Fantasy Picks for the Northern Trust Open

This week the PGA Tour visits Riviera Country Club, which has been a lot kinder to two-time defending champion Phil Mickelson than Torrey Pines. Philly Mick will look to bounce back here after a disappointing 19th place finish at Torrey Pines.

The Pro Tip: Three peat? Not likely. Phil has a tendency to build toward a big moment, then have it fall apart on him. Since we all expect him to dominate the Tour while Tiger is gone, Phil will make sure to defy our expectations. Then he'll probably play lights out once Tiger returns. That's what makes Phil fun to watch and also why we think there's a better chance of Phil filming another "Entourage" clip while in L.A. than winning at Riviera.

A-Group 

Bill Haas
We may only be three tournaments into the season, but Bill Haas sits atop the FedEx Cup rankings entering the Northern Trust Open. Remember Fantasy Rule No. 1: Play them while they're hot.

A-Group Bench Player

Ryan Moore
In three tournaments this year, the supremely talented Moore has two top-10 finishes and is starting to tap into his vast potential on the course.

B-Group

Robert Allenby
Two tournaments. One runner up, the other a top 10. He is playing his best golf in years and hasn't criticized any players for staying out past their bed time.

Adam Scott
Call it a gut feeling. Adam fell from third in the world to off the radar during his terrible 2009 season. Then the Shark surprised everyone by picking his fellow Aussie for the Presidents Cup. In December Scott won the Australian Open and is now looking to bring that success across the pond to the PGA Tour.

B-Group Bench Players

Padraig Harrington
Harrington spent much of last season doing what the great golfers do best: fine-tuning his swing. Although he was criticized for too much tinkering, Harrington maintained that he needed to make changes to remain competitive in future years. It's his first tournament on the PGA Tour this season, and it will be interesting to see how Harrington's swing looks now. It looked pretty good at the PGA Championship until the fourth round.

Chad Campbell
Two missed cuts in three tournaments, but the other tournament was a top 10. If he makes the cut, he does well. Ideal bench player.

C-Group

Davis Love III
Another sentimental pick? Not exactly. Love has the lowest scoring average on Tour this season with a 67.39. (Of course he's only played one tournament, but that's still impressive.) He also leads the Tour in driving average at 314.6 yards.

Bench Player

Ricky Barnes
Had a nice tournament at Torrey Pines and, much like Ryan Moore, may be ready to fulfill the promise of a U.S. Amateur champion.

*All picks for Yahoo Fantasy Golf format. Confused? Check out the Golf.com Guide to Fantasy Golf.

Fantasy Golf Picks for the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational

Chances are, with the exception of Tiger Woods, last week was a bad week for most people with a fantasy lineup. Names such as Thatcher, Chalmers and Senden were probably not at the top of anyone's roster. But this week brings the return of the WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and most of the top-50 players, including Phil Mickelson.

A-Players
Tiger Woods: Six wins in nine starts at Firestone, and Woods has never finished worse than T4.

Paul Casey: This is a big week for the world No. 3. Casey hasn't sniffed a top 10 since Colonial, and he's coming off a disappointing missed cut at the British Open. He has two top-10 finishes at Firestone in the last three years, so look for Casey to return to the first page of the leaderboard.

B-Players
Lee Westwood: He's coming off three straight top 10s, including a T3 at Turnberry, and Westwood tied for second last year at Firestone.

Davis Love III: He's finished out of the top 13 only once at Firestone.

Rory McIlroy: Making his debut at Firestone, McIlroy has missed only one cut this year.

Steve Stricker: With two wins in his last five starts, Stricker is one of the hottest players on Tour.

C-Players
Retief Goosen: He finished T4 last year at the Bridgestone, and Goosen is coming off four straight top 10s.

Luke Donald: In 15 events this season, Donald has 11 top-25 finishes, and he has never finished out of the top-25 at Firestone.

Fantasy Golf Picks for the AT&T National

Tiger Woods is hosting this week's event at Congressional Country Club, but he'll certainly have something else on his mind: winning the tournament. In the two years since its inception, Woods has yet to win his own event. He tied for sixth in 2007 and missed the event last year while recovering from knee surgery.

