AimPoint PGA Tour Picks

Fantasy Golf Picks

I’m giving myself points for picking winners.  Hopefully my picks can help you win your fantasy golf league this season.  My goal is to get to 111 points for the season, or the equivlant of picking a Top 3 finisher or better each week, based on the point scale below:

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  32 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  1.88 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 Players Championship.  If you Beat The Expert in any week you will win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit (a $9.99 value) with one possible Grand Prize winner at the end of the FedEx Cup season.  See here for official BTE rules.

No weekly winner from last week but I’m back on the map baby.  Both Brad and I got 6 points for Phil Mickelson’s 2nd place finish and a Top 10 (Anthony Kim for me, Jim Furyk for Brad).  Brad moves within 2 points of 1st place on the BTE LB, while I’m just happy to get off the schnide.

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

I’m back!  So what if Tiger Woods missed the cut.  5 points for Phil and 1 point for AK is enough to keep me going.  I’ll be hard pressed to pick Tiger again until he gets back in the win column.  Most disappointing of all is that he completely gave up on the back 9 on Friday, knowing he’d already missed the cut.  Will the rise of the young guns be enough to motivate TW, or is this the beggining of the end for the World’s best golfer?

This week:

And on that note it’s a great time to be a golf fan.  With Rory McIlroy and Ryo Ishikawa shooting career final rounds all the buzz these days is just how great the future is.  I say to hell with the future.  The future IS this week!  Phil could be #1 with a win,  Tiger could miss two consecutive cuts for the first time ever, and all this with the deepest field of the year.  Everyone will be teeing it up at TPC Sawgrass.  Well everyone except Steve Stricker (hurt), Anthony Kim (hurt), Ryo Ishikawa (prior commitment), and Shooter McGavin (fictional character).  The best non-major tournament of the year is here.  The future is upon us.

1.  Jim Furyk

If not for a horrible showing at the Masters, Jim Furyk would be the hottest golfer outside of Lefty.  As it stands now Jimmy is still a real threat to win this week, even if he did choke at Augusta.  It’s been a career year for Furyk in 2010 and we’re not even half way through.  Despite an opening round 75 last week he still managed a Top 10 finish to put him over $2.5 million for the year.  With three career Top 10s at the Players and only two missed cuts in fourteen starts he is about as safe a pick (and that includes the struggling Tiger) as you can get.   Top 10 or bust.

2.  Phil Mickelson

It may not have happened as quick as we had hoped but all of a sudden this has become the year of Phil.  After a super slow start on the West Coast I personally thought it was an opportunity missed.  Now with a win and a 2nd place finish in his last two starts Phil has a shot to overtake the World #1 ranking with a win and Tiger finishing outside the Top 10.   Given his track record at TPC Sawgrass that is a very real possibility.  He won here in 2007 and hasn’t missed the cut since 2000.  I’m sticking with Phil while the gettin’s good. 

3.  Ben Crane

Ben Crane likes this course.  He has two Top 10 finishes the last two years at the Players.  On top of that he is probably playing the most consistent golf of his career (five Top 25 finishes in ten starts this year) even coming off a missed cut in New Orleans.  Crane sat on the 54 hole lead last year before a final round 72.  Already with a win in 2010 this just might be the year that he hangs on to that late lead, unless of course McIlroy shoots a final round 62.

 Happy early Players Sunday!

AimPoint PGA Tour Picks

Fantasy Golf Picks

I’m giving myself points for picking winners.  Hopefully my picks can help you win your fantasy golf league this season.  My goal is to get to 111 points for the season, or the equivlant of picking a Top 3 finisher or better each week, based on the point scale below:

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  26 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  1.63 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 Quail Hollow Championship.  If you Beat The Expert in any week you will win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit (a $9.99 value) with one possible Grand Prize winner at the end of the FedEx Cup season.  See here for official BTE rules.

In a week with unfamiliar names in the Top 10, Craig gets his second weekly win of the year and was the ONLY one with points.  His pick of Stuart Appleby (6th) was good for 1 point and moves him into sole possesion of 3rd place on the BTE LB.  Craig’s new nickname is simply “Clutch.”

