With the PGA Tour taking a rare week off, the golfing world’s attention turns to South Africa for the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. This is a co-sanctioned event with the local South African tour called The Sunshine Tour and features 156 players, five of whom are in the top 100 in the world. It’s played at the Leopard Creek Golf Club.
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Euro Tour DFS: Alfred Dunhill Links Championship
The Course: Leopard Creek Golf Club
The famed course sits right on a natural preserve frequented by many of the animals you’d think to find on a safari trip in South Africa. I’m sure the broadcast will highlight those. The par-72, 7,300-yard course provided the toughest test in hits history last year, with the winning score at -8. In 2018, a year after its renovation, the winning score was -14, and with the expected conditions being rather ideal, I suspect we’ll be somewhere north of -10 but shy of -15 this year.
This is one of Gary Player’s crowning jewels in terms of destinations and design, especially after the makeover in 2017.
Viewing (Sweat) Schedule
Golf Channel:
6-10 a.m. EST Thursday and Friday
6-9:30 a.m. EST Saturday and Sunday
Weather
The weather looks good for at least the first two days; ideal scoring conditions with little to no wind.
PGA DFS Picks for the Alfred Dunhill
Total Player Pool: 53 Golfers
Week-Long DFS Entries
DraftKings
- 4 $555 signature hole
- 1 $100 Long Drive
- 1 $150 Driving Range
- 70-100 GPP Lines
Core Golfers
Robert MacIntyre ($11,000)
The highest-ranked golfer in the field has a lot to play for with these last few tournaments. If he finds a way to get a win and another top-10 or so, that should be enough to get him inside the top 50 in the world. That would earn him an invitation to Augusta. That is enough for me to get him in one of the $555s and about 25-30% in GPPs.
Wilco Nienaber ($10,300)
The rising star from South Africa certainly has the talent that one loves to see out of these young kids. He has fearlessness, the ability to grind it out and the God-given ability to hit the ball way further than everyone else. In fact, he’s nine yards longer than the next guy and 35 yards longer than the average. We’ve seen past winners like David Lipsky win here, and he is a one-trick show off the tee as well, so it’s not out of the question. The problem is his volatility, and at $10,300 it’s expensive for a golfer that also has two missed cuts in his last four appearances. I still want the upside here, but I also don’t want to be overexposed, so he will not be in over 20% of lineups GPPs and one of four $555 lineups.
Eddie Pepperell ($10,000)
Pepperell is the European Tour’s version of Max Homa — the best Twitter personality but extremely volatile on the course. Lately, though, he’s been much more consistent, reeling off three straight top-16s. He is a withdrawal candidate, though, if things go awry in the first few rounds, having two withdrawals and a disqualification over his last 40 events. The nice thing is that if you want to hedge something like that happening in the betting markets, this week he’s matched up against Christiaan Bezuidenhout and Brandon Stone, some of the favorites of the event. I’ll get him one of the big lineups and about 20% of my GPPs.
Matthias Schwab ($9,100)
It hasn’t been a great year for the Vanderbilt product. By way of Austria, Schwab has had a rocky last few months. He had a chance to win on the PGA Tour at the Barracuda but ultimately couldn’t get it done on Sunday. It’s been a bit of a trend for him, also having that happen on the European Tour a few times. Since the Barracuda, he’s missed four cuts, but one of them was that weird format for the Cyprus Showdown. When putting isn’t necessarily needed and he can rely on his ball striking, that’s when Schwab tends to outperform. This should be a good setup for him at Leopard Creek.
Garrick Higgo ($8,900)
One of many young talented South African golfers in the field this week, Higgo has burst onto the scene since the return of golf. We first saw him at the Euram Bank Open back in July, where he finished in a tie for sixth. It was his first start since the Sunshine Tour Championship that he won. His next three starts came at the ISPS Handa UK Championship, the Northern Ireland Open on the Challenge tour and the Portugal Open, which he won. That gave him full status on the European Tour, and since then he’s made four of six cuts with one top-five and three top-30s. Since our sample size is small on him, we can only assume that last week reflected his game; he gained almost two strokes ball striking but lost more in his short game (putting and around the green). So, on a course that should reward the best ball strikers and does need as many birdie putts, Higgo should be back in play in a big event in his home country. He is still a bit volatile, missing plenty of cuts in his young professional career, but at $8,900, it’s hard to pass up the upside here — a vast contrast from Nienaber priced at $10,300.