A-Players
Tiger Woods: He has seven top 10s in eight starts, including two wins. Plus, it will be easier on Sunday if he just presents himself with the trophy.

Jim Furyk: Tiger's buddy has finished in the top 11 in four of his last five events. Furyk also has come close to winning the AT&T National twice, finishing T3 the past two seasons.

B-Players
Davis Love III: Coming off a T5 at Memorial, Love finished T27 last year at Congressional.

Hunter Mahan: He nearly won another Travelers Championship last week, plus Mahan has finished T8 and T12 at the AT&T National.

Sean O'Hair: In his first event since the birth of his third child, O'Hair has been playing great this year, with six top 10s in 14 events.

Boo Weekley: Boooooooooooo! has been struggling with injuries, but he seems to be back on track, coming off a T14 at the Travelers.

C-Players
Rocco Mediate: Tiger's nemesis at the 2008 U.S. Open has only one top-25 finish this season, but he has yet to miss a cut, and he has a solid record at the AT&T National.

Nick O'Hern: He finished T3 last year at Congressional, and after a string of missed cuts this season, O'Hern has made four straight.

Fantasy Golf Picks for the Verizon Heritage

With the wild finish at the Masters in the rearview mirror, the PGA Tour unwinds this week in Hilton Head. It's the week after a major, but there are still plenty of big names to consider this week when filling out your roster.

A-Players
Camilo Villegas: After a solid T13 at the Masters, Villegas, who has four top-12 finishes this season, comes back to Harbour Town, where he finished T7 last year.

Jim Furyk: He's never won at Harbour Town, a course perfectly suited for his game, but Furyk has five career top-15 finishes, plus he had a good week (T10) at Augusta.

B-Players
Rory McIlroy: In his tour of America, McIlroy has yet to finish out of the top 20, including a T20 last week at the Masters.

Tim Clark: With five top-15 finishes this year, Clark, like Paul Casey in Houston, is too good of a player not to have a W on the PGA Tour.

Davis Love III: Now with the pressure of trying to get into the Masters off his shoulders, Love can concentrate on simply playing golf. And if we wins this week, Love will get an invite to next year's Masters.

Boo Weekley: Two starts, two wins at Harbour Town. Hard to pick against that record.

C-Players
Scott Verplank: He had three top-15 finishes in March, and Verplank hasn't missed a cut at Hilton Head in 10 years.

Ben Crane: He has a solid record at Hilton Head, plus Crane has two top 10s this season.

Fantasy golf picks for the Arnold Palmer Invitational at Bay Hill

After weeks of making picks, I finally hit the jackpot last week with Retief Goosen winning, and top-5 showings by Charles Howell III and Steve Stricker ... (holding for applause). Lets hope the winning streak continues with Tiger Woods going for his sixth title at Bay Hill.

A-Players
Tiger Woods: He finished T9 last week with a cold putter. I hate to see what happens if he starts making a few putts.

Jim Furyk: He was on a roll after a third-place finish at Doral and an opening 65 at the Transitions. But the usually steady Furyk collapsed on Friday with a 78. I'm sticking with Furyk this week. I think we're more likely to see another 65 than a 78.

B-Players
Davis Love III: Love's been on a roll this year, with his eye on winning or getting in the top 50 for a ticket to Augusta. He's currently No. 47, so Love still has an extra incentive to play well this week.

Stuart Appleby: Appleby has usually won a tournament by the time Bay Hill rolls around, but he looks to be getting in form after a T8 at the Transitions.

Hunter Mahan: Mahan has three top-20 finishes this season, plus he tied for sixth last year.

Boo Weekley: I'm picking Boo just for the mental image of Arnold Palmer handing Boo a giant sword on Sunday. Plus, Weekley has yet to miss a cut this season, and he's finished in the top 25 in both starts at Bay Hill.

C-Players
Ian Poulter: He's only played three events this season, but Poulter hasn't finished outside of the top 25.

Louis Oosthuizen: Oosthuizen has been on fire on the European Tour with four top 10s. He has also looked solid in the States, finishing T20 at Doral.

Fantasy golf picks for the Honda Classic

After my disasterous attempt to fill out a bracket last week for the WGC-Accenture Match Play Championship, I will not try to persuade my boss to add "Golf.com Bracketologist" to my business card.

