PGA Hot Topics

July 27, 2010 10:14am CDT

~ Hot Topic of the Week ~

- The Lesson of Greenbrier

Every week I compile the Fanball Weekly Player Rankings as I watch the final round of whatever tourney is running on Sunday. I relax on the couch and I watch the leaderboard move along, but more importantly, I review the course that waits in the week ahead, I check out the field, I'll comb through the past leaderboards from the upcoming event, and I'll check out the recent results. We try to combine all of that not only for the Weekly Ranks but also for the Bench/Start you'll find at Owner's Edge on Wednesday.

Those rankings are posted on the site on Monday, much like the top 10 are posted as compiled by Rob Bolton with PGATour.com. He works for the Tour... so he has access to numbers and calculations I do not. He puts out 10 players while we post 20. Regardless, I'm a ball of stress and every week, as much as I hate to admit it, I check his rankings against my own to see what we have in common. In most week's we'll have about five, maybe six, guys in common. After all, we are looking for many of the same trends and while Mr. Bolton seems to put more emphasis on momentum and I will often lean towards historical performance, we often agree on some of the best in the field for the week.

This week we are both tackling the Greenbrier Classic. It is a brand-new event setting the PGA duffers adrift on a maiden voyage on the Old White Course in West Virginia... a track that has NEVER hosted a PGA event. There are no past leaderboards to review. I can't dive into player resumes to see how they've done in the past on this track. Half of my research effort has been tossed to the curb.

And for the first time ever, all 10 of Bolton's picks match names on my own. Every single player he names made my list of 20, and while we differ in order, we are looking to the same names for fantasy rosters in this trying week.

And the lesson is this: when we are all reviewing the same course with the same data and the same lean towards recent momentum, we turn to the same names in hopes of keeping our own fantasy momentum moving forward.

The folks in your fantasy league will be doing the same, making this week one of (if not the) most challenging you'll face this season.

For what it's worth, Bolton and I disagree on one point of contention: he feels distance off the tee won't matter (though his rankings don't reflect it... if distance doesn't matter, you don't rank Jim Furyk eighth) and I stand firm in a belief it will.

Tune in tomorrow to catch my picks. Tune in on Sunday to see if Bolton proves me wrong.

~ Stock Up ~

- Charlie Wi
To be frank, the desire to keep Wi off of this spot is strong as, for the second consecutive week, we are facing a tourney at a venue that has never served as a PGA host before. Momentum is as strong as ever in motivating us to hire these fantasy commodities and that puts Wi in the middle of our fantasy radar. We want to use him for the Bench/Start tomorrow - and we may - but with his work at the Canadian Open last week he surged to the top of our "Stock Up" listings and thus we will make the sacrifice.

Wi has long been known as one of the best grinders on the Tour, a capable vet with a reliable putter and a great deal of course knowledge. As luck would have it, he happened to get hot at the time when experience might not be as beneficial as usual and thus he has been able to tackle courses he doesn't know as well and kept his momentum going.

We could suggest this streak started at the Texas Open in May where Wi finished T17, or maybe the T21 at the Zurich Classic a couple of weeks before, but with a missed cut the next week at the Byron Nelson and a T75 finish at the Crowne Plaza that followed, it seems unfair to say he's been as hot as we might like. However, with four outstanding finishes in a row coming towards the Greenbrier Classic, it's safe to say Wi fits the bill now: T21 at the Travelers Championship, T4 at the AT&T National, T15 at the John Deere Classic, and T4 at the Canadian Open last week.

Those spots are not known as the top tourneys in the land, but there were quality golfers in the field on courses of obvious merit, and Wi put 'em all in low numbers. We expect he'll do the same this week at the Old White Course in West Virginia.

~ Stock Down ~

- Bill Haas
In review of the final results from the Canadian Open we found one name on the bottom side that has been listed as a player to start on multiple occasions this season. Realizing it had been some time since we found need to track his work we decided to dive in and find out why he hasn't been on our wish list for some time... and we found a set of numbers that speak for themselves.

