Update Sunday night: The final scoring is complete. With Luke Donald’s win, Wiles is your Match Play Bracket Challenge winner!

Ah yes it’s that special time of year again!  March Madness in the middle of February.  Shlink Lincoln Sports is proud to announce the 2nd annual Rotoff Golf Match Play Bracket Challenge.

Download the 2011 WGC-Accenture Match Play Bracket below:

http://rotoff.shlinklincolnsports.com/2011-wgc-accenture-match-play-championship-bracket.xls

Save the excel sheet to your computer.  Fill in all the winners and enter your information on the Championship+ tab*.  Save your bracket and  email to

admin @ shlinklincolnsports dot com

Points will be awarded based on the following scale:

1st Round Winner:  1 Point

2nd Round Winner: 2 Points

3rd Round Winner: 4 Points

4th Round Winner: 8 Points

5th Round Winner: 16 Points

6th Round Winner (Champion): 32 Points

Bonus points will also be awarded for upsets in the 1st Round based on the difference in seeds.  For example if you pick a 16 over a 1 seed you would get 15 bonus points (16-1).  Bonus points will be awarded for the 1st round only for all correct upset seed picks.  The person with the most points at the conclusion of the tournament will win a Shlink Lincoln Sports baseball cap ($25 value).  See excel sheet for official rules and directions.

2011 Rotoff Golf Match Play Bracket Challenge

Leaderboard

(teams listed alphabetically.  colums are sortable, click on “Rank” or “Total Points”)

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:  22 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  3.67 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play 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.

Ed gets the job done for a second time this year with 11 total points.  He got not only the winner in Dustin Johnson but also gets a point for Phil’s first Top 10 of 2010.  It also moves him into 2nd place overall on the BTE Leaderboard, just two points shy of our fearless leader McClung.  Nice work Ed. 

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

It was a great week for me in getting my first winning pick of the year in Dustin Johnson.  Garcia was on his way to a Top 10 before a +5 final round score that dropped him to T52.  Luke Donald only broke 60 once last week but still managed a T16 finish.  At least no one missed the cut.

This week:

Changing it up just a bit this week with the Match Play.  Instead of three picks I would like everyone to give their bracket winners, though the same point scale will apply.

For the first time in the history of this event there will be no Tiger or Phil.  While some may argue that it will be boring (this event is usually always boring after the first few rounds) it will be a chance for some of the young guns to shine.  This will be our first time in 2010 seeing Villegas, McIlroy and Anthony Kim (seriously can anyone vouch for him really playing the Northern Trust?).  Match Play is pretty much like the NCAA tournament, the first few rounds are exciting and the last rounds rarely live up to the hype.  I for one think the 36 hole championship round is 18 holes to long.  Rarely does the championship match have any real drama.  But I digress.

There are some great 1st round pairings this year.  Vijay vs. Clark.  Garcia vs. Toms.  Villegas vs. DJ.  Always a hard tournament to predict, it really comes down to who is hot and putting well.  It’s definately a grind and expect to see some early round upsets this year  (I’ll call it now, Toms over Garcia).  Having just filled out my Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge bracket I’m ready to announce this year’s bracket winners.

1. Steve Stricker (Bobby Jones Bracket)

Now #2 in the world there’s not much left for Stricker to accomplish in the golf world except a Major title.  Winning here would be a good start towards that goal.  Over the last seven years, six of the Match Play winners have also got a Major.  It’s hard to argue that anyone outside of DJ is playing better then Stricker right now and I expect that to continue this week.  Being a #1 seed doesn’t hurt either.

 2. Rory McIlroy (Ben Hogan Bracket)

Rory could have an easy go in the first few rounds before having to meet Donald or Allenby in the 3rd round.  In just two events this year on the European Tour, McIlroy has a 3rd place and T6 finish.  If he can continue that success in the states it could be a great year for the youngster from across the pond.

3. Geoff Ogilvy (Gary Player Bracket)

The last time we saw Mr. Ogilvy he was victorious in Hawaii at the season opening SBS Championship.  Geoff has become an elite golfer who has the luxary of picking and choosing his PGA Tour schedule.  It cannot be overlooked that he has won this event twice and has a good track record (3 career wins) in his home state of AZ.  The only real hurdle in his way could be the winner of the Villegas/DJ matchup in the 2nd round.

