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:  52 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  1.67 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 PGA 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.

There was no weekly winner last week but congrats to Dr. Peerless (Steve Stricker, Rory McIlroy) and Brad (Jim Furyk and Stricker) who both tied with 2 points.  It was enough to give Brad a slight cushion in his #1 spot atop the BTE LB.  It should definitely be interesting down the stretch run as just six weeks remain in the PGA Tour season and Brad holding a slight four point lead over #2 McClung. 

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

What the hell happened?  Tiger Woods looked like Sir Charles out there.  Forget the women, forget the “mental” part of the game, there’s something else going on here.  And not very many are talking about it.  Tiger’s body (and game) have completely broken down.  Now that may be a bold statement but even if it’s not adjusting to golf without PEDs, there is something else besides a “mental” block going on behind the curtain.  How do you go from super-human to sub-par?  Most likely we’ll never know.  Odds are good that Tiger bounces back from this someday but that day appears later then sooner (and not this week).

Both Paul Casey and Sergio Garcia looked good in spurts, finishing T22.  I missed a golden opportunity to gain ground on the field and with just a handful of events left in the PGA Tour regular and playoff season my performance this season is no where near my pace from 2009. 

This week:

The PGA Championship returns to Whistling Straits for the first time since 2004, ironically the last year Tiger was not #1 in the World Golf Rankings.  This is about as wide open a major as I can remember in the Tiger era.  And the first time that Tiger is not the odds on favorite out of Vegas.  The whole golf world is changing before our very eyes.  While it may hurt for the short term I compare it to (not to get political) America’s dependance on oil.  It might be time for the PGA Tour to ween itself off it’s Tiger dependancy. 

Sure a winning Tiger is good for ratings and good for golf.  Hell, part of me wants to see Tiger get back to somekind of dominance.  But on the other hand it might be time for the PGA Tour to come up with another game plan.  Tiger won’t be around forever and the dropping ratings this season are just the beginning of their worries.  Let’s not kid ourselves.  Golf is entering a brand new world.  And just in time for Glory’s Last Shot.  I’ll be honest.  I have no idea how this weekend will turn out.

1.  Rory McIlroy

Ah to be young again.  You might say the glass is half full if Rory McIlroy could get the win on Sunday.  In his only appearance in the PGA Championship last season, Rory finished T3.  He already has a Top 3 major finish this year (T3 at the British) and is coming off a Top 10 last week.  It would be one hell of a story if Rory could pull out a major win at the young age of 21.  Something not accomplished since Tiger at the 1997 Masters.  It would almost be too perfect.

2.  Ernie Els

Ernie Els has two Top 10s in the PGA in his last four tries, including a T6 last year.  Don’t be fooled by Ernie’s disappearing act last Sunday.  He is playing as well as anyone on tour right now and has the experience to handle the weekend pressure at a major championship.  Several years ago when Mr. Els set his goal to be #1 in the world many thought the idea absurd.  A win this week and that once lofty goal would be in his sights.  Expect at least another Top 10 from Ernie.

3.  Jim Furyk

It just makes sense to round out my picks with the seasoned pro.  Jim Furyk is enjoying a career year.  Even though he has not faired well in this event recently (no Top 10s the last seven years), he is coming off two straight Top 10 finshes.  With only three missed cuts this season you can count on Jimmy to be around on the weekend.

Sleepers (outside World Top 50):  J.B. Holmes and Vijay Singh

Standard calcutta format (i.e. not parimutuel):

• Deadline: The calcutta ends Wednesday August 11th at 5:00 PM Eastern.

• Payment: Josh LaFountain AKA “Wurgler” will be handling the collection of money and prize payouts. Accepted payment methods are Money Order, Certified/Cashiers Checks, and PayPal. We will post the information after the bidding closes. Please contact Josh if you have any questions regarding payment. Payment instructions will be given after Auction’s close.

NOTE:
a) No partial payments if you split a golfer!!! It’s too much of a hassle for us to keep track of. The person who actually won the bid is responsible for the entire amount.

b) Be able to make your payment within 24 hours of the end of the bidding. If this is not possible, have someone else bid for you who can.

c) A small administrative fee (3%) will be deducted from the total prize pool.

