Fantasy Picks for AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am
FANTASY GOLF UPDATE:
A little glitch in the Yahoo Fantasy Golf scoring system has allowed some vigilant team managers to muster a few extra points from some of their player. Since the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am is being played on three different courses, points are awarded by score to par, not overall strokes.
Pebble Beach and Spyglass are both par 72 mainstays in the AT&T, but the newcomer--Monterey Peninsula Shore Course--sports a par 70 that is harder to go low on due to the lower par.
For example, Vijay Singh shot a 65 on Monterey while K.J. Choi shot a 65 on Pebble. Vijay picked up 14 points with a -5 while K.J. netted 18 with a -7.
Going in to the weekend, start players playing Spyglass and Pebble Saturday since Monterey is normally a par 71, but is playing at 70 this week.
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The PGA Tour stops at the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am this week. The big changes: Poppy Hills is out; Monterey Country Club is in, joining standbys Pebble and Spyglass. The defending champ is long-hitting Dustin Johnson, who had a hole-in-one last week that propelled him to a third-place finish at the Northern Trust Open after a tough final round.
The Pro Tip: It's a shallow field for a tournament featuring this year's U.S. Open course; only seven of the top 30 in the World Golf Rankings entered. Maybe the pros figure the course will be unrecognizable by the time the USGA is done with it. Whatever. We still expect this to be a tournament where we start seeing the stars shine. Except for Kevin Costner.
A-Group
Luke Donald
Not many A-List players to choose from this week, but Donald is a solid option. He shares the course record at Spyglass (62) and when he's healthy he's an elite player. He has finished in the top 25 in 86 of his 176 career starts.
A-Group Bench Player
Phil Mickelson
Lefty hasn't started the season strong, but a U.S.Open course with a weak field may be just what he needs. BTW, Mickelson is the guy who shares the Spyglass course record with Donald.
B-Group
Dustin Johnson
Combines our two fantasy rules: Horses for Courses (he won here last year) and Play the Hot Hand (T-3 at last week's Northern Trust Open). Long hitter, accurate and a solid putter, Johnson has a scoring average of 69 through 14 rounds this season.
Alex Prugh
Rickie who? Prugh is the rookie who is on fire right now. After barely making the cut at the Sony, Prugh has three straight top 10s. Twelve of his 16 rounds this season have been 70 or below.
B-Group Bench Players
Jim Furyk
The fifth-ranked player in the world finished T-20 at the Northern Trust Open, his only start of this season. He's also one of three U.S. Open winners in the field along with Corey Pavin and Retief Goosen.
Sergio Garcia
Hey, maybe he can win on a major championship course if a major isn't being played there. J/K, Serge, J/K. Worth a flier in his first stateside start.
C-Group
Mike Weir
Finished runner up to Dustin Johnson last year and has placed in the top-5 in five of his last seven starts at the AT&T. Also did pretty well at the last celeb-heavy tournament, finishing sixth at the Bob Hope.
Bench Player
Brandt Snedeker
In three starts he has a runner-up, a T-10, and a top 20 finish. He is first in scrambling and 13th in scoring with a 69.73 average.
*All picks for Yahoo Fantasy Golf format. Confused? Check out the Golf.com Guide to Fantasy Golf.
