BlogEuropean Masters Preview and Picks

The Buzz:

This is a special week in golf.  First, there is no PGA Tour event as there is 2 weeks before the start of the 2020 season begins at the Greenbrier.  With that, this is the big event of the year and it’s nice to see it on the schedule by itself.  This event played in Switzerland has always had a tough time.  Since it’s up high in the 8,000-foot range, they can’t play it much later than the last week in September because of it getting cold.  So for years, it was always a September staple, but that use to be a bad month with the FedExCup playoffs happening.  Now it’s in the last week of August and a perfect time just after the FedEx Cup playoffs.  The big surprise two players from the Tour Championship, Rory McIlory and Tommy Fleetwood made the 4,000-mile journey to play in this event.

With Rory McIlroy winning at East Lake it brings up a tough question, who is the Player of the Year?  After winning the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Classic it was a foregone conclusion that Brooks Koepka won it.  With his win in Memphis along with the PGA Championship and we tend to forget he won the CJ Cup at Nine Bridges back in October.  On top of the win at Bethpage, he was runner-up in both the Masters and U.S. Open and 4th at the British Open, which is a remarkable major season.  But after winning the Tour Championship and claiming the FedExCup playoffs, many think it should be Rory.  On top of his season-ending win, he also was the champion at the Players Championship, which is very close to a major and also won in Canada.  Now on points in the PGA of America system McIlroy will win the Player of the Year handily.  But the majors aren’t counted highly in that ranking so we go back to the question, who is the Player of the Year.  Frankly, if it was me, I would give it to both players.  In rationally thinking about it, in my mind I think it was a draw, enough points for both players that really don’t give anyone an edge.  Now if you tell me I can only pick one, have to give it to McIlroy just on the fact that he played better in most of the PGA Tour events than Brooks did, still Rory played terrible in the majors his best finish was a T-8th at the PGA Championship.

One of the best events in golf

The European tour moves on to Switzerland and the Omega European Masters.  Let me take a few paragraphs to tell you that this is a special place and could be one of the most scenic stops in golf.  Of course, your going to say that Pebble Beach isn’t bad, but the Golf Club Crans-sur-Sierre has a special appeal that makes it as pretty as Pebble.  It’s the Pacific Ocean which makes Pebble so special, at Crans-sur-Sierre it’s the scenic views of the Alps and the mountain tops of the Matterhorn and Mont Blanc that takes your breath away.

Ever since the Golf Channel started showing European Tour golf in the late nineties, I have been a fan of several events but the two that I have loved the most was the Dubai Desert Classic and the Omega European Masters.  Love watching them play golf from Dubai and Switzerland, so much that both became bucket places for me to go visit one day.  In 2011 I had a chance to join my wife on a trip to Switzerland and cross off one of those places off the list, Cans-sur-Sierre.

I saw it for the first time by accident.  I took a train from Venice to Geneva, and when the train was traveling between the Alps in the Rhone Valley, I saw what looked like structures at the top of one of those 8,000-foot mountains.  The closer I got, the more I realized they were big ten story structures, but my feeble mind didn’t know what they were.  I asked the train conductor, and he said it was the ski resort Crans Montana, but that never registered in my mind that it was the community of Crans-sur-Sierre.  A couple of days later my wife and I journeyed to see Crans-sur-Sierre and that was when it hit me that those buildings that I saw from the train were the site of my bucket list location.

What strikes one about the golf course is that it’s in the middle of town.  It’s much smaller than you can imagine it being but lovely anyway.  Walking the course you go out to the fourth hole, and you feel on top of the world.  I don’t think there is a prettier hole in all of golf, the hole sits on top of the bluff, looking to the Southwest way above the Rhone Valley with the Alps in front of you.  Just an awesome sight and something that every golfer should experience.

One last thing, taking next week off

In looking at next week’s schedule there is just the Porsche European Open and it doesn’t have a great field.  So between that and going to the beach for Labor Day, we had a chance to extend the trip longer and I will be on the beach next week instead of doing a preview.  Looking forward to the peace and relaxation along with not opening the computer for a week.  Now the site will get updated and we will have performance charts next week, just no preview.  We will be back the following week for the first event of the 2020 year, A Military Tribute at the Greenbrier.

