Fantasy: A primer for the spring Yahoo! segment

text size

Lyons/Getty Images

Mark Wilson won twice out of Group C.

Yahoo!'s Winter Segment ended as it should have, on the strength of a victory.

Riding Martin Laird in Group A all week and on to victory at Bay Hill, Hemroid tallied 157 points to emerge as the winner in the opening segment of the fantasy game. The squad, managed by "Andrew E," scored 2,117 points over the first 12 events, just five clear of co-runners-up, Billings Mulligans II and Demon Deacons. Both also burned Laird at the Arnold Palmer Invitational. The week's incumbent leader, Gimme, totaled just 100 points last week to fall into seventh place overall. (Gimme invested in Graeme McDowell and Tiger Woods in Group A instead.)

Got a fantasy question for Rob? Click here to e-mail him. You can also follow Rob on his Twitter account.

For his success (and assuming that he isn't ineligible for the prize for some unknown reason), Andrew E will receive the first of three Nike SQ Machspeed Black drivers awarded to segment champs. Congratulations on the come-from-behind victory! (But "Hemroid"? Really? Not only is it spelled uniquely, but I don't want to know which names didn't make your cut.)

Looking ahead at the spring segment, which includes the next 12 tournaments -- from the Shell Houston Open through the U.S. Open -- there are two notable changes. First, the Valero Texas Open moves up one month into the week immediately after the Masters. Given its latitude just north of San Antonio, it's doubtful that the shift will influence the variables, but it's something to research in a couple of weeks. And second, the only new venue on the docket happens to be the first course change of the year, as the U.S. Open switches coasts, landing at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Maryland. While it hasn't hosted a major since the 1997 U.S. Open, it was host of the Booz Allen Classic in 2005 and served as site of the first three editions of the AT&T National (2007-09).

With the Masters, THE PLAYERS and the U.S. Open all featuring several non-members, consider all three are superb opportunities to save starts on guys that you'd otherwise want to sling out there during the FedExCup Playoffs. (With countless sub-games and variations among private leagues, tailor your needs accordingly as always.) Here's the list of professional non-members already eligible for both majors: Miguel Angel Jimenez, Martin Kaymer, Kyung-Tae Kim, Rory McIlroy, Edoardo Molinari, Francesco Molinari, Alvaro Quiros and Lee Westwood.

Now, while all will eventually qualify for THE PLAYERS as well (if they already haven't), McIlroy and Westwood have already announced an intent not to play TPC Sawgrass. The official deadline for commitments is Friday, May 6, so they have ample time to change their minds, but fantasy gamers must plan accordingly given what we presume to be fact today. To see the list I maintain of all qualifiers for the majors, THE PLAYERS and World Golf Championships, click here. (The remaining WGC event at Firestone occurs in the summer segment.)

Play Fantasy Golf

PGATOUR.COM has everything you need to play -- and win -- in your fantasy league. Sign up Fantasy league help: Every player ranked for 2011 Fantasy primer for all formats

It wouldn't be a primer if we didn't save a little space for Tiger Woods. Unless you happened to have him as your starter in the final round of the WGC-Cadillac Championship, where he shared the low round of the day (66), he's been excruciatingly average. In his three starts, he's finished T5, T5 and T9 in Yahoo! scoring, and that's only among his brethren in Group A. The lesson is clear: What was once an automatic defense is now a liability. Until he exhibits some consistency, consider getting aggressive when he's in a field by taking a pass. Case in point: two of the winners in Woods' three events came out of Group A -- Nick Watney at Doral and Martin Laird at Bay Hill.

Group A boasted four winners in the winter segment. Group B claimed just two. The remaining six surfaced from Group C, including Mark Wilson twice. (Luke Donald of Group A won the WGC-Match Play, and Michael Bradley of Group C claimed the Puerto Rico Open, but neither event was included in the Yahoo! format.)

While champions earn headlines, the non-winners listed below also performed at a high level, if not more consistently than some of the 14 that hoisted hardware over the first three months. Consider these upward trends as your segregated short list of options (listed alphabetically) as we enter the spring segment:

Of course, nothing replaces short-term analysis of the dynamics of a given week. As I laid out at the top of the year, my projections involve more than just recent play and course history. Course setup, course statistics and rankings, weather, what golfers say and what I might learn through the grapevine all occupy a percentage of my attention. All of the information that I believe deserves yours as well will find its way into the Power Rankings and Fantasy Insider features.

Feel free to email me at FantasyInsider@charter.net anytime (I respond to all inquiries) or hit me up on Twitter @RobBoltonGolf.