Bill Haas has a win under his belt this season, taking victory at the Bob Hope Classic. That was back in January, but he remained fairly hot moving forward with five quality finishes over a span of six starts that followed: T6 at the WGC CA Championship, T16 at the Transitions Championship, T17 at the Arnold Palmer, T26 at The Masters, and T29 at Quail Hollow. The finish at the major got us on board and he paid off, including an additional T13 finish at the Crowne Plaza a few weeks later.

Since then, it's been trouble, making four starts with only one cut made: T41 at the Memorial. The Travelers Championship, the Open Championship, and the Canadian Open all resulted in missed cuts with only one round at 70 or under along the way.

Ranked 15th on the Tour in greens in regulation with quality ranks in other swing stats (43rd in total driving, 76th in putting), it seems Haas will eventually turn the ship around. For now, we suggest you proceed with caution.


- Official World Golf Rankings
RANK PLAYER POINTS
1 Tiger Woods 9.97
2 Phil Mickelson 9.24
3 Lee Westwood 9.04
4 Steve Stricker 7.35
5 Jim Furyk 6.65
6 Ernie Els 5.71
7 Luke Donald 5.67
8 Rory McIlroy 5.64
9 Paul Casey 5.46
10 Ian Poulter 5.29
11 Graeme McDowell 4.92
12 Martin Kaymer 4.86
13 Anthony Kim 4.86
14 Robert Allenby 4.31
15 Louis Oosthuizen 4.13
16 Retief Goosen 4.03
17 Edoardo Molinari 3.97
18 Justin Rose 3.96
19 Padraig Harrington 3.93
20 Zach Johnson 3.81
21 Sean O'Hair 3.81
22 Camilo Villegas 3.78
23 Henrik Stenson 3.76
24 Matt Kuchar 3.76
25 Tim Clark 3.74

- FedEx Cup Point Standings
PLAYER FEDEX POINT
Ernie Els 1,751
Steve Stricker 1,575
Justin Rose 1,542
Phil Mickelson 1,541
Jim Furyk 1,479
Tim Clark 1,370
Matt Kuchar 1,243
Ben Crane 1,222
Anthony Kim 1,215
Dustin Johnson 1,193
Robert Allenby 1,169
Jeff Overton 1,136
Bubba Watson 1,124
Camilo Villegas 1,121
Rickie Fowler 1,100
Carl Pettersson 1,081
Luke Donald 1,067
Bo Van Pelt 1,061
J.B. Holmes 1,028
Zach Johnson 976
Hunter Mahan 950
Bill Haas 949
Ricky Barnes 946
Jason Bohn 922
Retief Goosen 883


- PGA Money Leaders
PLAYER EARNINGS
Ernie Els $3,941,028
Phil Mickelson $3,220,969
Justin Rose $3,159,748
Tim Clark $3,031,948
Steve Stricker $2,982,169
Jim Furyk $2,883,915
Matt Kuchar $2,545,705
Robert Allenby $2,519,867
Anthony Kim $2,518,521
Jeff Overton $2,411,781
Dustin Johnson $2,400,564
Ben Crane $2,396,357
Camilo Villegas $2,367,848
Rickie Fowler $2,171,531
Luke Donald $2,095,770
Bo Van Pelt $2,095,308
Bubba Watson $2,072,761
Paul Casey $2,047,144
J.B. Holmes $1,969,338
Rory McIlroy $1,909,071
Retief Goosen $1,887,589
Zach Johnson $1,886,368
Hunter Mahan $1,857,545
Carl Pettersson $1,804,080
Jason Bohn $1,776,491



Bryan Douglass is the Managing Editor of the Fanball Sports Network as well as an Associate Editor for Fanball.com, providing analysis and commentary for the NFL and PGA neighborhoods of the world's preeminent sports community. He also serves as the Denver Broncos Correspondent (BroncosStable.com) for the Fanball Sports Network. You can find his work syndicated at RotoTimes.com, TheGolfChannel.com, and Comcast.net You can contact Bryan via email, Facebook, and Twitter.