4. Zach Johnson (Sam Snead Bracket)

ZJ hasn’t played since the Sony so rust could be a factor.  As the #6 seed he could have a somewhat easy draw as no one outside of Paul Casey really scare me in his possible early round matches.  Zach made a deep run (albeit on a different course) in 2006, winning the consolation match for a 3rd place finish.  If he can continue his great short game play (6th in GIR) he should make a deep run.

If you would like to play in the Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge please get your brackets in before Wednesday at 8:00 am pst.  Good luck.

 Follow the Match Play scoring all week long at the link below:

http://www.pgatour.com/leaderboards/current/r470/index.html

It’s that time again!  March Madness in the middle of February.  Shlink Lincoln Sports is proud to annouce the 1st annual Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge. 

Download the 2010 WGC-Accenture Match Play Bracket below:

http://rotoff.shlinklincolnsports.com/2010-wgc-accenture-match-play-championship-bracket.xls

Save the excel sheet to your computer.  Fill in all the winners and enter your information on the Championship+ tab*.  Save your bracket and  email to

admin @ shlinklincolnsports dot com

Points will be awarded based on the following scale:

1st Round Winner:  1 Point

2nd Round Winner:  2 Points

3rd Round Winner:  4 Points

4th Round Winner:  8 Points

5th Round Winner:  16 Points

6th Round Winner (Champion):  32 Points

Bonus points will also be awarded for upsets in the 1st Round based on the difference in seeds.  For example if you pick a 16 over a 1 seed you would get 15 bonus points (16-1).  Bonus points will be awarded for the 1st round only for all correct upset seed picks.

2010 Rotoff Golf Match Play Challenge

Leaderboard

(teams listed alphabetically.  colums are sortable, click on “Rank” or “Total Points”)

Name = No more possible points

Congrats to our winner Shane Nelson who won a Shlink Lincoln Sports Baseball Cap ($25 value). 

*See Match Play Bracket for official rules.

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.

Winner = 10 points

2nd Place = 5 points

3rd Place = 3 points

Top 10 = 1 point

2009 Fantasy Golf Picks Total:  16 Points

2009 Fantasy Golf Preview Weekly Average:  2.3 Points

Last week: 

Allenby flirted with the Top 10 at Riviera but that was about it.  Weir made the cut but was never in contention and Glover shot 73 & 74 to miss the cut.  The drought continues.

This week:

Match Play is a crap shoot, but one of the best non-major tournaments of the year.  My general feeling going into tomorrow is that Tiger will struggle some but still manage to win a few matches.  But because they are playing on a brand new course it is a little more difficult to bring in past performance.  The Ritz-Carlton GC in Tucson plays very long and it’s going to be the putter that will determines who moves on.  For the sake of Match Play I will pick one golfer from each bracket that I think has a shot to get to the Final Four.  View the bracket here.

1. Camilo Villegas (Bobby Jones Bracket)

Camilo is coming off a T3 finish at the Buick Invitational and is the #3 seed in the Bobby Jones Bracket.  This is also the same bracket that Tiger resides in.  Tiger should have no trouble getting past #64 Brendan Jones, but could struggle in round 2 against either Goosen or Tim Clark, both of whom are playing great golf through the West Coast swing.  Villegas plays Pampling in round 1 and has a relativley easier draw in through round 3 (excluding Ogilvy).  Tiger will struggle and Villegas will come out of the Bobby Jones bracket.

2. Luke Donald (Ben Hogan Bracket)

Donald has two Top 10s in his last two starts and has a great track record in this event, finishing no worse then T17 (winning the first two rounds) since 2005.  Donald has a great draw this year with a struggling Vijay and Ernie on his side of the bracket through the first two rounds.  Dustin Johnson could pose a threat and Phil will too but ultimately I think Donald survives to make the Final Four.

3. Adam Scott (Gary Player Bracket)

Scott hasn’t played since the Sony Open (T2 finish) and could be rusty.  Looking at the top players in this bracket Scott seems the only one that jumps out at me as the #5 seed.  It’s simply a hunch.  Take it or leave it.

4. Henrik Stenson (Sam Snead Bracket)

In the last two years Stenson has a 3rd place finish and a win and as a #2 seed this year should cruise again.  #1 Harrington has looked average at best so far this year and #3 Kim has never played in this event before.  Furyk and Love III could make some noise but with his clutch experience here, look for Stenson to continue his dominance in the desert.

WGC – Accenture Match Play Championship
The Gallery at Dove Mountain – Tucson, Arizona