DFS Golf: Getting Up and Down -Volvo China Open

RABAT, MOROCCO – APRIL 22: Alexander Levy of France celebrates with the winners trophy after the final round of the Trophee Hassan II at Royal Golf Dar Es Salam on April 22, 2018 in Rabat, Morocco. (Photo by Andrew Redington/Getty Images) DFS Golf /

DFS Golf: Getting Up and Down – Volvo China Open

Welcome back! With no PGA Tour event this week available to play in DFS most will take the week off and maybe play some baseball or NBA/NHL playoffs, but real degenerates like myself will be diving deep into the Euro Tour research and getting ready for the Volvo China Open.

Last week was a bit of a dud. Adam Scott found his way onto my blacklist again. After struggling to make a putt in the first round, but striking the ball beautifully, I felt he had a shot to make the cut and contend on the weekend, but he started Triple Bogey, bogey on Friday and at that point I didn’t log back into the PGA Tour app till Sunday afternoon. Jimmy Walker had a great week as I was expecting, finishing 4th overall. Chalk Luke List bombed out Friday afternoon, missing the cut by one as well.

Some of our GPP Punt Plays played extremely well though.

Martin Laird: T11

Jaime Lovemark: T30

Harris English: T36

Abraham Ancer: T58

Overall it was a mixed bag week for me so I’m looking for to investing in the Euro slate this week and hopefully finding some green screens. It will be a little shorter article this week as I will lay out some info about the course write up a few players to lock in and then give a few punt plays for GPP’s.

INVERNESS, SCOTLAND – JULY 09: Jorge Campillo of Spain lines up on the 18th green during the third round of the AAM Scottish Open at Castle Stuart Golf Links on July 9, 2016 in Inverness, Scotland. (Photo by Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images) /

DFS Golf Preview:

The Volvo China Open returns to the Topwin Golf and Country Club in Beijing, China for the third year in a row. The past two winners were Alexander Levy -17 (beat Dylan Fritelli in a playoff) and Hao-tong Li -22. Some big numbers are possible here, as Fritelli and Levy both made a double on a par 5 during last years tourney, but you really need to make birdies to be successful here.

The course was designed by former world number one Ian Woosnam and is a good test of ball striking. It is a 7,261-yard par 72 with the standard 4 par 5’s, 4 par 3’s, and 10 par 4’s. Greens are fairly easy to hit and are of the Creeping Bentgrass variety, but are undulating and difficult to read. Proximity to the hole will be key here as the majority of the field will hit over 70% of the greens, the players who stick it tight and give themselves good looks at birdies will lead the way.

At 7,261 yards, Topwin is not extremely long, but all of the holes but three have water in play, and

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there is plenty of tree trouble. Once the morning mist lifts, there are spectacular views of the Great Wall of China. This is one of my favorite European tour tournaments to watch as the views are spectacular (and Euro Tour coverage is FAR superior to anything we have in the US/Canada). One thing to note though is this tournament usually follows the Shenzhen International so players on the euro tour have a week to acclimate to the time zone and weather in Beijing, but this year the players will be coming straight from Morocco. That week to acclimatize leveled the playing field a bit, so we will want to target players who have had success playing in China before.

Normally, I target certain statistics, but with the European tour struggling to keep good statistics, we won’t make stats are main concern, though I will take Birdie Average, Bogey Avoidance, and Strokes Gained Tee to Green into play when creating lineups. The biggest three I’m looking for though is: current form, course history, and success in China.

PUNTA CANA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC – MARCH 22: Seungsu Han waits to putt on the ninth green during round one of the Corales Puntacana Resort /

DFS Golf: Volvo China Open – Player Picks

Seungsu Han: DK – $9200

Probably my favorite DFS play this week. Current form is unreal, 9th at Morocco, 21st and Open de Espana, 52nd at Houston Open, 5th at Corales Punta Cana, T13 in Qatar, 4th in Oman, 27th in Abu Dhabi. The guy has just been killing it this year. He can fill up the cup when he’s playing well too, making 20 birdies in the opposite field event in Punta Cana. Hasn’t played this event before, or in China as a pro for that matter, but I’m willing to overlook that as there is no one who has had as a good of a run recently as Han. The former UNLV Rebel will be locked in loaded for me in every format this week.

Thorbjorn Olesen: DK $8500

Thorbjorn finished up 46th at the Open de Espana after struggling on the weekend, but it was a good result given that he hadn’t played since the Qatar Masters two months ago. He struck his irons beautifully and drove it well on a difficult course, just struggled to get his putter hot. He has finishes of T16 and T31 at Topwin G and CC the last two years and is poised to finish well again. Spent last week in Japan at a promotional event, so won’t have the long flight and acclimatization time others will be dealing with. Thunder Bear bombs the ball, and with the wide fairways and rough that isn’t very penal he should be able to just lock and load on most holes and let it rip. He shouldn’t have any trouble making the cut and if his putter gets hot he can win this thing, and thats exactly what you are looking from this price range.

Bernd Wiesberger: DK $10,700

At the top of the price range I don’t think you can wrong with Bernd, Alexander Levy, or Joost Luiten all are viable in GPP’s and Cash games, but I think the Bernd might be the underowned player and with his history in Asia, I’m going to be extremely overweight on him. Bernd burned me (no pun intended) at the Honda Classic but since then has had a respectable finish at the WGC-Mexico, and a top 25 at the Masters. Bernd’s won all over the word, including last year at the Shenzen International and followed it up the next week with a T4 at this event. He’s a veteran of the Asia Tour and I saw this crazy stat earlier, Bernd has teed it up 14 times in China and has cashed (made the cut) in every single one. Start here for cash lineups and build the rest of the roster from there.

Ashun Wu (or Wu Ashun on DK) $7000

This is my GPP punt play for the week. Wu is underpriced and you can find these mistakes from time to time on DK because their pricing model doesn’t necessarily work with the European tour and guys jumping around from tour to tour with different starts. Wu hasn’t missed a cut since February in Oman and while he doesn’t have a top twenty since last falls Portugal Masters, he’s a former winner of this event. He finished T24 here last year. While he doesn’t pound the ball off the tee, his short game and approach can more than make up for it when he’s clicking. Wu could be a great leverage play at low ownership even if he just makes the cut.

Player Pool:

(I’ll be making my lineups with the players listed above and the players coming from this core)

Alexander Levy: $11700

Joost Luiten: $10,500

Hideto Tanihara: $8,800

Jorge Campillo: $8700 (love him this week)

Erik Van Rooyen: $8200

Mikko Ilonen: $7700

David Lipsky: $7400

Phachara Khongwatmai: $7400

Marcel Siem: $7400

Callum Shinkwin: $7300

Brandon Stone: $7200 (Back from the dead, has played well the last few weeks, complete punt)

Gregory Bourdy: $6700

Next: DraftKings EuroLeague DFS Picks

Good Luck this week, Beijing is almost a full twelve hours in front of us in the Central Time Zone and it looks like the Golf Channel has some of it worked into their coverage late at night and early in the morning. Sometimes its easier to sweat these tournaments while you sleep though! Make sure you follow along with me @dfsupnorth and the @fantasycpr so you can keep up with all the action and any late breaking news or lineup thoughts!