Fantasy Golf: Portugal Masters preview
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The Today’s Golfer Fantasy Golf game, in association with Your Golf Travel, stays on the European Tour this week for the Portugal Masters at Oceanico Victoria in the Algarve.
It’s a tournament that has a history of attracting a strong field and past winners include Lee Westwood and Alvaro Quiros. The Englishman isn’t teeing it up this week but the big-hitting Spaniard is joined by Martin Kaymer, Francesco Molinari and Padraig Harrington.
Victoria is a lovely resort course but its open fairways and generous greens shouldn’t pose too many problems to the best players in the world. Scoring is generally much lower than the average Tour event; the last three winning totals have been 22, 18 and 23-under par.
There are numerous water hazards but providing they steer clear of these the tournament should be decided by who performs best on the greens.
Here is TG’s six-man team for the Portugal Masters:
Francesco Molinari, $2.2m
Having had a week off to recover from the Ryder Cup, it’s hard to ignore the consistent Italian who has had four top-tens in his last eight starts and hasn’t missed a cut since May.
Martin Kaymer, $4m
Made the cut last week when a lot of other big names failed to do so. He’s continued his fine play from his tied-fifth finish at the Italian Open three weeks ago to beat Steve Stricker in the Ryder Cup singles. Importantly, finished tied eighth at last year’s Portugal Masters.
Padraig Harrington, $2m
Showed form last week, coming off the back of 12 consecutive cuts made, which includes two top-tens. Tied 16th last year on 16-under par.
Alex Noren, $1.6m
The impressive Swede finished third last week at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, his third top ten in his last seven starts. Has the potential to go really low if his putter stays hot.
George Coetzee, $1.5m
The South African finished tied fifth last week at the Alfred Dunhill Links after finishing 12th the week before at Vodacom Origins of golf final on the Sunshine Tour. Coetzee finished tied third here last year and is due a maiden European Tour win.
Gonzalo-Fernandez Castano, $1.8m
Arguably one of the hottest golfers in Europe at present, Gonzo made the cut comfortably at the Alfred Dunhill Links last week and has a win and a tied-fifth finish in last three starts.
>>> You can see a full list of all the golfers playing this week and their prices by clicking here.