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

Much to my dismay, idle threats made to professional golfers on a Fantasy Golf blog do not get results.  Both K.J. Choi and Charles Howell III got off to great starts but faded on the weekend, with only one round in the 60s between them after Thursday.  As a testemant to my continuing jinx, initial pick Steve Stricker withdrew before the tournament started and replacement pick Steve Marino missed the cut by a mile (77-75).  As a man of my word I will stand by my statements from last week.  I will not be picking K.J. Choi for my blog picks the rest of the year.  For the jinx sake, if K.J. goes on to win a major this season I will be expecting a hand written thank you note.

This week:

If you’re not excited about this week’s Quail Hollow Championship then you’re not a golf fan.  An amazing field will be teeing it off in the NC including World #1, Mr. Tiger Woods.  Six of the World Top 10 and twelve of the World Top 20 will be competing at the Quail Hollow Club.  With four par 5’s you can bet their will be plenty of scoring opportunities, though the course plays closer to Augusta then to PGA West.  I haven’t been this excited for a tournament since……..well since a few weeks back at the aforementioned Masters.

But this time around you can bet the house that Tiger will lose the rust.  With that said I’m not f’n around this week.  I’m coming out of the booth and going all big dogs.   

1.  Tiger Woods

The media frenzy may not be as much a factor as first thought.  Either way I fully expect Tiger to dominate this week in an event that he won back in 2007 and where he has three Top 10s in four starts (the other being a T11 finish in 2005).  Averaging a win on the PGA Tour every 2.4 starts in the FedEx Cup era, he’s due for his first win in 2010.  With all the distractions at Augusta (and a shotty putter) he still managed a T4 finish.  I have to think all the kinks have been worked out and Tiger is ready to be Tiger again.  And that’s not easy for me to say as a Phil guy.

2.  Phil Mickelson

This is a great opportunity for Phil Mickelson to close the gap even further in the World rankings.  With Tiger in the field it’s also another chance for a Tiger/Phil final Sunday pairing.  Phil has played this event every year going back to 2004 so he knows the course.  He also does very well, never missing a cut with four Top 10s in six starts.  Can he continue his torrid scoring from a few weeks back?  Odds are good he won’t have back to back eagles but don’t be suprised if he gets back to back wins should Tiger’s putter whoas remain. 

3.  Anthony Kim

Anthony Kim just might be who we thought they were, er……..who we thought he could be, the next best young American golfer.  In a short schedule thus far Kim has a Win, 2nd and 3rd place finish (that’s 6 bonus points for you Rotoffers counting at home) in his last four starts.  Better yet, his 3rd place finish at Augusta was the first time he finished better then Tiger Woods in a PGA Tour event.  After a sluggish start he is starting to get back the swagger that we saw in his sophmore campaign.  I don’t think he can win this week in such a top heavy field but I expect a Top 10.

AimPoint PGA Tour Picks

Fantasy Golf Picks

I’m giving myself points for picking winners.  Hopefully my picks can help you win your fantasy golf league this season.  My goal is to get to 111 points for the season, or the equivlant of picking a Top 3 finisher or better each week, based on the point scale below:

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  12 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  3.00 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 Northern Trust Open.  If you Beat The Expert in any week you will win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit (a $9.99 value) with one possible Grand Prize winner at the end of the FedEx Cup season.  See here for official BTE rules including Grand Prize information.

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

No one Beat the Expert last week.  My 5 points for Sneds‘ 2nd place finish was tops.  Bubba Watson was not impressive, one week removed from an almost win he misses the cut with a bad showing on the South Course at Torrey Pines.  Which brings me to Phil.  What the heck was that?  T5 thru 54 holes and starts bogey, bogey, bogey in the final round.  Disappointing indeed but something us Phil fans are used to.  I’ll take my 5 points which moves me into 2nd on the BTE Leaderboard.

This week:

The West Coast swing continues through Cali with a stop in La La Land and the historic Riviera Country Club.  Past champions here include Ben Hogan, Sam Snead, Byron Nelson and Hale Irwin.  Two time defending champ Phil Mickelson will try to get back on track in the best field of the young year, with four of the World Top 10 in attendance.  This will be our first look at both Jim Furyk (#5) and Padraig Harrington (#8) in 2010.

1. Phil Mickelson

Third times a charm right?  Lets forget one bad day (even though it happened to be the most important final round) and move on.  For three rounds last week Lefty was looking like he would get his first win in his first start and set the golf world on fire with something to talk about besides Tiger (BTW did you like CBS’ five minute opening monologue on Saturday?).  Despite what we saw this last Sunday lets not forget that Phil has won this event the last two years and finished 2nd in 2007 (losing in a playoff).  Phil will put in the work this week and anything outside of a Top 10 will be suprising for the World #2.