Once again the A-Player category presents several tough choices. Defending champion Ernie Els, Camilo Villegas, Stewart Cink and Sergio Garcia are all good choices. But I chose to lead off with someone who has a great track record at the Honda Classic.

Teen sensation Rory McIlroy is available in the B category, but I decided to go with experience in my selections.

Normally Luke Donald is an obvious choice in the C category, but I left him out this week due to his wrist injury.

A-Players
Robert Allenby: Talk about somebody that is due for a win. Allenby's last win came in 2001! This would be a likely spot for Allenby to win. Since 2004, he has finished in the top 5 three times.

Camilo Villegas: Spider-Man looked unstoppable last week until he ran into the red-hot Geoff Ogilvy. Despite the loss, Villegas scored his second top 10 of the season. Villegas also finished T-2 at the Honda in 2007.

B-Players
Davis Love III: Love's game is slowly returning to form, and he will probably win at least once this season. When the tournament was held at Mirasol, Love had back-to-back runner-up finishes, but he has the game to make it through the Bear Trap.

Mark Calcavecchia: It doesn't matter where the Tour holds the Honda Classic, Calc will likely be in contention. He won at Eagle Trace in 1987. He won at Heron Bay in 1998. If not for a costly double-bogey in the final round last year, he would have won at PGA National. Calc is also coming off two-straight top 10s at Pebble and Riviera.

Boo Weekley: Boo's T-17 last week was his worst finish of the season, and he is leading the Tour in greens in regulation. If he can get the putter working, watch out for Boo.

J.B. Holmes: Holmes' T-6 at Riviera proved he can do more than just bomb it 400 yards and hit a wedge. It's his first time in this event, so this may not be the right time to take Holmes. But like Ben Crenshaw before the Sunday matches at Brookline, I've got a good feeling about J.B.

C-Players
Kevin Streelman: He fired a final-round 64 at Mayakoba to finish T-3. He tied for 60th last year in his first start at the Honda.

Matt Kuchar: The 2002 Honda champion has three top-25 finishes this season, and he's made his last two cuts at this event.

Fantasy golf picks for the AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am

Choosing two players from the A-list is usually an easy task. You normally have a choice between five or six of the top players, so you feel confident one of them will bring you loads of points.

But this week it wasn't a whole lot of fun. Padraig Harrington didn't look sharp at the Buick; Phil Mickelson has only broken par one time in six rounds; Vijay Singh is playing his first event since knee surgery; Kenny Perry hasn't played at Pebble Beach since 2003; and Jim Furyk is making his season debut. This week might be a good time to save a big name for later in the season.

Also don't forget there are multiple courses this week, so it might be beneficial to sit a player if he's on one of the tougher courses. Last year Spyglass Hill was rated the toughest course, followed by Poppy Hills and then Pebble Beach.

A-Players
Jim Furyk: While it's risky taking Furyk this week, he's known for knocking off the winter rust in a hurry. In Furyk's last two trips to the AT&T he finished T-14 and T-6.

Mike Weir: After opening the season with a T-3 at the Hope, Weir missed the cut at the FBR. But I'm sticking with him this week based on his great record at the AT&T: six top 10s in 11 appearances.

B-Players
Davis Love III: The two-time AT&T champ has seven career top 10s at Pebble Beach, and he is still looking for an invite to the Masters. A win would be the easiest way in.

David Toms: A healthy David Toms is back to his old self again. Toms has two top-5 finishes in three events, and his other finish was a T-25 at the Hope. His record at the AT&T isn't great, but he hasn't played there since 2002.

Sean O'Hair: He hasn't finished out of the top 25 yet this season, and despite his poor record at the AT&T I think he's due for a solid finish.

D.J. Trahan: He's 4-4 in cuts made, and he's only finished out of the top 20 once.

C-Players
Matt Kuchar: Kuchar carried the momentum of a final-round 64 at the Hope to a T-6 at the FBR Open, plus he's made his last two cuts at the AT&T.

Retief Goosen: Since December, the Goose has played solid golf all around the world, including a win over Darren Clarke at the Sunshine Tour's Africa Open. The only drawback? This is Goosen's first time playing the event.