Irish Open Fantasy Preview
With just a few weeks remaining until The Open Championship, the fields on the European Tour stay strong.
The headliners this week are Rory McIlroy and Jon Rahm but there is plenty of mid-to-top-tier talent just behind them as we head to Ireland for the fourth Rolex Series event of the season.
The course is Ballyliffin GC, a links layout that plays to 7,462 yards on the scorecard with a par of 72.
There isn’t any history on the course so we’ll need to rely on course fit to fit some of these pegs into the proper holes.
Let’s look at a few angles to see who might fit the course this week:
Top Performers in GB&I (since 2015)
Shane Lowry
Graeme Mcdowell
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Andy Sullivan
Soren Kjeldsen
Richie Ramsay
Chris Wood
Paul Dunne
Bradley Dredge
Rory Mcilroy
Top Performers on Par 72s (since 2015)
Rory Mcilroy
Jon Rahm
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Alexander Levy
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Alexander Bjork
Shane Lowry
Peter Uihlein
Jorge Campillo
Andy Sullivan
Top Performers on Links Layouts (since 2015)
Andy Sullivan
Julien Guerrier
Joakim Lagergren
Chris Wood
Eddie Pepperell
Richie Ramsay
Paul Dunne
Romain Wattel
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Robert Rock
Top Performers in the Summer (since 2015)
Jon Rahm
Andy Sullivan
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Alexander Bjork
Julian Suri
Ryan Fox
Soren Kjeldsen
Scott Hend
Mike Lorenzo-Vera
Adrian Otaegui
Top Performers against Strong Fields (since 2015)
Rory Mcilroy
Jon Rahm
Rafa Cabrera Bello
Peter Uihlein
Matthew Fitzpatrick
Shane Lowry
Andy Sullivan
Paul Dunne
Hao Tong Li
Lee Westwood
Golfers that show up on all FIVE lists: Rafa Cabrera Bello, Andy Sullivan
Golfers that show up on 4-of-5 lists: NONE
Golfers that show up on 3-of-5 lists: Rory McIlroy, Jon Rahm, Paul Dunne, Shane Lowry
My Top 25 for the 2018 Irish Open
1. Rory McIlroy
2. Andy Sullivan
3. Rafa Cabrera Bello
4. Jon Rahm
5. Matthew Fitzpatrick
6. Alexander Bjork
7. Peter Uihlein
8. Shane Lowry
9. Kiradech Aphibarnrat
10. Jorge Campillo
11. Chris Wood
12. Paul Dunne
13. Jordan Smith
14. Graeme Mcdowell
15. Mike Lorenzo-Vera
16. Lee Westwood
17. Thorbjorn Olesen
18. Hao Tong Li
19. Thomas Pieters
20. Soren Kjeldsen
21. Shubhankar Sharma
22. Julian Suri
23. Matt Wallace
24. Dylan Frittelli
25. David Horsey
