The Arnold Palmer Classic at Bay Hill is going to be a rebound tournament after some not so great picks last week.  I don't know about you, but I've got a feeling Tiger is going to drop some putts this week and maybe find the winner's circle.  A back up guy to Tiger could be a whole bunch of people, but I decided to go with Robert Allenby.  I've been using up some of my other guys, and with Majors and the Players coming up, now seems to be a good week for Allenby.

The B-squad is tougher - according to my brother, this course favors the long hitters, so I'm second guessing Brett Quigley and Zach Johnson.  Nick Watney's got some game, but I'm a bit worried about using him 3 weeks in a row.  A solid long hitter who hasn't missed a cut is DJ Trahan...he's getting the nod.  I'm crazy about DL III, and I have a good feeling about him this week, but I've picked him a lot already and with a good fall finish last year I don't want to use him up.  The fantasy experts are saying Sean O'Hair, but I'm really mad at him for missing the cut last week - but his stats this year make picking him a really good idea.  But maybe it's time to sport some Minnesota pride and throw in Tom Lehman?!  I just don't know.

I think Retief is begging me to pick him this week, and I will.  It's a toss up between Poulter and Howell - and CH III has the better record at this course.  Of course I'm also pondering Rocco, he is playing the new Callaway Big Bertha driver. 

I'm getting a little nervous about my Masters prediction - I really hope Justin Leonard has a good tourney this week!

Time to submit my picks!

THANK YOU TIGER!!!  Another weekly win for the fantasy golf team!  Yippee!  We ended up with O'Hair, too, even though I really didn't want to pick him...my brother is smarter than me...so that helped...although his final round was a bit of a downer.  I really wanted to pick Davis Love, but we didn't (phew)...he really struggled....and now he's #51 on the OWGR!!!  This is not good!!!  He is in the field for the Shell, so I hope he steps it up this week!  I want Davis at the Masters...but I don't know if it's mathematically possible...a win would seal it!

Hopefully Justin Leonard is going to get in Masters-ready shape this week - he is a Texas boy, so we'll see if he's ready to win this week and then be the Masters winner I know he can be!

Without Tiger in the field this week it's going to be interesting...Mickelson, Garcia, Els, Hmmm!!  I did eye that Greg Norman is also in the field - he struggled on the Champions Tour this past weekend, but I wouldn't be surprised to see a good showing from him this week...

Time to study up for another win this week!

We're heading to Texas for the pre-Masters warmup Shell Houston Open - and a pretty darn good field is up for grabs this week.  2007 Winner Adam Scott is not in the field this week, so it's time to look at some stats...Vijay Singh has won this event 3 times since 2002, but hasn't played the last two years and seems to still be recovering from his surgery-but maybe being back at a friendly course will be what he needs to win again.  Phil played last year and had a T-23, and Harrington has played here the last 3 years and has made the cut all 3 times.  And a first time player in this event is Sergio - I think he's probably a pretty good pick.  But our "go to" guy is going to be 2008 runner up Geoff Ogilvy.

The B squad is full of interesting options...I campaigned hard for Steve Stricker!  In the past 3 years he's gone T11, T9, and 3rd, so his stats are begging for a pick.  Someone else who has done really well here is Fred Couples...T4 last year and a win in 2003.  Is it his time?  I'm becoming a big fan of McIlroy, and I think he's work a pick.  But the stats also favor Charley Hoffman and Chad Campbell.  Tough calls!

Defending Champion Johnson Wagner (great name) is in the C group, but with 10 starts and 6 missed cuts, I'm not sure he's the guy...especially with some decent names in this group now.  Luke Donald, Charles Howell, and Charlie Wi have proved they can get points.  But some guys with less starts are in the field that should be considered - Alvaro Quaros, Robert Karlsson, and Henrik Stenson are all good choices.  I also want to pick Scott Verplank, but he did us in last year and I'm not sure I can commit.  And of course my heart says, Pick Norman!! 

