Bryan Douglass

Fantasy Golf: Hot Topics

June 16, 2009 9:40am CDT

~Hot Topic of the Week~

Quit Thinking So Hard
This is the most exciting time of year for me; not as a fan (we just lost basketball and hockey, football is in putting players on the practice field without pads, and all you can see is baseball for miles), but as a writer.

I love the US Open.

I understand The Masters is the grand daddy of 'em all, the most respected tourney on the planet. It's an outstanding event with loads of history and tradition. I would kill to play on that course and might reach as deep to watch the professional hit it for oversized checks.

It's a magnificent No. 2, but the US Open reigns supreme, and at Bethpage Black, it is the ultimate in golf satisfaction.

The allure of the course, a course any one of us could play, is hard to deny. The fans from New York love sports, and for this particular weekend, golf is as vital and fulfilling as any Yankees, Giants, Knicks, or Rangers game. They flood the golfers with love - unless you are Sergio - and create the ultimate environment for everyone involved.

The golfers feed off that, getting the competitive juices flowing, and so do the fans. The typical US Open brings a rising number of the sports fans from around the office by the cubicle looking for a bit of insight. This season they are just as happy to talk about the game as they are their fantasy rosters. Everyone is excited and anticipates a tremendous Open.

With that in mind, I have just one piece of advice: keep it simple.

When the pressure rises we tend to make things much more difficult than they need to be. This is an event of tremendous intrigue, but two undeniable facts should stand as the voice of reason.

- The scores will not be low. A course already rated as one of the most difficult in the land is made worse by the stringent features implemented by the USGA. The rough will be as detrimental as any we see on the Tour this season. The greens will be as slick and dangerous as the rink at Joe Louis Arena. The scores will follow suit. When the US Open hit this course in 2002, only one golfer managed to finish with a four-day score under par. You can expect the same this season.

- As a result of this environment, only the elite can be expected to emerge victorious. There will be smaller names that surprise. There will be PGA grinders that maximize the opportunity and shine. There will be a strong grouping of the world's best in the top ranks of the final leaderboard. None of these rank as extraordinary, but this course and this event do, and the winner is likely to reflect that stature.

Keep that in mind as you fill your fantasy roster this week. Some of you will be forced to gamble on a lesser name by roster structure. The vast majority will simply be asked to pick golfers.

Regardless of your situation, don't think so hard. The list of golfers with the talent, skills, experience, mental fortitude, and desire to win this US Open is extremely small and is filled with names the casual fan is likely to know (and if you don't, we'll give 'em to you in the Owner's Edge tomorrow).

It may be boring, but the safe play, now more than ever, is the right play.

~Hot Hand~

Jason Day
Day entered this season as a phenom struggling to find his way in the professional ranks. He turned to a new approach, limited and focused his schedule, and he's now working as a golfer to fear.

Jason Day has gotten hot just in time for a nice US Open run.

Day surprised first by logging four consecutive finishes that introduced him as one of the most intriguing fantasy wagers of the early season. He finished T35 at the Buick Invitational (a complete surprise), followed by T14 at Pebble Beach (a shock). Then came a T28 at the Mayakoba surging towards a second-place finish at the Puerto Rico Open (both lackluster fields, but he took advantage).

This was followed by a stretch of struggle that put us off the scent, missing the cut at the Transitions Championship and the Texas Open with an early withdrawal at the Arnold Palmer and a T32 at the Zurich Classic sandwiched in between. He looked like the Jason Day we expected.

Now, he's back in the hunt, carding a T4 finish at Crowne Plaza, T27 at the Memorial, and T23 at last week's St. Jude Classic. He's got his game working as well as we've ever seen and he's posting the numbers to support continued optimism.

~Cold Feet~

Charles Howell III
Hit the current PGA Money Leaders list and you may wonder how CH3 gets listed here. Sitting at No. 28 he's enjoyed a rise of sorts over the early weeks of the campaign, missing just one cut over his first 12 starts of the season, nine coming in the top 50, five in the top 20, and three in the top five (including two second-place finishes, at the Transitions Championship and the Zurich Classic). We were ready to throw ourselves on the bandwagon.

We hesitated, a choice that appears to have been a turn of good fate.

Since the battle win at the Zurich Classic Howell III has been troubled. He has filed five PGA starts since that trip to Louisiana and has yet to produce an outing that resembles the early success. He found his second missed cut of the season at the Quail Hollow Championship (shooting 79 on Friday) followed by his third at THE PLAYERS (73-73). He got back to weekend play at the Byron Nelson but still managed to falter, shooting 73 on Sunday to fall to T45. Then came the Memorial which resulted in another missed cut (75-77), followed by another missed cut last week at the St. Jude Classic.

That's four missed cuts over his last five starts with more than a few worrisome rounds carded along the way. If he can't get right at the US Open, it may be time to officially jump ship.

Official World Golf Rankings

RANK / PLAYER / PTS AVG
1 Tiger Woods 10.28
2 Phil Mickelson 7.99
3 Paul Casey 7.02
4 Sergio Garcia 6.42
5 Geoff Ogilvy 6.20
6 Henrik Stenson 5.91
7 Kenny Perry 5.55
8 Steve Stricker 5.53
9 Vijay Singh 5.12
10 Jim Furyk 5.04
11 Padraig Harrington 4.86
12 Camilo Villegas 4.76
13 Sean O'Hair 4.47
14 Robert Karlsson 4.43
15 Anthony Kim 3.93
16 Ernie Els 3.74
17 Ian Poulter 3.73
18 Rory McIlroy 3.71
19 Lee Westwood 3.67
20 Zach Johnson 3.64
21 Mike Weir 3.42
22 Luke Donald 3.41
23 Martin Kaymer 3.28
24 Retief Goosen 3.27
25 Stewart Cink 3.27

PGA Money Leaders

PLACE / PLAYER / MONEY
1 Geoff Ogilvy $3,319,045
2 Zach Johnson $3,305,441
3 Phil Mickelson $3,250,731
4 Tiger Woods $3,246,813
5 Steve Stricker $3,117,036
6 Sean O'Hair $3,047,542
7 Kenny Perry $2,776,705
8 Brian Gay $2,740,535
9 Nick Watney $2,587,386
10 Paul Casey $2,560,610
11 Rory Sabbatini $2,419,619
12 Jim Furyk $2,147,603
13 Dustin Johnson $2,078,103
14 David Toms $2,025,115
15 Kevin Na $1,890,219
16 Ian Poulter $1,864,808
17 Retief Goosen $1,788,640
18 Angel Cabrera $1,690,695
19 Tim Clark $1,669,284
20 Brian Davis $1,609,951
21 Charley Hoffman $1,545,078
22 Jerry Kelly $1,528,557
23 Mike Weir $1,520,729
24 John Rollins $1,450,465
25 Luke Donald $1,449,450

FedEx Cup Point Standings

PLAYER / FEDEX POINT
Zach Johnson 1,609
Geoff Ogilvy 1,511
Steve Stricker 1,497
Brian Gay 1,468
Tiger Woods 1,449
Sean O'Hair 1,387
Phil Mickelson 1,386
Kenny Perry 1,347
Nick Watney 1,289
Paul Casey 1,139
Rory Sabbatini 1,115
David Toms 1,027
Dustin Johnson 1,009
Jim Furyk 964
Retief Goosen 934
Charley Hoffman 889
Kevin Na 870
Tim Clark 855
Steve Marino 806
Charles Howell III 795
Luke Donald 791
Pat Perez 791
Angel Cabrera 772
Brian Davis 760
Jerry Kelly 759

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