Nedbank Golf Challenge Fantasy Golf picks
Need help with your Nedbank Golf Challenge fantasy golf picks? Don’t worry, our NCG Fantasy Golf expert Matthew Beedle has you covered with a run down of the big names, value for money players and sleeper picks for the European Tour event in South Africa.
There are prizes up for grabs every week courtesy of Teeofftimes.co.uk, so it’s never too late to register. And the top three winners at the end of the season will be kitted out in the latest FootJoy gear.
So what are you waiting for? Head over to our Fantasy Golf page and get choosing!
But before you do that, read who our Fantasy Golf expert is putting in his team this week…
Nedbank Golf Challenge Fantasy Golf picks
This week the European Tour heads to South Africa for the Nedbank Golf Challenge, hosted by Gary Player.
There’s a relatively strong field with Rory McIlroy and Sergio Garcia in town alongside home favourites Louis Oosthuizen and Branden Grace.
The aim of our fantasy game this year is to pick the right players to match the RankBuster. This week’s is set at 108 so who can you fit in your team to beat it? Here are my Turkish Airlines Open fantasy picks.
Haotong Li
Fantasy Rank: 3
Li seems to be the man to beat this week with the form that he has shown over the past month with three top 10 finishes in his last four starts. His worst finish in those four starts was a T11 at the HSBC Champions which included some of the biggest names in the game.
He couldn’t gain any momentum in the final round of last week’s Turkish Open as he slumped to a final round of 71. However, a fourth placed finish last year factored in with his current form makes it hard to avoid him for this week’s event.
Danny Willett
Fantasy Rank: 11
The 2016 Masters champion seems to be slowly getting his game back to where he had it two years ago.
In his last two starts he has finished T23 at The CJ Cup and last week had a fantastic T7 finish at the Turkish Open.
He didn’t play here last year but in his two previous starts at Sun City he has won and finished T11.
Charl Schwartzel
Fantasy Rank: 17
The South African made a run of three top 10 finishes in as many starts between April and May which included a T2 finish at the Players Championship.
Since then Schwartzel hasn’t made the top 30 in seven starts so comes into his home event as a major sleeper. He’s also finished inside the top 15 in two of his last three starts at this tournament.
Matt Wallace
Fantasy Rank: 21
The Englishmen has had a great season to date but has slipped away but luckily for fantasy users who want him in their teams that has also seen a dip in his fantasy rank
However, in the last couple of weeks his best finish was a T16 at the British Masters and you have to go back to his victory at the Made in Denmark for his last top 25 finish prior to the event at Walton Heath.
Andrea Pavan
Fantasy Rank: 26
The Italian hasn’t missed a cut since the European Masters and since then has hit a good run of form that has seen him finish inside the top 25 in four out of five starts.
His best finish in that period came at the Dunhill Links Championship where he finished T5 after shooting even par on the final day.
Matthias Schwab
Fantasy Rank: 38
The Austrian has hit a good run of form since his missed cut at the KLM Open and has finished inside the top 30 in his last four starts which includes a T18 at last week’s Turkish Airlines Open and a T10 finish at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship.
However, the downside to the European Tour rookie is the fact he is making his debut at this event so there is no course form to judge him by, hence his higher fantasy rank.
Last week’s picks: Tommy Fleetwood (T7), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (T23), Mikko Korhonen (T35), Jorge Campillo (T35), Matthew Southgate (T60), Nacho Elvira (T68)
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Matthew Beedle
Matthew has been playing golf since he was around 13 and took up the game at a local nine-hole municipal course with his friends before joining Pontefract & District Golf Club just over the hedge.
Still a member of Pontefract with a handicap of 3, he currently sits on the board of directors to help with digital and marketing initiatives in order to improve membership and visitor income.
Matthew graduated university with a First Class in Sports Journalism from Leeds Trinity University and has been working in the golf industry since graduating.
NCG’s social media & marketing manager, Matthew’s main job role is to increase website traffic to the National Club Golfer website via our email and social media channels as well as driving entries to grow our NCG Top 100s Tour events amongst other tasks.
Not one to change his equipment too often, Matthew currently plays the TaylorMade M2 driver which has lasted the test of time in his bag. Elsewhere, you’ll find him using the TaylorMade Stealth 2 three-wood with a Ping G425 Crossover 2-iron to aid his long game.
Through his 4-iron to Gap Wedge, Matthew uses the Ping i500 irons accompanied by Ping’s Glide 3.0 56-degree and 60-degree wedges.
Another club that has stood the test of time in his bag is a Nike Method Core MC-3i putter which has had to have the SuperStroke grip changed at least three times. Ball of choice is the Titleist ProV1.
