Fantasy Golf: Hot Topics

June 2, 2009 10:44am CDT

~ Hot Topic of the Week ~
- Careful What You Ask For...
I've been keeping track of the internet "reviews" of the Great One thus far. After all, he's the most engaging story in sports and I figured he was bound to hit the links at least once before the US Open. During that time the world was allowed to wax poetic while we waited and wondered when he would poke his bag back out of his shell and give us another glimpse at the current state of his game.

To be honest, I thought, after reading many of them, it would be fun.

I have to admit that I've enjoyed watching Tiger struggle to get on top of the leaderboard here in the past months. Aside from the great putt to win at Bay Hill, Tiger has put himself in the hunt in every tournament since, including the Masters, but just hasn't found the gusto to make that push on Sunday.
- Christian, TourGolfBlog.com (May 13, 2009)

"Before knee surgery, Tiger was so dominant that second place meant victory for other players. Now they are motivated by a growing chance of beating him. Because of that, the level of play is improving further," Shingo Katayama said Tuesday at a press conference hosted by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan.
- Associated Press (May 19, 2009)

Tiger Woods couldn't make a putt outside 4 feet... Woods opened his round with four straight birdie chances inside 12 feet and missed them all.
- Associated Press (May 7, 2009)

Sorry, I cannot help but have fun at Tiger's expense. The guy can afford it. However, it is strange to see Tiger Woods struggle at TPC Sawgrass.
- Lulu McGrew, GolfTalkOnline.com (May 7, 2009)

While the unknowns were assaulting the leader board in relative obscurity, the fans followed the Tour's marquee players, who mostly survived the cut - barely. Tiger Woods? He needed four birdies on the back nine to finish with a 69 and grab a tie for 22nd place at four under, seven strokes behind (Alex) Cejka.
- Ben Volin, Palm Beach Post (May 9, 2009)

World No. 1-ranked golfer Tiger Woods, after appearing to struggle through the weekend-playing with uncharacteristic inconsistency, bogeying twice in the final rounds, and breaking clubs-shocked the crowd at Augusta by stripping off a carefully crafted mask and revealing that he had created the character of "Zach Johnson," played both Johnson's rounds and his own, and was in fact the winner of this year's Masters.
- The Onion

There are five accounts of chaos and anarchy, and one that believes Tiger is actually disguised as Zach Johnson (that's an old one, but those folks at The Onion... they rock). The bulk of the world has spent the last month telling you how awful Tiger has been playing, how horrific he has been in these early performances, especially at Quail Hollow and THE PLAYERS.

Understand two things.

1) This is a man that has six starts on the PGA Tour this season, five of them resulting in top-10 finishes. The sixth? T17 at the WGC Accenture Match Play Championship... in other words, he lost in the second round of match play, and it's not like Tim Clark destroyed him.

2) This is the greatest golfer the game has ever known, he's coming off major knee surgery after WINNING the US Open on a broken leg... and the best these folks can come up is, "He is two-putting much more than he used to."

Keep that in mind as you watch the events unfold at the Memorial this weekend. Tour the internet again and you'll find many of the heads in the industry looking at Tiger as the (you guessed it) odds on favorite to win. Many of them are pointing out those same questions and noting that Tiger often rises in the face of adversity.

We are suggesting that Tiger reads, and that he read much of the analysis you read above... and now you've pissed him off.

Of course, it's also fair to note that any one of us, including yours truly, would much rather wager on Tiger and lose than to bet against him and be proven a fool.

We should all be careful what we ask for.


~ Hot Hand ~
- Steve Stricker We typically attempt to avoid the winner from the previous week for these "awards," but we've been lining up Stricker (a personal favorite for this writer) for some time and we can no longer keep him on hold. Besides... the victory at the Colonial seems the perfect exclamation point on the season he's enjoyed thus far.

The two-time PGA Comeback Player of the Year recipient has registered 12 PGA starts this season. Outside of two missed cuts (the FBR Open, Houston Open), the T23 he filed at the Sony Open - the first tourney of the season - ranks as his worst finish to date, a fact that astounds as you read the list of finishes he's carded since.

3rd place at the Bob Hope, shooting 65-67-61-62-77.

2nd place at the Northern Trust Open, shooting 68-66-69-67.

13th place at the WGC CA Championship, shooting 69-70-70-69.

4th place at the Transitions Championship, shooting 69-67-73-69.

6th place at The Masters, carding rounds of 72-69-68-71.

7th place at the Zurich Classic, shooting 68-73-69-67.

22nd place at THE PLAYERS, rounds registered at 71-71-71-73.

The win last week at Colonial, shooting 63-63-69-68 (winning on the second playoff hole over Tim Clark).

Stricker's combined scores through 10 PGA finishes: 102 strokes under par. He's first on the Tour in scoring average (69.02), beating No. 2 ranked Tim Clark (ironic, huh?). He also tops the Tour in adjusted scoring average (computed by adding a player's total strokes to an adjustment, computed by the stroke average of the field for each round played, and then dividing by the total rounds played).