This is the start of the spring section of fantasy golf, but we're doing a year long event...so we want to keep the winning streak alive.  Go Stricker!!

Masters week made me forget all about making predictions!  We ended up pretty awful, but in my other pools I definitely had my chances.  No big wins though.  Dang.

This week we're at one of my favorite courses - Harbour Town!  The field is missing some A-class players, but there are plenty of good guys to consider as you make your picks this week.  The A-squad has some interesting names...I'm feeling really good about Jim Furyk, but also think that maybe I was just a week off on my Justin Leonard win prediction - this could be his week!  Or maybe it's Ernie Els' week.  I'd really like to pick Stewart Cink, but he's just not posting great finishes so far this year. 

The B-Listers are a tough group - I think you have to start with B, as in Boo Weekley - back to back wins here are hard to argue with.  And just one look at the record of Davis Love here means he has to be on the short list.  But my brother and I both feel good about Tim Clark.  Decent showing at the Masters and it seems like he's ready to break through.  I'm also considering Dustin Johnson...not sure why - just a feeling.  I also want to pick Zach Johnson, but his last week's performance worries me a bit.  Maybe Todd Hamilton will keep the good feelings from Augusta going for this week, too.

Hello Matt Kuchar - he's a fave of mine and he has a top 10 from last year going for him.  I'm tempted to pick Scott Verplank, but I think CH III is worth a pick this week, too.  And with this field, Luke Donald (who I can't believe is a C player) might be worth it too - if you haven't picked him too much already. 

I'm looking forward to the views from Hilton Head!  Good Luck fantasy players!

My brother and I are going through a rough patch right now - 2 weeks of really bad picks.  UGH!  But we're going south now and it's time for a rebound week!  We did our research and came up with  - A-squad - one of my Favorites - Kenny Perry...he's got the game and the laid back attitude to win this tournament.  Other potential players would be Mike Weir and John Merrick, but we're putting Perry in the #1 spot.  The B-team is a little more complicated...we're at the point in the season where we have to start looking at our number of appearances...and even though we've picked him 3 times already, we are going with Nick Watney.  The second pick could have been any number of players - we liked Woody Austin because he's a cut-maker and has been playing decently.  And of course there is Steve Stricker!  But we're looking at saving him for some other tournaments, so he might be benched.  We also had to put defending champion Andres Romero in the mix.  Not a great 2009 so far, but maybe he's due.  And then there's David Toms...I've got a feeling about him this week.  Tough choices!  The C-group is interesting - after a disappointing last week, Matt Kuchar isn't on the top of the list this week.  Charles Howell is been steady all year and seems to be a good choice.  Ian Poulter is also playing this week and may need to be considered.  I am lobbying for Scott Verplank, but we still have some bruises from last fantasy golf season, so I'm not sure yet.  We definitely need a win this week - go Kenny Perry!  Good Luck this week!

I was out of town last week and forgot to post about Quail Hollow - which is probably a good thing because we didn't fare too well.  UGH.(again).  But it's the Players Championship this week!!  An A-List field that is going to require some of the best predicting skills ever to get the right guys on the roster.  After 3 months of weekly discussions with my brother I'm not sure I've even come close to figuring out the magic of picking the right guys on the right weeks.  But we're going out on a little limb this week and hopefully our team will gets us back on the winning track.

All of the A-Squad is ripe for the picking, but after some serious discussion we have decided not to pick Tiger - I know it sounds crazy, and you might think the default is Mickelson, but we're passing on him, too.  We have decided to go with Kenny Perry - I know, I know, he doesn't have the best record at this track, but he's having a great year, and I don't believe the Masters is an obstacle to his success.  This would be a fantastic win for him!

The B-group was tough for us - we studied past performance at Sawgrass and we also looked up current streaks and all that did was give us a lot of options.  In the end we went with Sean O'Hair and Zach Johnson - I campaigned for Freddie, and of course for Steve Stricker (bad track record here took him out of the running), but I think we have some good picks here.

