Omega European Masters – Crans Montana Golf Club (2016)
Finally, we are back to a European Tour event that has some decent course history to use! I can’t say how saddened I’ve been to have to deal with a lack of course history as of late, but we have no shortage this week as the Euro tour moves to the European Masters. Below is a list of golfers who have both hot and cold course history and recent form for guidance when building your lineups this week.
Hot Course History:
Danny Willett ($12,400) – This seems to be a common thread for Danny Willett to have solid course history just about everywhere, but in this case we’ve seen him finish no worse than forty-second in seven appearances, and has three top five finishes in that same span. Hot may be an understatement with Willett this week!
Miguel Angel Jimenez ($8,800) – Despite a single missed cut since 2009 which happened to be in his most recent appearance, Jimenez had rattled off four top ten finishes with a win in his five previous appearances. What was his other finish you may be asking? A mere eleventh place finish. Don’t bat an eye at the recent missed cut here, Jimenez should set up well this week.
Cold Course History:
Bradley Dredge ($9,800) – Bradley Dredge is a past champion at this event, but that’s not enough to counteract the fact that he has finished outside the top fifty in each of his last six tries here. His win was nearly a decade ago and enough time has passed for me to basically ignore the fact that he was at one time holding a trophy at this event on Sunday.
Chris Wood ($9,300) – It’s not too often you find multiple golfers in the higher salary ranges with cold course history, but Chris Wood qualifies this week. His three most recent results were two missed cuts and a WD. It’s been nearly six years since Wood has made the cut at this event which is too much risk for me to comfortably take on at this price.
Hot Recent Form:
David Lipsky ($10,300) – If I could I would put Thomas PIeters back in this slot, but I can’t since he isn’t in the field. You may be asking who David Lipsky is at this point, but it’s time to familiarize yourself with the man who has two straight top ten finishes with a third and sixth place finish in his two most recent events. Oh and as an added bonus, Lipsky won this event only two years ago.
Miko Llonen ($7,100) – I may be reaching a bit here, but I like Llonen enough that I think he deserves this spot in the article. Llonen finished with a very respectable twenty second place finish at the Olympic Games recently among some of the best golfers in the world and prior to that had made three straight cuts. Llonen should go very low owned and is definitely worth a look in my mind.
Cold Recent Form:
Matthew Fitzpatrick ($11,400) – Ok, we’ll give Fitzpatrick the benefit of the doubt for now and start off by saying he did have a top five finish two weeks ago. However, Fitz has also missed four cuts in his last six events and had a sub-par forty-second place finish tied into that stretch. For a golfer who is priced out at over $11k, there are too many smudges in Fitzpatrick’s short term history for me to feel comfortable with him.
Andy Sullivan ($9,500) – Andy Sullivan may be someone you are heavily considering this week (as was I initially). However, Sullivan is coming into this event with a seriously scary resume of back-to-back missed cuts and a forty-ninth place finish in his last three events. Despite what may seem like a decent discount on Sullivan, I think there is enough concern in my mind to at least give pause to the idea of rostering too much of Sullivan.
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