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Fantasy Lookahead: Francesco Molinari among star-studded field on European Tour

Reuters / Paul Childs

Francesco Molinari has been consistently trending in a positive direction since we last checked in on him, ahead of the RBC Heritage in mid-April. He has made a total of five consecutive cuts placed 17th at the Wells Fargo Championship and landed inside the top 10 at The Players Championship with a seventh-place result.

He has made nine of 11 cuts on the PGA this year, with two top 10s. Usually a staple on the European Tour, this will be Molinari's first event on his home continent this season. He's among an impressive field at the BMW PGA Championship at the Wentworth Golf Club in Surrey, England.

Course History

The West Course at Wentworth GC is a 7,281-yard par-73 course. The course record of 62 was shot by Robert Karlsson in the third round of this event in 2010 and matched by Thomas Bjorn in 2014's opening round.

Molinari has played in this event seven times, making the cut in each of those appearances. He has finished inside the top 10 in each of his past four tries, with his best result coming as a fifth-place showing last year; he had a share of the lead after the third round before shooting a final-round 74.

Statistical Breakdown

The statistics most important for success at Wentworth's West Course are:

Greens in Regulation (GIR)
Scrambling (SCR)
Par 3 Scoring (P3S)

Here's how Molinari has fared in those stats thus far on the PGA Tour in 2016:

GIR SCR P3S
158 56 98

GIR is considered the most important stat of the week, which doesn't bode well for Molinari. He usually performs among the tour's elite in this metric, ranking sixth last year. Still, SCR and P3S weren't strengths of his last season, and he may be an exception to the general rule for success here.

He does rank first on tour in driving accuracy percentage at 76.88 percent, potentially saving him from too many scrambling situations.

Daily Fantasy

PGA Tour veterans of Molinari's caliber typically stand out in European Tour fields, drawing plenty of attention and potentially skyrocketing ownership levels. This week's event is somewhat unique, due to having a stronger field than the PGA's Dean and DeLuca Invitational event.

Molinari is among the higher priced players in the field, and for good reason given his recent form and course history. Still, he has never won on the PGA Tour, where the strength of field is typically more comparable to this event. His most recent win came at the Reale Seguros Open de Espana in 2013.

With a victory seeming unlikely, owners can fade him at high ownership and a high salary in tournaments. He needs to be a staple in cash-game lineups.

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