Fantasy Golf: Scottish Open preview

The Today’s Golfer Fantasy Golf game, in association with Your Golf Travel, stays on the European Tour this week for the Aberdeen Asset Management Scottish Open at Castle Stuart GC, near Inverness.

The Gil Hanse-designed course only opened in 2009 but it has already won awards and was a popular addition to the European Tour schedule when it made its debut last year.

Fans, players and organisers will be hoping for better weather than last year when torrential rain over the weekend forced the tournament to be cut to 54 holes. This week’s forecast is for rain showers, but there shouldn’t be much wind in the early part of the week.

At 7,193 yards off the tips, it’s not a long course and scoring is likely to be very low. Last year’s winner Luke Donald was -19 for 54 holes.

An international field has assembled to take advantage of playing on a links course the week before the Open Championship at Royal Lytham & St Annes, so there are plenty of established stars and European Tour stalwarts to choose from.

Here is TG’s six-man team for the Scottish Open:

Luke Donald, $5.5m
The defending champion starts the tournament as world number one for a 52nd week in total. He’ll be hoping to retain a second title of the year after winning the BMW PGA Championship in his last start on British soil in May.

Padraig Harrington, $2.0m
The two-time Open champion is one of the best links golfers on the planet and his recent form of T13-T4-T11-T7 has seen him installed as one of the favourites for this year’s Open and this week’s event in Scotland.

Ernie Els, $2.0m
He continues to be a sublime ball striker (5th on Tour for greens in regulation and 19th in driving accuracy) and his results have improved this season as more putts have started to drop. Five top 10s in his last 10 events.

Thomas Bjorn, $1.9m
The Dane seems to flourish in tough conditions and his world class pitching will come to the fore around Castle Stuart. Ranks inside the top 30 in driving accuracy and GIR and finished T2 and T8 in his last two starts in Europe.

Ross Fisher, $1.6m
The 2010 Ryder Cupper is rediscovering the form that propelled him into the team at Celtic Manor. Four top 10s on the bounce have pushed him up the world rankings and Race to Dubai standings. Has shown glimpses of brilliance on links layouts.

Henrik Stenson, $1.0m
The former world number four is an experienced wind player and has a very good record on links courses. A triple bogey at the 18th in the French Open saw him drop to T7 but finishes of T13 and T6 demonstrate the fine form he’s carrying.

> You can see a full list of all the golfers playing this week and their prices by clicking here. You have until 7.30am on Thursday 12th July to select your team.