History of Crans-sur-Sierre and changes to the course over the years:

The history of golf at Crans-sur-Sierra can be traced back to 1905. Arnold Lunn, who owned the Palace Hotel, was persuaded that the pastureland to the west of the hotel was ideal for a golf course. Two Englishmen Freemantle and Gedge were commissioned, and the first nine holes were opened in 1906 to be followed by the second nine in 1908.

The golf course was abandoned during World War I but was reopened in 1921 thanks to hoteliers, Elysée Bonvin (Hotel du Golf) and Albert Bonvin (Beauséjour). In 1924, the Crans-sur-Sierre Golf Club was founded, with René Payot as its first President. Shortly after the opening, architect Harry Nicholson was commissioned to add improvements.

A large number of greens were remodeled and additional bunkering, thus creating the overall layout at Plan-Bramois that remained unchanged until 1997. In 1995 Severiano Ballesteros was commissioned to make it more challenging to the professionals on the European Tour and even more attractive for the many golfers that visit this resort.

After two redesigns, the course opened with new greens with various contours and slopes, new tee boxes installed and obstacles added or modified.

In 2013, it was announced that the course would undergo more renovation.  In the first year of a four-year project, the 10th, 12th, 13th and 17th holes of the course have been renovated to make the course harder and more gallery friendly.  Water will now come into play at the 10th, 12th and 13th greens making all of them more challenging.  For the 17th hole a stream crosses the 17th fairway about at the landing zone, so drivers will have to be more accurate.  With the changes to the 13th green, it now will have room for over 3,000 spectators to look down on the action.

For the 2015 tournament, all the bunkers on the front none were updated and fairways at 1, 2 and 4 rebuilt.  The 9th hole has been redone with a new green that will be able to handle more people and be more attractive.  The 5th hole has been lengthened by 25 years so it won’t be a pushover as it was in past years.  One other major change, the 14th hole had 38 yards taken off, and par reduce from 71 to 70.  The hole will be a brute at 559 yards.

Close to six million dollars was spent on these changes over the four years and since 2015 the course has played pretty much the same.

Here are some of the secrets of what it takes to play well at the Omega European Masters:

The key stat for the winner:

I don’t know if anyone noticed, but in the last ten years that stats have been available for the European Masters, 3 of the winners have led that category (Alex Noren in 2009, Thomas Bjorn in 2011 and Richie Ramsay in 2012).  Now three other winners have been in 2nd in this category (David Lipsky in 2014, Danny Willett in 2015 and Mathew Fitzpatrick in 2018.).

I would still say that greens hit is an important category because even though Alex Noren was T-26th in greens hit when he won in 2016, for the year he was 18th on the European Tour.  So hitting a lot of greens is very important for this week.

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

Length is not an issue on this course since at just under 6,850 yards its one of the shortest on the European Tour.  But of those at the top of the leaderboard the last ten years, hitting fairways has mixed results with four players in the top-ten, with last year’s champion Matthew Fitzpatrick leading that stat.  The course is tight with a lot of trees running along the fairways, so if you miss the fairway the odds are you will be behind a tree, so yes you have to be straight.

Another thing to think about.  Crans-sur-Sierre is at 8,000 feet so the ball will travel about 10 to 15% further than sea-level courses.  So the 6,900-yard figure is misleading, the course will play closure to 6,200 yards for this year.

Water hazards come into play on 6 holes all of the back nine.  The course does have a lot of undulation and winds do pop up in the afternoon coming up the valley.  Weather can change drastically because of its location and several past events have had fog problems.  For this year the weather will be nice the first two days with highs in the mid-60s and no rain.  But the weekend will be dreadful, with showers and temperatures in the high 60s but there is going to be a lot of rain on Sunday and Monday.  So look for a sturdy winner that can play under all conditions.

There are ten events left before the three tournament playoff series so this will be a perfect week for many to pick up more Race to Dubai points.