The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Pieters’ chance to Czech out his Ryder chances
But Belgian may struggle after illness forces him to miss the pro-am
Thomas Pieters will have to overcome an untimely bout of illness in the D+D Real Czech Masters to press his claims for a Ryder Cup wild card.
Belgian Pieters won his first European Tour title in Prague in 2015 and finished second 12 months later before winning the Made in Denmark event the following week.
That persuaded European captain Darren Clarke to give Pieters a wild card for Hazeltine, where the 26-year-old won a record four points on his debut in the biennial event against the United States.
A slow start to this season means Pieters will need to rely on a wild card to be part of Thomas Bjorn’s team which will attempt to regain the trophy at Le Golf National next month, although a tie for sixth in the US PGA Championship and another in the Scottish Open marked an encouraging return to form.
Playing the first two rounds in Prague alongside one of Bjorn’s vice-captains Padraig Harrington will give Pieters a further chance to impress, although his preparations were disrupted by an illness which saw him miss the pretournament pro-am yesterday.
Away from Ryder Cup issues, South Africa’s Haydn Porteous will defend his title and feels he will have “home” advantage at the Albatross Golf Resort.
“I feel like I have really close ties here in Prague,” Porteous said.
“To win the Czech Masters and have a girlfriend from here, it’s always nice to come here and it’s starting to feel more and more like home.
“I really needed a really strong finish towards the end of the season.
“I’d just put together a top-10 finish in Denmark the week before the Czech Masters so that gave me a little bit of confidence leading into the week. To then keep my card and get myself into the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai was awesome.
“Last week I finished sixth too so hopefully I can put a solid performance together this week. It’s quite long, some of the par fives are quite touch and go when it comes to going for them in two and I feel like I have the length advantage to get on those par fives in two. I think that’s quite a big advantage.”
Bradley Neil and Connor Syme will be hoping to take another step towards securing their Tour cards after good performances in Sweden last week.
There are four other Scots in the field.