Fantasy Golf: Andalucia Valderrama Masters

The Andalucia Valderrama Masters returns for the first time since 2011 this week, with the third edition being hosted by defending champion Sergio Garcia’s foundation

Returning for the first time in six years, the Sergio Foundation is hosting the Andalucia Valderrama Masters at Real Club Valderrama – returning to the scene of last year’s Open de Espana, which was won by Andrew ‘Beef’ Johnston. 

The field boasts the past two masters champions of Sergio Garcia and Danny Willett, as well as World no.5 Jon Rahm, who returns for his first tournament in his home country since turning professional. 

Whoever wins, it’s not going to be an easy feat. In the last three events held at Valderrama, only 10 players have finished under par, with Garcia, Shane Lowry, and Soren Kjeldsen being part of that number. 

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The course is incredibly tight, so someone with consistent driving is probably a good bet this week – but with a field that isn’t quite as strong as last week, there’s a lot of players that could break through with a win. 

And now that it’s getting towards the end of the Fantasy Golf game, its crunch time when it comes to winning points in these next few weeks – so who should be in your team?

Fantasy Golf picks: Andalucia Valderrama Masters

Sergio Garcia: Fantasy Price £14.5m
The defending champion and host of the tournament Garcia hit the headlines when it was announced his deal with TaylorMade had ended, but the Masters champion has had a very successful season – which includes two titles and two top 10s in his last nine starts. He was T30 in his last event which cancelled out a disappointing missed cut at the British Masters, but given that he’s had 10 top 10 finishes at Valderrama in 11 starts – we have a feeling he likes it here. 

Jon Rahm: Fantasy Price £12m
Rahm was T15 at the Italian Open last week and has been a threatening figure all-year, and with a victory on both PGA and European Tours in his first full year on Tour- the World No.5 comes in to this event as a real favourite. He’s the highest ranked player in the field and with three top 5s and a T7 in his last five starts, he’s taken his top 10 count of 2017 up to 11.

Shane Lowry: Fantasy Price £12m
Lowry is a player who has had a very varied season, but despite missing the cut at last week’s Italian Open, a couple of solid performances in the past few weeks indicate his game is nearly getting back to it’s best. A T7 at the Wyndham Championship on the PGA Tour was followed by a T29 at the Portugal Masters, a T7 at the British Masters and a T25 at the Dunhill Links championship two weeks ago.

Soren Kjeldsen: Fantasy Price £10.5m
Despite the fact Kjeldsen hasn’t played in an event since the Made in Denmark at the end of August, he could be poised for a good week. His last five results? T23-T16-MC-T37-T9

Joost Luiten: Fantasy Price £10m
Looking for his first victory since the 2016 KLM Open, Luiten has shown to be coming out of a mid-season lull. He missed a couple of cuts in a row and then failed to make the cut while defending the KLM Open, yet since then has finished T12-T36-T32 and was 2nd to Beef at Valderrama last year at the Open de Espana. 

Jamie Donaldson: Fantasy Price £9m
Donaldson has been a bit hit and miss, but he led the Italian Open after the first round and did win the team title at the Dunhill two weeks ago (although missed the cut individually). Bit of a gamble, but his last few results read: T26-MC (1st in pairs) -T37-MC-MC-T25-T9-T16

Gregory Bourdy: Fantasy Price £6.5m
Bourdy has been in the mix during some stage in all three of the last events, finishing T30 last week and T4 at the Alfred Dunhill Links the week prior. The Frenchman is searching for a fifth European Tour title this week (and his first since 2013). 

Stephen Gallacher: Fantasy Price £6m
Discarding a missed cut last week, Gallacher had two really strong weeks prior to that – finishing T12 at the Alfred Dunhill Links and T15 at the British Masters. Hasn’t had a victory since the 2014 Omega Dubai Desert Classic. Could he break in to the top 10 this week and earn you some needed fantasy points?

Others to consider + their last few results

Martin Kaymer (£11.5m) : MC- T36-T20-MC-T31-T37

Joakim Lagergren (£6m): T40-T12-MC-T9-T49

Nacho Elvira (£6m): T40-MC-T11-T7

Robert Karlsson (5m): T32-MC-T3