Johannes Veerman ($8,800)
The Denny McCarthy/Jordan Spieth of the European Tour is one of only two golfers priced above $8,500 to not average at least 0.5 strokes ball striking this year. Veerman’s putter seems to be in form, gaining 1.62 strokes last week. Even though the rest of his game seemed a bit off, his track record here and his four straight made cuts, along with a top-five, give me all the reasons I need to give him a go this week. He is reasonably priced as well.
Marcus Armitage ($8,600)
Armitage is popping up in almost every crunch I do at the maximum percentage I set him too, so according to my model, he’s the best value on the board. It’s not that much of a surprise; when you see he ha three top-15s in the last five weeks. That showed no signs of letting up last weekend, as he gained just over an average of one stroke ball striking. However, his short game was lackluster, so he finished 30th, but the consistency seems to be there right now. He has two starts here, coming in 42nd last year and missing the cut his try before.
Adri Arnaus ($8,500)
After missing the cut in Johannesburg last week, Arnaus looks to make amends for his poor display on and around the greens, where he lost 1.5 strokes. His ball striking seemed fine, gaining about a half a stroke. The form isn’t far behind either, coming in fifth his start before, which seems to be a trend with him. After a big finish, he fades in his next start. Now, a long weekend to straighten things out and coming back to a course where he came top 10 in 2018, those are all good signs for the Spaniard this week at Leopard Creek.
Wil Besseling ($7,800)
One of the longest players on the European Tour, Besseling showed that promise last week, gaining almost four strokes in two rounds at the Joburg Open. But no other part of his game cooperated, and he wound up missing the cut. However, the form before that was good, coming in with two top-20s in his other two starts over the last five weeks. He came in third here last year as well, so maybe getting to Leopard Creek a bit early will be of great benefit to him this week.
Jayden Schaper ($7,400)
The 19-year-old and newly turned pro from South Africa first made headlines at the South African Open last year. He came in sixth and was just 1 off the lead heading into the weekend, where he played his second round with his idol, Louis Oosthuizen. Now getting a few starts on the European Tour thanks to his standing on the Sunshine Tour, he has a chance to start making waves in professional golf. Showing us just how talented he can be, he gained over three strokes ball striking last week, second in the field only to Brandon Stone ($10,800). Heavily favored with his iron play, if Schaper can bring that game again here this week at Leopard Creek, he has a chance to at least earn himself some good money.
Julian Suri ($7,300)
Dubbed as the next Brooks Koepka, Suri is a highly regarded American that decided to head overseas after college. The first year or so went very well, as he won once and came in second two other times. But then, like Koepka, the injury bug hit him. It knocked him totally off kilter, and now finally he’s returning to full health. Trying to find his stride again, Suri made a big leap forward last week, where he gained in every facet of his game. It was marginal in some areas, but still, he had his second top-25 in the last three starts. He’s also a cheap price, so for the purpose of your PGA DFS lineups, he should allow you to make a well-balanced line.
Fringe: (All will get in a big dollar lineup)
- Laurie Canter
- Matthew Jordan
- Jamie Donaldson
- Scott Jamieson
- Darren Fichardt
- Zander Lombard
- Calum Hill
- Masahiro Kawamura
- Richard Bland
- David Horsey
- Joel Statler
PGA DFS Alternates & Fill-ins: (GPP Focus or mid-level buy-ins)
- Christiaan Bezuidenhout
- Brandon Stone
- George Coetzee
- Shaun Norris
- Joost Luiten
- Dean Burmester
- Louis De Jager
- Connor Syme
- Bryce Easton
- Sean Crocker
- Jacques Blaauw
- M.J. Daffue
- Steven Brown
- Aaron Cockerill
- Jonathan Caldwell
- Adrien Saddier
- Matthieu Pavon
- Joel Sjoholm
- Lorenzo Gagli
- Ben Stow
- Adrian Meronk
- David Drysdale
- Lucas Bjerregaard
- Lars Van Meijel
- Toby Tree
- Rhys Enoch
- Benjamin Poke
- Jack Senior
- Jbe’ Kruger
- Casey Jarvis
- Gonzalo Fernandez- Castano
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