Curtis was the value leader in the 2008 TOUR season

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Five years after winning the British Open, Ben Curtis finished in a tie for second at the PGA Championship.

What will you remember about the 2008 season? That was the simple question we asked PGATOUR.COM staffers and freelance contributors, who responded with a series of short essays that we will post over the course of the next week (click here for the archive link).

The emergence came in 2003; the confirmation three years later. And the validation for Ben Curtis? Well, that was written in 2008.

There were 130 golfers purchased at my yearly fantasy auction back in January. Phil Mickelson went for $72, Jim Furyk fetched $52 and Vijay Singh was a steal at $49.

Months of Tiger Woods went for $20-30 a shot. We haggled over Adam Scott. We fought over Hunter Mahan. We groveled over Sergio Garcia.

MORE MEMORIES

Wacker: Tiger's unbelievable will
Spoor: Ryder Cup surprises
Smithson: The perfect shot?
Stevens: Mickelson's method
Hauser: Shark stirred the waters
Essays archive
2008 Year in Review Archive

Curtis? Not much to say. The bidding stopped at $3, and he was promptly dropped by his owner right around his missed cut at the Masters. Collectively, we saw him as a straight driver who didn't have enough game elsewhere to regularly compete for big checks.

Coincidentally, the fantasy drop came just when Curtis got his game in gear. His driver, never particularly long, ticked forward a few yards. He got hot with the putter, automatic out of the sand and crafty around the green. Two good rounds at the Verizon Heritage built some confidence, and a 65 at the Wachovia Championship the next week (good for solo second place) made it clear -- a breakthrough season was coming together.

I wound up being the lucky chap who gave Curtis a fantasy test run for the summer months, and what a ride it turned out to be. Curtis made 13 cuts in 14 events, and he saved his best stuff for the biggest events.

Open Championship? Tie for seventh. PGA Championship? Tie for second. Playoffs? Four strong efforts: fourth at The Barclays, 27th at the Deutsche Bank Championship, 13th at the BMW Championship, and 5th at THE TOUR Championship presented by Coca-Cola. Consistency and contention just about every week.

Throw in a 1-1-1 record at the Ryder Cup and it was a heck of a season for the golfer no one wanted in April. Curtis was a shocking winner at the Open Championship in 2003 and a pleasant surprise in 2006, but this year we saw he's in it for the long haul.

Just 31, Ben's best years should be to come.

We've got another auction in two months, and I can assure you, three bucks isn't going to be enough for the Kent State flash.

Scott Pianowski, The Fantasy Insider for PGATOUR.COM, one day hopes to travel back in time to 1945 so he can draft Byron Nelson and ride those 18 wins (11 in a row) to an easy fantasy title.