After the win at the Crowne Plaza Invitational last week, having watched Clark hit his approach off the flag to push his putt well past 20 feet, Stricker noted, "You need breaks to win, that's why winning is so special, so hard to do."

It also helps when you are playing so well.


~ Cold Feet ~
- John Merrick The season started so well for Mr. Merrick. There were missteps (T65 at the Sony Open, T60 at the FBR Open, T64 at the Northern Trust), but he finished second at the Bob Hope Classic, T28 at the Mayakoba Classic, T27 at the Honda Classic, and T6 at the Puerto Rico Open. After he moved on to finish T6 at The Masters, Merrick moved into the top 20 on the PGA Money Leaders list and appeared to be headed towards bigger and better things. Jason Sobel of ESPN labeled him among the top-five duffers active on the Tour without a PGA win.

Since then, he has struggled.

After a week off to enjoy the moral victory from Augusta National, Merrick hit the Zurich Classic and started with a step in the right direction, shooting 67-69 to easily qualify for the weekend, but the wheels fell off, shooting 72 on Saturday followed by a round of 77 on Sunday to fall back to T42. That was followed by a 75 on Friday at Quail Hollow to miss the cut (only his third missed cut this season).

Things have not improved. At THE PLAYERS Merrick made the weekend after shooting 70-72, but he failed to make good on the opportunity, carding rounds of 74-79 to finish T66. After an extended rest he was hoping to get right last week at the Crowne Plaza, but after making the cut on the number with rounds of 71-68, he found frustration on Sunday once again, shooting 75 to fall back to T74.

His driving accuracy (112th on Tour), putting (80th on Tour), and sand saves (182nd on Tour) are all falling and serve as indication towards Merrick's demise. He's a great young golfer, but until he gets his game back in line, you should approach with caution.


Official World Golf Rankings
RANK PLAYER PTS.AVG.
1 Tiger Woods 9.18
2 Phil Mickelson 8.27
3 Paul Casey 7.15
4 Sergio Garcia 6.53
5 Geoff Ogilvy 6.09
6 Henrik Stenson 6.06
7 Kenny Perry 5.75
8 Steve Stricker 5.65
9 Vijay Singh 5.23
10 Padraig Harrington 5.07
11 Camilo Villegas 4.82
12 Robert Karlsson 4.49
13 Sean O'Hair 4.47
14 Jim Furyk 4.41
15 Anthony Kim 3.90
16 Ian Poulter 3.81
17 Rory McIlroy 3.80
18 Ernie Els 3.73
19 Zach Johnson 3.73
20 Lee Westwood 3.68
21 Luke Donald 3.39
22 Martin Kaymer 3.37
23 Ross Fisher 3.33
24 Alvaro Quiros 3.32
25 Mike Weir 3.31


- PGA Money Leaders

PLACE PLAYER MONEY
1 Zach Johnson $3,292,121
2 Phil Mickelson $3,238,635
3 Geoff Ogilvy $3,169,045
4 Steve Stricker $3,076,236
5 Sean O'Hair $3,047,542
6 Kenny Perry $2,735,905
7 Paul Casey $2,547,950
8 Nick Watney $2,497,253
9 Rory Sabbatini $2,419,619
10 Tiger Woods $2,166,813
11 Dustin Johnson $1,987,970
12 Kevin Na $1,857,069
13 Ian Poulter $1,850,918
14 Retief Goosen $1,755,992
15 Brian Gay $1,732,535
16 Angel Cabrera $1,690,695
17 Tim Clark $1,636,636
18 Brian Davis $1,609,951
19 David Toms $1,532,315
20 Charley Hoffman $1,529,814
21 Jim Furyk $1,499,603
22 John Rollins $1,450,465
23 Pat Perez $1,428,201
24 Jerry Kelly $1,425,130
25 Charles Howell III $1,410,998


- FedEx Cup Point Standings

PLAYER FEDEX POINT
Zach Johnson 1,598
Steve Stricker 1,456
Geoff Ogilvy 1,441
Sean O'Hair 1,387
Phil Mickelson 1,377
Kenny Perry 1,306
Nick Watney 1,236
Paul Casey 1,236
Rory Sabbatini 1,134
Brian Gay 1,115
Dustin Johnson 956
Tiger Woods 949
Retief Goosen 897
Charley Hoffman 868
Kevin Na 834
Tim Clark 817
Charles Howell III 795
Pat Perez 791
David Toms 782
Angel Cabrera 772
Brian Davis 760
Steve Marino 760
John Rollins 745
Luke Donald 738
Ian Poulter 733


Bryan Douglass is an Associate Editor for Fanball.com, providing analysis and commentary for the NFL, NBA, and PGA neighborhoods of the world's preeminent sports community. He also serves as the Denver Broncos Correspondent (BroncosStable.com) and Denver Nuggets Correspondent (DunkingNuggets.com) for the Fanball Blog Network. You can also find his work syndicated at RotoTimes.com, TheGolfChannel.com, and Comcast.net. He appears on The Statsman Show on Wednesday evenings to discuss the NBA and can also be found trolling the forums at RotoJunkie.com. You can contact Bryan via email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Digg.