Please remember the One Hour Rule:

• The One Hour Rule: This rule is put into place to squash any attempts to sandbag bids at the last minute.

If a bid is placed in the last hour of the Calcutta (i.e. between 4:00 and 4:00 PM on Wednesday August 11th) then an additional one hour of bidding time (from the time of said bid) will be added for the player being bid upon.

This will continue to happen as long as the bidding for the player continues.

Example: If someone bids on Tiger Woods at 4:26 PM on the 11th, Tiger’s deadline will be extended until 5:26 PM. If someone then bid again on Tiger, at say 5:02 PM, then his deadline would be further extended to 6:02 PM.

• Betting Minimum: Each player will begin with a bet of no less than $10. Bidding increments go up as the bids get higher.

• The Field: There WILL be a Field Bid, however it will not be available until the main bidding period ends at 5:00 PM on Wednesday, August 11th. At that point, all players who have not received a bid, will be included in “The Field”. Bidding will continue as per the One Hour Rule set forth above.

• Prize Structure: Four prizes, split will be 40%, 30%, 20%, and 10% of prize pool.

• Sign Up: You will be required to register before you place a bid. PLEASE, ONLY USE YOUR REAL NAME!!!

• Email Notification: You will (should) receive an email notification indicating that your bet has been accepted. You will (should) also receive an e-mail notification when someone outbids you. There have been issues in the past with emails, so please don’t rely on them!

CLICK HERE TO GO TO THE SITE!!!

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:  52 Points

2010 Fantasy Golf Picks Weekly Average:  1.73 Points

Think you can pick better?  Leave a comment with your 3 picks for the 2010 WGC-Bridgestone Invitational.  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.

Before I get to last week’s winner I want to send a very special THANK YOU to Eric McClung who came to the rescue of Shlink Lincoln Sports on very short notice, and who produced some awesome expert results.  I know it won’t be the last time we see Mr. McClung contributing on this site and our new (not quite ready) site at Rotoff.com.  Thanks again E. 

Beat the Expert Leaderboard

Last Week:

Not a bad way to return from blogcation.  The weekly win goes to yours truly with 6 points (Jeff Overton 5 points, Jim Furyk 1 point).  It’s nice to be back somewhat near the top of the BTE LB, though this year has been a dissappointing one for me with only one winner picked.  With only seven weeks left in the competition it’s time for me to prove my “expert” self.   

This week:

Don’t start thinking about College Football just yet.  We still have seven awesome weeks of golf ahead, including the final major of the year next week at Whistling Straits.  But lets not forget Firestone.  Another star studded yet small field takes the course on Thursday including our first Anthony Kim sighting in months.  The FedEx cup title has never been more wide open and the winner this week will get a good chunk of FedEx cup points. 

1.  Tiger Woods

Does anyone else notice the great big elephant in the room?  HGH or no HGH, it’s hard to argue with Tiger Woods record at this event.  With seven wins in ten career starts and finishing no worse then T4, this is a great time for Tiger to get “healthy.”  When the season began what do you think the Vegas odds were that Tiger would go winless in 2010?  Well don’t look now but there’s only seven more chances for El Tigre.  Not that I think it will happen.  If Tiger is going to win at all this year it will be this weekend. 

2.  Paul Casey

Following Paul Casey’s minor collapse at THE Open Championship was a missed cut (only his 3rd of the year) at the Canadion Open.  But don’t let that fool you, Casey is a monster in WGC events.  He has six Top 10s in his last nine WGC starts.  Currently ranked #9 in the world, watch out for Sir Paul come playoff time.  It will be tough for him to win in such a deep field but a Top 10 should be a cinch.

3.  Sergio Garcia

I don’t know what I’m doing with this pick.  Everytime I pick Sergio Garcia to win he misses the cut and heckles fans.  Well at least he heckles me.  Lingering just inside the World Top 50 (ranked behind Adam Scott I might add) there is really no rhyme or reason for this insanity, other then he is on my Rotoff Golf team and he needs to pull his head out of the ass if I’m going to grab the #2 seed and a first round SLS Cup bye.  You want stats?  How about only four of his last twelve rounds have been in the 60s.  WTF am I thinking?