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By Brett Avery
The Fantasy Insider
PGATOUR.COM Contributor

Cross-country flights are the mother of brevity.

That and not taking the time to figure out last week's results.

The Fantasy Insider had a delightful time last week covering the Bob Hope Desert Classic, despite Friday's freezing temperatures and Sunday's high winds. He spent the first three days writing a celebrity blog and saw plenty of eventual winner Charley Hoffman, who was on the same course each day with the Hopez celebs.

Then TFI spent Monday flying back across the country, adding to the adventures with a few minor hiccups. Not quite as bad as the two-day lost luggage fiasco on the outbound journey (free toiletries from the airline!) but not without it's tribulations.

So by the time TFI made it to yet another hotel room, this time in Florida, he was ready to postpone the Monday night research session in favor of a little nap.

Which, unfortunately for you, lasted until the 6 a.m. wakeup call.

That's the polite (and roundabout) way of saying he's got to rush through the writing part of this weekly exercise in order to make an 8 a.m. meeting. So, apologies for that.

He will, however, take a moment to pass along what he considers the two most salient notes from a week in the desert.

Well, other than the fact that although he looks good in them, Don Cheadle needs to leave the shorts at home when the temperature is in the 40s.

Salient Fact No. 1: The Bob Hope Chrysler Classic had only one player in the top 30 in the world (Phil Mickelson), so the youngsters had plenty of opportunity to flex. One look at Sunday's leader board underscored that they were taking full advantage of the opportunity.

TFI's more convinced than ever that you should take the time in the next week or two to scour the ranks of younger and newer players. We're about ready for the first wholesale roster changes of the season -- at least try to make a trade before waiving a player, will ya? -- and his inclination is to go younger rather than older.

Salient Fact No. 2: TFI spent plenty of time on the practice tee chatting with players about their schedules. One of the biggest considerations is the new FedExCup playoff format and the need to have as many points as possible heading into the four-week showdown.

A majority of players TFI spoke with confided that they're going to throw a few extra weeks into the mix and play some places they haven't seen recently, if ever.

He's not going to name names because he made clear to the players that the conversation was for background info. But at least in the players at the Bob Hope Chrysler Classic he senses some consternation about getting outside the comfort zone in terms of where they play.

That's both a good and a bad thing. When they're just out on TOUR players compete wherever and whenever they can. It's only human nature that they stop going to places where they had a bad experience -- missing the cut, not liking the course, getting lost every day driving from the hotel to the site.

That's why TFI's going to be careful when setting his League Championship and Salary Cap Cup lineups to study the lower portions of the past-performance charts. A hot player who is showing up at a tournament for the first time, or where he's been absent for years after poor initial showings, will warrant extra scrutiny.

Results in rotisserie Expert League for Bob Hope Chrysler Classic: TFI slept through the opportunity to find out how his team did last week, so all he can report is that overall it has 48.0 points and ranks third, 14 points behind the leader. Next time he promises to set the alarm, even for a brief nap!

Lineup in rotisserie Expert League for Buick Invitational: Active: Cameron Beckman, Anders Hansen, Steve Stricker, Kevin Sutherland. Playing but not active: Steve Gutschewski, Ryan Palmer, Bubba Watson. Not in field: K.J. Choi, Tim Clark, Padraig Harrington, Geoff Ogilvy, David Toms. Hey, Harrington nearly won on the European Tour last week in Abu Dhabi. Shouldn't that count for something?

Results in match-play Public League 3359 for Bob Hope Chrysler Classic: Massachusetts Eagles 13.5, TFI 8.5. Record: 0-2. TFI could have sworn the teams were tied going into the final round so something horribly wrong must have happened for that wide a margin of victory. Kind of like what happened to the New Orleans Saints. Only in warmer temperatures.

Lineup in match-play Public League 3359 for Buick Invitational: Active, Vijay Singh, Andrew Buckle, Anders Hansen, Troy Matteson, Jonathan Byrd, Daniel Chopra, Zach Johnson, Ryan Palmer. Not in field: Ernie Els, Fredrik Jacobson, Davis Love III, Nick O'Hern.

Results in Salary Cap Cup for Bob Hope Chrysler Classic: The main lineup of Phil Mickelson (78 FedEx Cup points, tied 45th), Tom Pernice Jr. (0 points, missed cut), John Senden (132 points, tied 33rd), Bernhard Langer (455 points, tied 13th) and Will MacKenzie (283 points, tied 18th) earned 948 points and placed 6,179th. Through Week 3 it totaled 12,918 points and ranked 478th. Still within reach of the leaders but a tough week in the high desert winds.

The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup all washed out with four guys missing the cut (Chad Campbell, Jerry Kelly, Jesper Parnevik, Ryuji Imada) and a fifth withdrawing (John Huston). Considering there's fewer than 130 guys in the field and the cut is to the low 70 and ties, that's not as easy an accomplishment as it looks!

Lineup for Salary Cap Cup for Buick Invitational: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Phil Mickelson $296,750, Brett Quigley $244,750, Kevin Sutherland $75,000, Will MacKenzie $75,000. Total: $991,500. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Vijay Singh $293,500, Rory Sabbatini $264,250, Charles Howell III, $241,500, Charles Warren, $114,750, Matt Kuchar $75,000. Total: $989,000. Tiebreakers: 274, 3.

Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please be sure to include your name, where you're from, the name of your team and, if it relates to League Championship, the name of your league and whether you're competing in the rotisserie or match-play format.