The C-group has some very good players in it, but we finally decided on Henrik Stenson - my brother likes him and he's got some good finishes here.  Luke Donald and Poulter were also on the short list.  We'll see if all of our studying pays off!

We're also doing a family pool for the Players, and my goal once again is to make the Top 5 - it's going to be a fun weekend to watch golf!

Enjoy and Good Luck!

We've been sort of stinking it up in our Fantasy Golf league lately - I talked my brother out of picking Rory last week...OOPS.

But I just wanted to say - YAY Steve Stricker being tied for the lead after round one at Colonial!!!  Come on, Steve!  And right behind him...Kenny Perry!!  It might be some fun golf watching this weekend.

YAY Steve Stricker!!!  I couldn't be more excited!!  What a great playoff - I wasn't sure he'd even have a chance at -17, but that chip-in on 17 was just what he needed.  Way to Go Steve!!!!

About halfway through the fantasty golf season and I realize I'm just awful at this!!  So this week, for the US Open I'm going all heart - I'm picking my favorite players and am going to root for them all weekend - I've tried past performance, I've tried the streaky players, I've looked at stats, but for this week I'm feeling really good that I can root for the guys that are my faves!

A-squad - Kenny Perry!  He's sort of been off the radar since the Masters, so I'm feeling it's his time again - I think he can do well at Bethpage, and he's got the coolest putter on the planet! (Ping Craz-E).  And for my default guy, well, it would just be crazy not to pick Tiger - so he's my bench guy.

B-squad - oh, you know it, Steve Stricker!  I've been saving him for this week and now is his time to shine - if he gets a hot putter this week I think he's going to be in the front page of the leader board all week.  Go Steve!!  My other B-pick is David Toms - I've been a fan for along time and he's just due to win!  My two bench guys are Zach Johnson (Midwest all around good guy) and Sean O'Hair - I'm really liking his game and demeanor on the course.

C-squad - Sectional Medalist in Atlanta - Matt Kuchar!!  I hope he's still feeling inspired after his great showing.  Back up guy is Ian Poulter- I looked at some of his pictures on Twitter yesterday and I think it's cool that he makes the inside the ropes accessible to everyone.

Our family Majors pool is a little more involved and I've got a lot of guys to pick from - I'm still contemplating Sam Johnon's prediction of Angel Cabrera - he's in a grouping that includes a lot of great guys - but maybe it's time to have a little faith.

I wonder if Phil is going to be inspired by the fans in NY?  I wonder if Rocco can remake some of the magic from last year?  What about all those amateurs?  I wonder how they are feeling getting to step foot on a stage as grand as Bethpage with a field that includes some of the world's best?  I can't wait to see and read all of the stories that will unfold.

GO FANTASY TEAM!!  And enjoy the US Open!

If you are doing the Yahoo Fantasy golf like I am, you're probably at the point in the season where the number of times you can pick a player is starting to be a factor.  In our weekly phone chat, my brother and I had a lengthy discussion on Tiger and the rest of the season.  We can only pick Tiger 5 more times, and there 11 weeks left - of which we think Tiger will be playing at least 6 to 8 of them.  We had narrowed it down for 4 events we for sure wanted to pick him, so the decision to use him this week at the AT&T was a difficult one - the field sort of tells us he's probably a good guy to pick, but more importantly, we had to figure out what the other teams in our league might do -and it appears that we're all in the same boat Tiger-wise.

So the decision for all of us is, do we let him go this week and have him available at one of the later Fed Ex events or do we take him early and try to get a lead - and of course there's a chance we all do the same thing and "non Tiger" events become even more important.

So after much debate we benched Tiger for this week to save him for later in the season.  Now the question is...who do we put on our squad now?

Our A-squad came down to Jim Furyk and Anthony Kim - I was torn so we decided to look at the B players before making our A decision...we both agreed with Hunter Mahan right away.  He is just playing so good right now!  We had several other players as options for our second B guy, but limited picks are becoming a factor, too - after considering O'Hair, Watney, Pat Perez, and a few others, we decided to go with a guy that got us some good points last week - Bubba Watson!  Picking Bubba made us decide that we wanted a good solid player for our A-guy so we chose Jim Furyk.  It was a tough call because we have seen how low Kim can go, but getting 4 solid rounds out of Furyk would be good, too.

