Expert picks: ACE Group Classic

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Feb. 18, 2009

ACE GROUP CLASSIC: Tee times | Field | Power Rankings | INSIDE: The Field | Course

PGATOUR.COM will have expert picks and sleepers for each Champions Tour event this year. Champions Tour producer Lauren Deason will select two players each week, as will former PGA TOUR and Champions Tour winner Joe Inman.

Inman captured one title on the PGA TOUR at the 1976 Kemper Open, and won the SBC Senior Classic three consecutive times on the Champions Tour. He's now the men's golf coach at Georgia State University.

Inman and Deason will each choose one player they consider a favorite that week and a sleeper pick (a player who is not in the top 20 in the Charles Schwab Cup standings). Here are their selections for this week's ACE Group Classic.

Inman's picks	Deason's picks
Winner: Fred Funk. I'm feeling pretty good about my expert picks skills after selecting Bernhard Langer, who finished third last week. So this week, I'm going with Fred Funk as my favorite. I'm hoping he's healthy after being sidelined due to a knee injury for part of last season.	Winner: Jeff Sluman. Slu's due. He hasn't won since last August, though he's come close several times. In fact, he tied for fourth in the first event this season. Last week's tournament didn't do much to justify picking him -- Sluman tied for 36th in the first of back-to-back weeks in Florida -- but he will likely overcome that with a strong showing in Naples.
Sleeper: D.A. Weibring. My sleeper pick last week also did well, as Dan Forsman tied for seventh at the Allianz Championship. This week's ACE Group Classic darkhorse is D.A. Weibring -- he's hungry for a win!	Sleeper: Hal Sutton. He helped design TPC Treviso Bay, the host venue for this week's event. This is the first year the new course will host the tournament, so no one else has gotten to play it in competition. Sutton's expertise gives him a big advantage.

LAST WEEK: Joe Inman selected Bernhard Langer and Dan Forsman, who both had top-10 finishes and earned Charles Schwab Cup points. He's taken the early lead in the standings.

Standings after Week 2