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The European Tour moves to a new destination this week with the first of two events at the Aphrodite Hills Resort in Cyprus. This week’s event is a standard strokeplay event, but as with most events this year that involve a change of country, the field is much changed from last week’s event. Despite being a limited field event, only one-third of this week’s field competed in the Italian Open last week. There will be much that is new this week. Aphrodite Hills Resort is, as the name suggests, a resort-style course that caters for golf tourists. The fairways are generally wide, the rough is very sparse, the greens are very large and there are dramatic views of the Mediterranean and of steep-sided ravines, some of which may catch errant drives. They shouldn’t trouble Touring pros who will find the course rather short at less than 7,000 yards. There are five par-3s, of which only one looks particularly challenging from the course flyover video, while the rest of the course looks very straightforward for players of this calibre. There is water on just two holes and three of the four par-5s are under 560 yards. Of the par-4s, only one is longer than 440 yards. There are undulations on this course and it is exposed, but with the weather forecast for calm, warm conditions throughout, this should be another low-scoring event and a repeat of last week’s 60 may be in order. Of course, there have been no Tour events played here previously and the course fit is derived from a video flyover and course reviews, but there appears to be nothing here that will surprise. The views will be spectacular and so should the scoring. Here are a few angles that can be used this week. Angles to consider: 1. Recent form matters this year Last Sunday’s bizarre viewing shouldn’t detract from this angle. Laurie Canter should have won with ease and maintained this angle after being in great form over the last two months. It was remarked last week that with much changed fields as the European Tour started to move from country to country, there was reason to expect this angle to hold but not as firmly as previously. That still holds and the field is again much changed this week. 2. Length off the tee will be an advantage Another angle retained from last week. Given the wide fairways on this tourist resort, power off the tee should be an advantage. Last week, there are no par-4s under 400 yards so driving distance was important for anyone without Ross McGowan’s short game. This week, there are three reachable par-5s and two short par-4s which should benefit those long off the tee. With little rough, this will be a course for attacking golf. 3. Greens in regulation may be a predictive stat this week McGowan last week and, to some extent, Otaegui the week before showed that a hot putter is very difficult to predict and can make a huge difference on the final day. In short, so long as player keep presenting themselves with birdie chances, they keep open the possibility of having days such as Otaegui and McGowan over the last two weeks. The course doesn’t appear to challenge players’ game too much so, outside of power, those players who keep hitting greens will be the ones who prosper the most on this course. Selections The above angles have been used to create a shortlist from which the following players have been selected. Ross Fisher Fisher’s top-20 finish at Wentworth was his first since three top-10 finishes in four starts at the start of the year. That should provide a confidence boost for a player whose game should fit this course. He is long off the tee – 29th in driving distance on the European Tour this season – and very good with his iron play – 6th in greens in regulation. That means that he has plenty of birdie opportunities and he ranks inside the top-30 in birdies per round on the European Tour. Not famed for being a strong putter, the evidence of recent weeks is enough to suggest that if he can get his putter working well for at least one round, he could be a strong challenger this week. Steven Brown Brown is another who played well against a strong field at Wentworth, finishing inside the top-25. Coupled with a top-10 and top-5 finish since August, there is enough form to suggest that he can present himself with plenty of birdie opportunities this week. Hitting greens in regulation is his trademark and this is borne by his stats. And he also won on a similar resort course – the 2019 Portugal Masters at the Dom Pedro Victoria Golf Course. In a pattern that seems to occur all too often on these type of courses, his stats showed no evidence of a strong short game before that week, but he then ranked 1st in scrambling and 1st in putts per GIR. Tee-to-green he gained 2.3 shots that week; on the green, he gained 11.0 shots that week. That is the profile on resort-style courses. Garrick Porteous At least Porteous can claim to be a good putter – he ranks 25th in strokes gained putting on the European Tour. But, as we know, it is not a good predictor of being a good putter on any given week. Form is a good predictor and he was a very strong challenger at the Scottish Championship two weeks ago, foiled only by a career day on the greens by Otaegui which led Porteous into attacking too much over the final holes so he dropped back to 4th. His length off the tee will be helpful again this week as he looks to add to the Challenge Tour title that he already holds. Tips 0-3; -4.00pts 1pt e.w. Ross Fisher 66/1 (Spreadex 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6) mc 0.5pts e.w. Steven Brown 125/1 (Paddy Power, Betfair Sportsbook 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc 0.5pts e.w. Garrick Porteous 150/1 (Boyle Sports 1/5 1-2-3-4-5-6-7) mc No further plays.
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