5 Players Set for Success on the European Tour in 2017

Post by Sports Journalist Keel Timmins

European Tour golf is finally back on the agenda this week as the players head to South Africa for the BMW SA Open where Rory McIlroy is set to make his first appearance of the year. It’s exciting times for golf fans as the level of professional golf becomes better in every single passing season, and we welcome a few new faces from the Challenge Tour and Q School as well as some of the more seasoned professionals that are trying to take their game’s to the next level. It will be interesting to see how the newly formed Rolex Series will play out, and will hopefully attract better players to some of the more prestigious tournaments in the schedule.

I look ahead at the upcoming season and have pinpointed five players that could be set for a career-defining 2017.

Victor Dubuisson

A brilliant enigma that could be primed for a good year in 2017, but only if the Frenchman is in the right place mentally. Nobody knows what’s going on in that head of his, but that’s probably what makes Victor so fun to watch. There were some promising signs at the end of the European Tour season last year as Dubuisson managed to complete four rounds at the Turkish Airlines Open, and then finished 3rd at the Nedbank Golf Challenge in South Africa and then backed that up with a 4th place finish at the season finale in Dubai, having led the field after 54 holes. Admittedly, it wouldn’t take much for him to have a better year in 2017 than last season, but it would be great to see him get back to the form that he showed pre-Ryder Cup in 2014. Remember his Match Play miracles in the desert against Jason Day? And the Turkish Airlines Open victories in ‘13/15? Hopefully we can see more of that in 2017; a good year could give him the confidence to claim a Ryder Cup spot in his home country the following year – a target that will no doubt be in the back of his mind.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello

The Spaniard has already had a very good career, topped off by a brilliant showing in last year’s Ryder Cup, but he has yet to have a season that has matched his level of ability. It feels as though he has been around forever, and yet remarkably has only picked up two European Tour wins, the last being five years ago. The Spaniard possesses a long and accurate driving game as well as being a top class ball striker, but a streaky putter and an average and sometimes poor short game has meant that he has always struggled to get over the line. His Ryder Cup heroics alongside fellow Spaniard Sergio Garcia last year might prove to be the turning point in his career; he has now shown that he can perform on the biggest and best stage in golf with the pressure of a continent on his back – there is now no reason why he can’t turn his brilliant golf game into more individual victories on the European Tour, as well as the PGA Tour.

Romain Langasque

Frenchman Romain Langasque undoubtedly has a bright future in the game, but 2017 could be the year where he really puts himself on the map and gets people talking. The 21-year-old turned professional after making the cut at the Masters last year as an amateur and has the ability to become the best French player by the end of the year with only really Dubuisson and Alex Levy looking like challenging him. A few invites on the Challenge Tour last season allowed Romain to earn his European Tour card, and this year will be looking to build on several good European Tour finishes he picked up last year, such as the 7th place finish in Crans Montana at the European Masters where he was well in contention until stumbling a little at the weekend. Making the cut at the French Open earlier on in the year was also a huge achievement in front of an expectant home crowd who have gone without a top class talent to cheer on for a long time now. Making the2018 Ryder Cup team in Paris is a very real goal for him and it’s definitely an achievable target – a full European Tour schedule this year will hold him in great stead and it wouldn’t at all be surprising to see him pick up his first professional victory.

Tommy Fleetwood

Like Cabrera-Bello, Tommy Fleetwood is another player that been around for quite a while but hasn’t really picked up the results that his talent suggests. He does have that one European Tour title under his belt from the Johnnie Walker Championship back in 2013, but another win is definitely overdue and it’s evident from his play at the back end of last season that another win is to be expected very soon. His last start yielded a 3rd place finish at the UBS Hong Kong, and previous to that he concluded the season with solid finishes in the Turkish Airlines Open, the Nedbank Challenge and the DP World Tour Championship. A new found level of consistency to Tommy’s game was evident though, as he hasn’t missed a cut since July, definitely a more sustainable approach than in previous years where he had the capabilities of shooting very low numbers, but then follow them with big ones to take himself out of contention. That consistent run at the end of 2016 moved Tommy 89 places up the World Golf Rankings, and now sits just inside the top 100 in the world. More consistent play this year will give him a great chance of getting into the top 50 again, but more importantly maintaining his spot allowing entry into all of the Majors and World Golf Championships.

Ricardo Gouveia

After storming the Challenge Tour in 2015, last season was very much a finding-his-feet type of year for Ricardo Gouveia who can now go in search of his first European Tour win in 2017. Portugal is another nation that, perhaps surprisingly, has never really had a great golfer, and it is telling that Gouveia became the highest ranked Portuguese player in the history of the game en-route to securing his European Tour card in 2015. Three Challenge Tour titles in previous years show that Gouveia has the game and the mental toughness to win tournaments when under pressure. A handful of solid finishes last year, namely a 3rd place spot at the Nedbank, perhaps points towards a victory not being that far away for the 25-year-old.