The C-squad is a bit limited this week, but we ultimately decided on another steady player who hasn't missed a cut yet this year...Rocco Mediate.  He doesn't have a lot of high finishes, but we're thinking maybe Tiger will inspire him this week.

I'm feeling good about the team - and after an awful year last year we're actually holding our own - I'm really hoping Bubba will come through for us with a WIN!!

Good Luck fantasy players!!

Okay, so last week sort of stunk for the fantasy team - turns out that Furyk was worst choice of the 3 we were considering...darn it!  And then Bubba Watson WD'ing just killed our chances - Mahan's 62 on Sunday was awesome, but lots of guys had him so we just got stuck in the middle of the pack since some teams took Tiger.  But hopefully our strategy will pay off at the end of the season!

 This week is the John Deere -not the deepest field of the season, but definitely some options have to be pondered - Kenny Perry sticks out like a sore thumb in the A Squad - but again, here's a guy you might want to keep around for the end of the season.  Cameron Beckman also eems like a good choice.  A quiet guy who is due to break out is Vaughn Taylor - he might be a good sleeper pick!

The B Squad....welcome back Steve Stricker!!  He seems like a slam dunk pick here, but I think he's major worthy and playoff worthy, so we have to see how many times we can still pick him.   I'm becoming a big fan of Lucas Glover, and I see another favorite, Davis Love is in the field, too.  I'm not sure I can pass up Zach Johnson though...for some reason I think he might finish strong this week.  Or maybe I go all Wisconsin and go with Stricker and Jerry Kelly!  So many choices!  I'm not sure I can leave out David Toms either...  I'm sensing a good discussion with my brother this week.

I'm pretty sure my brother arleady knows who I want to pick in the C group...KUCH!!  But we've picked Matt Kuchar quite a few times already this year...but this seems like a good week.  I'd also put on the short list - Scott Verplank and  Charlie Wi.

I hope to see some good golf at the John Deere!

It's almost time to start pondering the British Open!

Congratulations Steve Stricker!!!  Another win at the John Deere this past weekend...woo hoo!  I didn't get to see any of the tourney on TV, but I did see the 61 posted - wow!    We'll see what he can pull off at the British this week.  YAY Steve!

Whoops - I see it's been a month since I've updated our fantasy golf picks!  Well, our league is official over even though we used the Yahoo League set up, and my brother and I came in a solid 3rd place!!...and by solid I mean we got 3rd place by 1 point!!  Our final week was the PGA championship and we had some very interesting discussions on who we were picking...I should start out by saying neither my brother or I realized the league was ending at the end of the PGA - we thought it would be running through the Fed Ex playoffs, so we really messed up as a far as our strategy on Tiger - DANG!  But we ended up picking him for the PGA and then we had to go with our 2 B players and 1 C player - we discussed lots of players and as much as I wanted to put Steve Stricker in the mix, we just weren't 100% sure - I had decided to go with Angel Cabrera - he's long, he won a major this year and I figured he'd at least make the cut and hopefully get us some points - at that point I told my brother the other 2 picks were his, I wouldn't argue - he went with Lee Westwood as our other B guy, which was a great pick, and then with Henrik Stenson as our C guy - another wise choice!  Cabrera did make the cut, but with is 8 on the par-3 8th hole on Sunday (a la Harrington!) he only ended up getting us 2 points for the day...BUT just enough to move up to 3rd place!! WOO HOO!!  AND we were the high team for the week!  It was a really fun year - we had 4 individual weekly wins and an overall 3rd, so we exceeded my hopes for the year by a mile!  We didn't fare to well in the Majors race - we mucked up the British, but we still had lots of fun!

I think we'll be back at it again next year!

Good Luck to everyone who is still doing Fantasy Golf Leagues!