 2. Padraig Harrington

Paddy returns to the PGA Tour for his first start of the season.  In three career starts in this event he has two Top 10s and a missed cut coming in 2009.  He hasn’t played since November where he finished T4 on the European Tour’s Dubai World Championship.  Rust aside this is a good spot for Harrington to shine on a familiar course.  Might be too early for a win but look for Paddy to contend well into the weekend.

3. K.J. Choi

It was a down year for K.J. in 2009 with only one Top 10 coming here at the Northern Trust.  But so far so good for Choi in 2010.  Last week he finished just outside the Top 10 at Torrey Pines.  But most impressive is for Segment 1 over the last three years he has an average finish of 10th!  When you add in that he has NEVER missed the cut at Riviera with three Top 10s in nine career starts this one is a no brainer. 

AimPoint PGA Tour Picks

Fantasy Golf Picks

I’m giving myself points for picking winners.  Hopefully my picks can help you win your fantasy golf league this season.  My goal is to get to 111 points for the season, or the equivlant of picking a Top 3 finisher or better each week, based on the point scale below:

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  7 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  2.33 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 Farmers Insurance Open.  If you Beat The Expert in any week you will win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit (a $9.99 value) with one possible Grand Prize winner at the end of the FedEx Cup season.  See here for official BTE rules including Grand Prize information.

Congrats to Eric McClung who not only picked the winner in Bill Haas (10 points) but also got 5 points for his 2nd place pick in Bubba Watson!  That’s an unbelievable start and you jump to the top of the BTE Leaderboard!  Keep those picks coming. You win a FREE 2010 Rotoff Golf Draft Kit!  Please contact me for details on how to claim your prize.

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

Is Tim Clark ever going to get the job done?  He held a brief lead late in the final round but settles for a 2nd place finish.  As much as I would have loved the 10 points, I will take the 5 points for his runner up finish.  Charlie Howell flirted with the Top 10 before a 71 on SilverRock in round 4.  The best Justin Rose could muster was a 67 all week and missed the cut.  Still it was a productive week for me and I’ll take my current #3 standing on the BTE Leaderboard.

This week:

The site of this year’s Buick Invitational, er Century Club of San Diego Open………….I mean Farmers Insurance Open will be played on one of the best courses on the West Coast and the site of the 2008 U.S. Open, Torrey Pines.  (Remember back when Tiger Woods was a family man?)  With Tiger’s return even more in doubt the golf world continues on.  We look to you #2. 

(Keep in mind there are two courses in play for the first two rounds, with the North course typically playing easier then the South course) 

1. Phil Mickelson

The stars could align in 2010 for Lefty if he can get a win this week.  Playing in his first PGA Tour event of the season, Mickelson is no doubt the favorite.  Mickelson has three wins in this event, although the last time was way back in 2001.  Over the last six years he has followed up a poor showing with a Top 10 (T55 2005, T8 2006, T51 2007, T6 2008).  That said he finished T42 in 2009.  In nineteen career starts he has nine Top 10s with just three missed cuts.  If Philly Mick has the putter working it could be a run away win.  But rust could be an issue as he has not played since November at the WGC-HSBC Champions on the European Tour (which he won by the way).  Golf needs you now Phil, no pressure.

 2. Bubba Watson

Watson was awesome last week, finishing T2 with five straight rounds in the 60s (including a 62 in round 2!).  That he is always at the top of the league in driving distance will bode well this week on the long courses of Torrey Pines.   In four career starts here he has two Top 10s with no missed cuts.  I suspect Bubba will be able to maintain his current good play and anything less then a Top 10 will be disappointing.

3. Brandt Snedeker

Sneds has limited experience at the Farmers, but did finish 3rd here as a rookie in 2007.  In his first start of 2010 and somewhat under the radar last week, Brandt managed a T10 finish at the Bob Hope and shot 65 and 66 back to back in rounds 3 and 4.  Typically a slow starter, another Top 10 at Torrey Pines would be huge and could establish Snedy as yet another young American golfer on the rise.  Currently 101 in the World Rankings look for him to be in the Top 50 by years end.  Top 10 or bust.