By Brett Avery It's just a hunch, but something tells The Fantasy Insider that it's Wednesday by the time you're reading this column. You would have spent part of Tuesday paying attention to your League Championship Fantasy team for this week's Cialis Western Open, but all those Fourth of July parades, fireworks, picnics, lazy floats in the water, chapters read in the mindless summer mush of a book, dogs, burgers, bowls of fruit salad, reunions, mosquito and gnat bites, naps beneath leafy trees, aloe applications, peloton breakaways, yellow cards and AL-NL grudge matches kept you away from the computer. You're forgiven. Now don't compound the problem by ignoring the maintenance of your lineup. The Cialis Western Open is a popular draw for PGA TOUR players so it's the rare LCF lineup that won't have at least six active players at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club outside Chicago. It would be easy to continue kicking back this week, activating pretty much any half dozen players on your present roster and taking your chances. Granted, tournaments in which a multitude of top-line players are entered make for weeks where it's difficult to find quality additions to the lineup. In the head-to-head Pacific Tour League TFI's in the only available players in the top 50 are No. 21 Chris DiMarco and No. 25 Rod Pampling. In the rotisserie Expert League TFI's in the list is equally short: No. 40 Robert Allenby and No. 50 Brandt Jobe. Your situation probably isn't much different. Still, the 10 minutes you invest in scouring this week's "In The Field" list under the Players tab is time well spent, even if you don't make any roster maneuvers. We're only five weeks from H2H league playoffs and seven weeks from ending rotisserie seasons. This is arguably the most difficult stretch of the season: two majors (British Open and PGA Championship), an elite-field World Golf Championships event (WGC-Bridgestone Invitational) and two double-tournament weeks (British Open-B.C. Open and WGC-Bridgestone and Reno-Tahoe Open). Believe it or not, that makes the Cialis Western Open one of the best shopping opportunities. TFI spent his time scouring the "In The Field" names in the 50-125 range, where there's still some quality guys on offer. That list includes a few guys it may be worth taking with your fingers crossed (on both hands) and hopes that their stars are preparing to converge.
But if you need to make something happen and pick up ground -- and quick -- then these three guys are worth considering. After that you can go back to daydreaming about the long holiday weekend. Three players TFI might pick up/trade for to get onto his roster this week: • Peter Lonard. Tied for fifth in his 2002 debut at Cog Hill, the type of finish he submits on a regularly irregular basis. Those incrementally higher scores last week at the Buick Championship (65-68-70-71) make a troubling route to his tying for ninth and in the all-around stat category he's a shaky 145th. Still, he's one of the few guys in the world who can say he's won three times in the last 20 months (2004 Australian Open and PGA, 2005 MCI Heritage Classic) and that's worth a lot. The spur under his blanket: Fellow Aussie Geoff Ogilvy's victory in the U.S. Open shows he can win a major, too. • Fredrik Jacobson. Typically a bumpy player who sprinkles a number of missed cuts among an assortment of top 25s. Dedicating himself the last few years to playing in the U.S. has pretty much cost him a spot on the European Ryder Cup team unless he 1] wins the British Open or PGA or 2] shows an incredibly hot hand beginning now. Not incredibly long (290.3 yards) but he's ranked 74th in both driving distance and fairways hit. That makes for a potent combination with his putting (28.69 per round, ranked 29th) during these next two months. • Mark Hensby. His last two starts at Cog Hill are a tie for 16th and tie for third. That's the good news. A glance at his recent form causes a shudder: five missed cuts and no weekend play since a tie for 22nd at The Masters. In fact, he hasn't placed in the top 10 in a stroke-play event since winning the Scandinavian Masters last August. TFI's sensing another Aussie's urgency to pull it together and quick: He's down to 70th in the world and is on the accelerated slide out of the top 100. If he's going to make a move the next few weeks would be the ideal time. One player TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week: • John Daly. Not to sound like a broken record, but he's now withdrawn from his last three starts (Wachovia Championship, FedEx St. Jude Classic and Memorial Tournament). Could someone, anyone please explain why he went up from being on 67 percent of rosters to 70 percent in the last three weeks? Read TFI's lips: Free up that roster space! Rotisserie results for Expert League at Buick Championship: 68.0 points (first). One-putts 129 (first), birdies 77 (first), bouncebacks 9 (first), 300+ drives 9 (first), fairways 179 (third), greens 215 (tied second), money $308,816 (second), scoring 68.9 (third), scrambles 61 (second), eagles 0 (tied third). Overall: 54.5 points (fourth). How his team has ranked third in scoring average and eighth in earnings is beyond TFI. And leading by a wide margin in 300+ drives (330) but only third in birdies (1,646) seems incongruous, too. Rotisserie lineup for Cialis Western Open: Steve Flesch, Brian Gay, Trevor Immelman, Joe Ogilvie, Brett Quigley, Camilo Villegas. Not competing: Ben Crane, Sergio Garcia, Geoff Ogilvy, Bo Van Pelt. H2H results for Pacific Tour League at Buick Championship: TFI 177, Greenside Shockers 33. Driving: Fredrik Jacobson 39, Nick O'Hern 45. Short game: Carl Pettersson 35. Putting: Justin Leonard 28, Ryuji Imada 0 (not competing). The opponent had only one active player (Billy Mayfair, 33 short game points) and two reserves who totaled 54 points. A welcome walkover. H2H lineup for Cialis Western Open: TFI (14-9-1) at rawsonb (9-15). Driving: Chad Campbell, Fredrik Jacobson. Short game: K.J. Choi, Carl Pettersson. Putting: Ryuji Imada, Richard S. Johnson. Not competing: Angel Cabrera, David Howell, Justin Leonard, Nick O'Hern. Salary Cap Cup results for Buick Championship: The main lineup of Kenny Perry ($9,108, tied 66th), Jerry Kelly ($0, missed cut), Heath Slocum ($73,906, tied 31st; includes $50,000 in round leader bonuses), Billy Andrade ($11,193, tied 48th) and Kevin Sutherland ($0, missed cut) earned $94,207 and placed 14,359th. Through Week 26 it totals $4,575,733 and ranks 79th. If there's a week to stink up the joint without losing too much in the overall standings, this would have been the week. The "Hey, buddy" lineup of Nick O'Hern ($23,906, tied 31st), Carl Pettersson ($23,906, tied 31st), Shigeki Maruyma ($154,550, tied fifth), Frank Lickliter II ($23,906, tied 31st) and Darron Stiles ($123,906, tied 31st; includes $100,000 in round leader bonuses) earned $350,174 and placed 2,364th. Through Week 26 it totals $978,687 and ranks 23,578th. Nice bonus by Mr. Stiles, otherwise and unspectacular week. Week 26 winner: GolferHill $1,583,000. Segment Three leader: aalepeggers $6,238,637. Salary Cap Cup lineup for Cialis Western Open: Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Peter Lonard $202,500, Shigeki Maruyama $196,000, Fredrik Jacobson $157,000, Ryan Moore $137,500. Total: $993,000. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Jim Furyk $290,250, Stuart Appleby $274,000, Stewart Cink $231,750, Joe Ogilvie $127,750, Hunter Mahan $75,000. Total: $998,750. Have a question or comment for TFI? Send it to him at brettavery@aol.com. Please remember to include your team and league names and whether you're playing a rotisserie or H2H league. |
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