BlogAlfred Dunhill Links Championship Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

The tour moves back to Scotland for the last of the six events on the British Islands.  This week’s Alfred Dunhill Links is the European Tours answer to the PGA Tours AT&T Pebble Beach Pro-Am.  A pro-am event held over three great links with the conclusion on the home of golf, the Old Course of St. Andrews.

With the FedEx Cup over and the PGA Tour getting ready to start the 2014 season, they have gotten a very good field to play.  14 Major Champions including Jose Maria Olazabal, David Duval, Ernie Els, Darren Clarke, Retief Goosen, Padraig Harrington, Martin Kaymer, Paul Lawrie, Louis Oosthuizen, Charl Schwartzel and Vijay Singh will be playing. Defending champion Branden Grace will also be returning, hoping to become the first player to win back-to-back Alfred Dunhill Links titles.

What makes this event unique is that each pro will be partner with an amateur partner and play one round over the Old Course, Kingsbarns and Carnoustie.  All three are challenging with the Old Course and Carnoustie sites of past British Opens.  As for Kingsbarns, the course is only 12 years old and over the course of time could be good enough to also hold an Open Championship on it’s links.

After this week there will only be two chances to make it into the Race to Dubai playoffs with events in Portugal and Australia.  After the conclusion of the Perth International the Race to Dubai list will be converted into a points table with each euro equaling a point.  For the first Final Series event, the BMW Masters in China field will be made up of 78 players comprising the top 60 in the World Rankings, 14 players from the Chinese Golf Association, three tournament invites and the balance from The 2013 Race to Dubai.

Adding to this will be FedEx Cup winner Henrik Stenson who said he will play in all four final series events and he tries to add the Race to Dubai title to his FedEx victory.

One last thing, Louis Oosthuizen is returning this week after taking not playing since the British Open.  Oosthuizen has had a long standing problem with his neck, back and hip and he is getting ready to play in the President Cup.  The good news, he returns to St. Andrews and all of the great memories from winning the Open Championship there in 2010.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Alfred Dunhill Links:

Key stat for the winner:

Have to handle three of the best golf courses in the world as you play with another pro and an amateur for the first three days.  Those that have won in the past are patient men, also have to be able to handle all of the elements because this is the time of year that the weather will be changing and it will be a lot cooler and wetter than it was when the British Open was played in Scotland in July.

Here are some more key stats to look to for this week:

• Lots of marquee winners in the 12 years of this event with Martin Kaymer, Padraig Harrington, Colin Montgomerie, Lee Westwood and Paul Lawrie claiming the title.  But it doesn’t mean that a first timer can’t win, in 2004 Scottish born Stephen Gallacher was a very popular winner and showed that anyone can win this title.
• After to be able to handle poor weather.  In looking at some predications for the week, it looks like a front has come in on Tuesday with rain through Friday afternoon.  It won’t get any higher than today’s 60 degrees but the good news is that the rain will go away and the weekend will have just cloudy days with it getting up in the mid-60s.  Another concern for the players, win will be around.  All three courses are on the sea and won’t get protected from the cold winds blowing in off the North seas.
• Again I can’t stress the importance of check out our European Tour player rankings page to see who is playing the best.
• In gauging things it’s important to point out that of the three courses, St. Andrews will play the easiest and Carnoustie will play the hardest.  So when looking at first round scores don’t disregard someone that shoots between 70 and 74 at Carnoustie.  Now the last two winners have taken advantage of the first round, last year Branden Grace openend up with a 60 at Kingsbarns and then shot 67 in the second round at the Old Course.  In 2011 Michael Hoey took advantage of playing first on the Old Course shooting 66 followed by a 66 in the second round at Kingsbarns.