By Brett Avery In advance, please accept an apology from The Fantasy Insider. In an world made uncertain by conflict and war, TFI doesn't want to bring real life into a sports fantasy column. Trust him, he spent a few hours before his Monday night research and writing session trying to figure out a way around using this angle. But considering the record 39-year absence of Royal Liverpool as a site of the British Open-- and the last-minute enlistment of Atunyote Golf Club in Verona, N.Y., as B.C. Open host -- TFI has little choice. This week's oracle for League Championship Fantasy is none other than Donald Rumsfeld, the U.S. Secretary of Defense, who back in February 2002 uttered one of his more infamous quotations during a Department of Defense briefing: "As we know, there are known knowns. There are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns. That is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns, the ones we don't know we don't know." So two unknowns in the host courses, toss in the fact that this is the first double-tournament week in League Championship Fantasy history and Rumsfeld's quotation pretty much sums up this week. Oh, and anyone who thinks they know more knowns and unknowns than there are unknown unknowns is kidding themselves. Know what TFI means? What this week comes down to is playing to as many of the knowns as possible without hurting yourself with the unknowns. With three weeks remaining before the playoffs in head-to-head leagues and five weeks to the conclusion of the rotisserie season all you're trying to do is not hurt yourself so much that you're blocked from contention. Here are TFI's four known knowns for making it through the British-B.C. combo: 1. Split the difference. During the past few years in Salary Cap Cup, TFI would have suggested loading up the weekly entry with four players from the British field and the best B.C. candidate to grab another big check. Anyone competing in Salary Cap Cup should still follow that formula. But the LCF format should make you comfortable taking an abundance of players from the lesser event. Had torrential rains not driven the B.C. Open from En-Joie GC near Binghamton, N.Y., TFI would have suggested taking four players from that event. The PGA TOUR field staff that set up Atunyote made sure its field isn't crushed by a combination of unrealistic difficulty and lack of local knowledge. The Royal & Ancient GC of St. Andrews, which is responsible for the British Open, sets up its courses so that the world's best players can take advantage of scoring opportunities. And Royal Liverpool's flat terrain isn't exactly a back-breaker. The bottom line? TFI sees the stats from the two sites being closer than what we'll probably face in the season's other double-tournament (and double-hyphen) week, late August's WGC-Bridgestone Invitational and Reno-Tahoe Open. This time at least take the strongest players in your roster regardless of location. 2. H2H drivers have an advantage at Atunyote. The drier conditions on the Wirral Peninsula this year mean that more good drives will end up just off the fairways at Royal Liverpool compared to marginal drives at Atunyote that may not trickle into rough. The PGA TOUR has had little chance to change fairway shapes and contours at Atunyote, so the off-the-rack fairway widths should help those players. All things being equal, players usually rack up more points in the driving category than in short game and putting. That's why TFI would try and ensure at least one driver is entered in the B.C. -- and perhaps both drivers. 3. Remember what's ahead. Before you go throwing players off the roster to balance a British-B.C. entry, weigh each player's potential value in the coming weeks as team owners thread the needle with their choices to field full lineups. Next week's U.S. Bank Championship in Milwaukee should draw a medium-heat field with some of your players taking a breather before gathering momentum through the Buick Open and The INTERNATIONAL into the PGA Championship and that double-tournament week. If you're hasty this week and toss a solid player to get a B.C. Open guy (or vice versa) you may regret it in the next month. 4. Take a close look at those non-PGA TOUR competitors. If you're searching for a player for Royal Liverpool, study those PGA European Tour stats to unearth some candidates. A healthy slice of the Official World Ranking's top 100 play in Europe and may have a better feel for this week's conditions than players who parachute in from the U.S. On the plus side they're likely to be free agents (and may fit nicely into a Salary Cap Cup lineup). Reminder No. 1: This week is the third installment of Majors Matchup, so don't forget to enter and post a five-man lineup. Unlike the Masters and U.S. Open you'll probably have to juggle your Salary Cap Cup lineup to remove any players from the B.C. Open. Pay attention to those European players! Reminder No. 2: The trade deadline is 11:59 p.m. on Wednesday, July 19. If you're dickering over a swap get to the point that you enter it for voting by other league members by that time. Voting can stretch beyond the deadline but the dead must be entered to the commissioner (cbssportsline.com staff) by the end of the day Wednesday.
