Who to put in your bunkered Fantasy Golf team this week…

It’s Open week! 

Better yet, it’s another ‘Hot Week’ in bunkered Fantasy Golf, which means there’s a great prize – a TaylorMade M4 – up for grabs for the manager whose team accumulates the most points this week.

Not just that, it’s a major championship, which makes it a TRIPLE POINTS event, so there’s a lot to play for.

Not sure who to put in your team? Perhaps we can help. We’ve handpicked a selection of players that we believe every manager should strongly consider choosing for their side this week.

Let’s take a closer look, shall we? 

Tommy Fleetwood 

Carnoustie is a course that rewards great ball-strikers – and, right now, there are few better than Fleetwood. The Englishman also happens to be the course record-holder at Carnoustie, having shot a superb 63 there during last year’s Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He has a spotty Open record – his tie for 27th at Royal Birkdale last year was the first time he has made the cut in four appearances – but he has turned himself into one of the fiercest competitors in the game in the last 18 months. If anybody is going to end England’s 26-year wait for an Open champion, you fancy he’s the favourite to do so.

Justin Rose 

Like Fleetwood, Rose is being heavily-tipped to end England’s long wait for an Open champion. The world No.3 is in the midst of the most fruitful spell of his career, having racked up four wins since October. He has 12 other top tens across the PGA Tour and European Tour in that time, too. You have to feel that his precise iron play – he ranks second on the European Tour this season in Greens In Regulation – will be a huge asset this week, as will his track record of winning on some of the world’s toughest courses. Merion, Valderrama, Doral, Muirfield Village, Congressional, Royal Aberdeen… is Carnoustie set to be the next brute tamed by Rose?

Francesco Molinari

What a season the Italian is having. Two wins – one on each tour – has seen him climb the world rankings and muscle his way into the Ryder Cup reckoning. Much has been made of his resurgence with the putter (and rightly so) but just as important has been his all-round accuracy. He ranks tenth on the European Tour in driving accuracy (72.6%) and fourth in Greens In Regulation (75.9%). Okay, so he’s not the longest off the tee (he’s 137th on the European Tour in driving distance) but with Carnoustie being as baked out and fast-running as it is expected to be, that shouldn’t inconvenience his prospects too much. Second at last year’s US PGA Championship, you sense he’s trending towards something really big. 

Russell Knox 

In the form of his life, some will scoff at the unassuming Scot’s prospects of “pulling a Lawrie” and winning The Open at Carnoustie. Bluntly, those people don’t know what they’re talking about. He’s sixth on the PGA Tour in Greens In Regulation this season and third in the same category on the European Tour. Like Molinari, he has battled his putting demons over the last 18 months or so but is now reaping the rewards of the hard hours he has put in turning one of the few weaknesses in his game into a strength. The Irish Open champion also comes into this week off the back of a best-ever finish in a major championship at last month’s US Open (T12). Form and confidence – it’s a heady concoction. 

Tyrrell Hatton

The Englishman appears to have rediscovered some of his best form of late after a difficult few months. The back-to-back winner of the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship, Hatton has good form around Carnoustie – albeit under slightly different conditions – and has struck up an excellent relationship with his Scottish caddie Mark Crane, with whom he started working at the BMW PGA Championship. His prospects will hinge largely on his ability to manage his notoriously short fuse and stay patient in the face of golf’s stiffest test. If he can do that, you have to fancy his chances of improving upon his best Open finish to date (T5, 2016).

Dustin Johnson

The longest golf course in major championship history meets arguably the longest hitter in the game – it’s not hard to like DJ’s prospects, is it? Johnson has an impressive Open record, with three top-tens in his last seven starts. He also leads the PGA Tour this season in scoring average, birdie average, eagles, Strokes Gained: Tee To Green and approaches from the rough, and is second in putting average. A tough man to beat? Sure is. The 2018 ‘Champion Golfer of the Year’? He’s in with a helluva shot.

Rickie Fowler 

The American has made 34 major starts to date. Will it be a case of 35th time lucky at Carnoustie this week? It’s hard not to fancy his chances. One of the most creative players in the game, Fowler has demonstrated his links golf prowess time and time again. What’s more, he has top-five finishes in three of his last five major starts. It genuinely feels as though his major breakthrough is imminent.

Marc Leishman

Inside the top-six in three of his last four Open starts, it’s not hard to see why so many people are tipping the Aussie for glory this week. The world No.18 has developed into one of the most consistent players in the game over the last few years. No Australian has won the Open since Greg Norman at Royal St George’s a quarter of a century ago. If that streak is to end this year, Leishman looks one of the men most likely to do it.

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