): His quality and success at match play in the Ryder Cup is one thing, but I like the fact that this week coincides with the Genesis Open. It really ought to act as a big kick up the backside (he was second at Riviera two years ago).
Jason Scrivener: Current form? Tick (four times T7 or better in the last five). Course form? Tick (never finished outside the top 30 in six starts).
Lucas Herbert: His challenge last week was derailed by one round in the worst of the weather. Happy to stick with a man who clearly liked the track and format last year.
Ryan Fox: Not the finest course record, but he’s 4-for-5 and was T9 in 2014. Had the same Saturday problems as Herbert, with a top ten in Saudi Arabia before that.
Min Woo Lee: There is a lot to like about the way he took to professional golf in Saudi Arabia, thrashing 63-63 at the weekend. Some concerns over a return trip to Panama since then but he’s on home turf in Western Australia and played well last year (last eight).
Callum Shinkwin: He’s threatened in both of his last two starts (T5 at halfway in Dubai, T2 after 54 holes last week) and I’m keeping faith.