-- Paul Casey. One of the few to contend on four of the world's major tours this season, he posted top-10s on three (Asia, Australia, Europe) and barely missed so far in the U.S. Despite a punishing schedule he's finished out of the top 20 only once in his last 13 starts, dating to the Abu Dhabi Championship in January. A brief and undistinguished Open history (three missed cuts, tie for 20th two years ago at Royal Troon) but he's prepped to break out. TFI grabbed him for the stretch run in the rotisserie Expert League, dropping Steve Flesch, and for the H2H Pacific Tour League, ditching Ryuji Imada. -- Paul McGinley. Arguably the best ball-striker on the PGA European Tour this season, he enters Royal Liverpool ranked No. 23 in the Official World Ranking. He's 10th in Europe in fairways (71.2 percent) and fifth in greens (75.1 percent). An uneven season in which he's posted an under-par total only five times, he's shown his best play in recent weeks and could make the Open a week of redemption. -- Paul Broadhurst. If you need a solid putter he's a strong candidate. Ranked third in the PGA European Tour season (28.3 per round) and counts a victory in the Algarve Open De Portugal as the best of his four top-10s this season. He climbed steadily this season in the World Ranking and enters the British Open at No. 50. Warning: This is only his second Open start since 1997 and he hasn't had a top-20 placing since 1992. But as we all know you can pile up some big stat points without a banner finish. One player TFI might waive/drop/trade away to get off his roster this week: -- Brian Gay. Looked promising in April and May, grabbing five top 20s in a seven-tournament stretch. But that came to a crashing halt when he missed the cut at the Barclays Classic and then didn't make it into the U.S. Open. Since then he's had only three of 10 rounds in the 60s and only one below 69. He's still first in putting (27.68 per round) but the form that put him there is disappearing. Rotisserie results for Expert League at John Deere Classic: 66.0 points (second). One-putts 151 (tied second), birdies 99 (tied first), bouncebacks 10 (second), 300+ drives 18 (second), fairways 221 (third), greens 263 (third), money $359,020 (second), scoring 68.5 (second), scrambles 56 (third), eagles 2 (third). Overall: 56.0 points (fourth). That's a fourth consecutive week that TFI's finished either first or second. That's good for TFI's fragile ego and has put him in position to make a big move upward in the last month.
Rotisserie lineup for British Open Championship at B.C. Open: Paul Casey (British), Ben Crane
(British), Sergio Garcia (British),
H2H results for Pacific Tour League at John Deere Classic:
culver_08 107, TFI 96. Driving: Richard S. Johnson 34,
H2H lineup for British Open Championship at B.C. Open: TFI
(14-11-1) at hookn and a slicin (19-7). Driving: Paul Casey (British),
Salary Cap Cup results for John Deere Classic: The main lineup of
Zach Johnson ($71,133, tied 33rd; includes $50,000 bonus as round
leader), Sean O'Hair ($15,200, tied
39th), Jeff Sluman ($9,413, tied 51st), Robert Damron ($8,000, tied 69th) and
The "Hey, buddy" backup lineup of Billy
Mayfair ($124,666, tied seventh), Steve
Stricker ($9,413, tied 51st; placed in lineup when Bo Van Pelt withdrew), Heath Slocum ($232,000, tied third), Week 28 winner: RCL54 $1,648,474. Segment Three leader: Four Moo $6,988,824.
Salary Cap Cup lineup for British Open Championship at B.C. Open:
Main lineup, Tiger Woods $300,000, Geoff Ogilvy $280,500, Paul Casey $212,250, Ian Poulter $121,250, Bernhard Langer
$75,000. Total: $989,000. "Hey, buddy" backup lineup, Phil Mickelson $296,750, David Howell $270,750, Zach Johnson $189,500, 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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