Illness hampers Pieters’ hopes of pressing a claim for a Ryder Cup wild card in Prague event

Thomas Pieters will have to overcome an untimely bout of illness to press his claims for a Ryder Cup wild card in the D+D Real Czech Masters.

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 Belgian 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.

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. Then things seemed to go my way, I got the bounces that I needed when I needed them and at the end of the week to be lifting the trophy was a dream.”