The Open Championship: PlayOn fantasy picks

With practice rounds in progress, it’s time for fantasy managers to pick their teams for the 146th Open Championship.

The 146th Open Championship offers PlayOn fantasy managers a range of delicious opportunities, some with cash payouts and others with no money but lots of bragging rights. I’m playing two of the European Tour PlayOn free games this week, the one-on-one 7-member team game (bragging rights only) and the first round pace setter (again, no cash payout, just bragging rights).

The field is packed with power, as it should be, but not all will make good fantasy picks for the 146th Open. After all, Royal Birkdale is very likely to bare her teeth and deliver challenges that go beyond the usual gorse and dunes that wait just beyond the short grass on the Birkdale links.

Past Open Championships at Birkdale have been contended under incredibly adverse conditions, wind howling in off the Irish Sea and torrential rains that turned the greens into swamps. In 1961 Arnold Palmer, when threatened with cancellation of The Open he eventually won at Birkdale, threatened to play from a rowboat!

So part of my strategy this week is to look for players at all levels with links golf experience. Success, even survival, will come to those who can control the golf ball. Power won’t necessarily be an advantage. And play on the putting surface will demand shrewd and refined work with the flatstick. Trying to power the ball into the cup is likely to end in disappointment.

These seven look like a good bet to rise to the Royal Birkdale challenge.