Fantasy Golf: AT&T Byron Nelson Championship

This week the PGA Tour is still in Texas for the AT&T Byron Nelson Championship at TPC Four Seasons in Dallas. The tough par 70 course usually throws up an unexpected winner. Last year saw Brendon Todd win by two strokes, and it is still his only PGA Tour win. People still fancy him to do well this time out as he has been selected by over 17% of teams from players in Yahoo Group C.

Jordan Spieth, unsurprisingly, is the most selected player this week with nearly 47% of teams including him. Spieth is in Yahoo Group B. Just behind him is Group A's Ryan Palmer on 41%. Palmer has only three PGA Tour wins, the last being in 2010, but he did lose a play-off to Keegan Bradley at the Byron Nelson in 2011.

Surprisingly I feel is that former winner Rory Sabbatini is not getting much love this week from those ever fickle selectors! He only finds himself in a little over 1% of teams. When Sabbatini won he shot a -19, the lowest winning score at the Four Seasons. Does he make it into the selections for us this week though? Well, read on.... as usual players are listed according to the groupings of Yahoo Fantasy Golf, in PGA Fantasy you can pick any four players. Avis PGA Fantasy Golf selections are given at the bottom. In the AVIS game you select six golfers, four of which score points for you each day.

The weather can often play havoc in this tournament, so it will pay to keep an eye on what's happening each day and adjust your roster accordingly. Weather reports for the area and tee-times will be your friend this week.

Group A
Ryan Palmer
Brooks Koepka
Matt Jones

Group B
Marc Leishman
Gary Woodland
Brandt Snedeker
Dustin Johnson
Daniel Berger

Group C
Russell Henley
John Huh
Rory Sabbatini
Justin Thomas
Keegan Bradley
Jerry Kelly
Danny Lee
Brendan Steele
Tony Finau
Brendon Todd
Charley Hoffmann
Rod Pampling
Morgan Hoffmann
Jim Herman

AVIS Fantasy Golf selections: Brandt Snedeker, Marc Leishman, Russell Henley, Gary Woodland - John Huh, Tony Finau.

Fantasy Golf: Crowne Plaza Invitational

I hope everyone heeded the advice of the Notebook last week and put Rory McIlroy in their respective fantasy squads. He blew everyone away when winning by seven strokes at the Wells Fargo Championship. All the damage was done on a blistering Saturday score of -11. Patrick Rodgers, who finished tied second, actually out scored McIlroy by two shots over the other three days but couldn't hold a candle to him during the third round.

McIlroy is in Wentworth this week for the European Tour so we will be hoping for a closer tournament this week! But who to pick? Jordan Spieth is a popular selection this week, with 39% of Yahoo players choosing him. The Texan will be eager to get back in the swing of things after a couple of quiet weeks, especially with the U.S. Open coming up next month. Fellow Texan Ryan Palmer should also be a popular choice, currently 28% of players have chosen him out of Yahoo Group A. While this Invitational is in Texas, that doesn't mean a local player will win, but it's better to put a few in your team just to be safe!

This weeks selections include the aforementioned Texans, as well as some previous winners, and some long shots. As usual, picks are divided into groups according to Yahoo, and at the bottom of the page you can see the six players selected for the Avis PGA Fantasy game.

Group A
Ryan Palmer
Adam Scott

Group B
Jimmy Walker
Zach Johnson
Jordan Spieth
Kevin Streelman
Kevin Chappell
Paul Casey
Chris Kirk
Ian Poulter
John Senden
Chris Stroud

Group C
David Toms
Russell Knox
Boo Weekley
Kevin Na
Brendon Todd

Avis Fantasy Golf: Ryan Palmer, Jimmy Walker, Zach Johnson, Jordan Spieth - David Toms, Kevin Streelman.

Fantasy Golf: Wells Fargo Championship

 

Rickie Fowler surprised most people last week in winning The Players Championship after a three player play-off. Surprised because this is only Fowler's second PGA Tour win. His only other win was in 2012 at the, you guessed it, Wells Fargo Championship. So he should be at the forefront of people's thoughts when it comes to selections this week, but as of today Fowler is only the 24th most selected golfer in Yahoo Fantasy. People are still not convinced by Rickie despite 2014 being his best season on tour with ten top-10s. He is getting more consistent and is surely becoming a sounder option.

 

The Quail Hollow course in North Carolina has traditionally attracted some of the big names on the tour. The roll call of previous winners include, Rory McIlroy, who has one win and one runner-up, Jim Furyk has one win and two second placings, Tiger Woods won here in 2007. This course will also host the PGA Championship in 2017, so a lot of players will hope to test their mettle over the four days on this attack minded course layout. In the past it has rewarded scores with power over accuracy off the tee, so this weeks selections take that into account with a mix of big hitters, in form players and local names.

 

As usual the selections are broken down according to their three groupings in Yahoo Fantasy Golf. Official PGA Fantasy lets you pick any four golfers and you are awarded points only at the end of the tournament. A new game can be played on the Official PGA website and it is run almost like a mix of both the traditional Official game and the Yahoo game. It is sponsored by Avis and in this game you pick six golfers, four of whom score points for you every day based on their performance on each hole. Your two substitute golfers can be swapped in for any upcoming day. Interestingly it seems you will only be allowed use a golfer three times rather than the ten times allowed in both Official and Yahoo games. This will make selections very interesting in future weeks. At the bottom of the page you can see my six selections for the Avis game, the first four names are the golfers that are part of the starting point scoring group.

 

Group A

Rory McIlroy

Bill Haas

Jim Furyk

Webb Simpson

Ben Martin

J.B. Holmes

 

Group B

Phil Mickelson

Daniel Berger

Kevin Kisner

Hideki Matsuyama

Rickie Fowler

 

Group C

Justin Thomas

Jason Kokrak

Sean O'Hair

Patrick Reed

Louis Oosthuizen

D.A. Points

 

AVIS picks: Rory McIlroy, Phil Mickelson, Justin Thomas, Daniel Berger - Jason Kokrak, Bill Haas.